On 21 December, Fluvius, the Vrije Universiteit Brussel (VUB) and Green Energy Park vzw signed a long-term cooperation agreement for pilot projects on carbon neutrality. This cooperation allows Fluvius and its partners to test new technologies in a realistic and futuristic pilot environment. This could include research into green energy, new data applications, mobility issues or climate solutions in a smart city environment.
Green Energy Park: no ordinary testing ground
Green Energy Park features a CO2-neutral, realistic living lab in an existing working and living environment, the only one of its kind in Europe. The multi-energy grid features a large-scale electricity grid, an ultra-low temperature heat grid and extensive electric mobility options in an existing business park.
Within MOBI, the VUB’s Mobility, Logistics and Automotive Technology research centre, the EVERGi interdisciplinary scientific research team focuses on the field of energy transition innovation. Through co-creation, support and cooperation on projects and creating joint R&D opportunities, the team’s aim is to bring academic innovation to industrial practices. Green Energy Park is an excellent base to realise this ambition.
Prof Thierry Coosemans, director of EVERGi: “As an energy distributor, Fluvius is an indispensable party for the transition to the CO2-neutral energy system of the future. The VUB is pushing hard for this transition and it is therefore essential for us to align our research lines with the current and future challenges this strategic partner wishes to address.”
Fluvius: innovation for tomorrow’s networks
Society is changing significantly: more and more households and companies are switching from fossil fuels to CO2-neutral energy sources. Greater use is being made of heat pumps, PV installations, batteries and electric vehicles. This requires grids to anticipate the phase-out of fossil fuels and the advance of electrification.
Thanks to Green Energy Park, Fluvius can experiment with new applications for the gas grid such as hydrogen or green gases. New data applications can be explored for the digital energy meter. For the electricity grid, researchers can explore new possibilities for distribution, mobility and storage. Finally, innovations within sewerage and restoring the natural water cycle can be investigated. Because the Green Energy Park is a representative test environment, pilot projects can quickly be converted into practice.
Jean Pierre Hollevoet, director of energy and climate adaptation at Fluvius: “Thanks to the cooperation with Green Energy Park vzw, we can look for innovations to realise energy transition and climate adaptation. I am looking forward to launching research projects for the various networks in the coming years, with our partners. It will enable us to be better prepared to make our networks ready for tomorrow and ensure maximum comfort for our customers in the future.”
Fluvius is the network company responsible for building, managing and maintaining distribution networks for electricity, natural gas, sewage and heat. It also manages the municipal public lighting fleet. In total, the company manages 230,000 km of utility lines and 7 million connections. Fluvius operates in all 300 Flemish cities and municipalities.
Green Energy Park vzw was founded in a collaboration between the Vrije Universiteit Brussel and the Universitair Ziekenhuis Brussel. As a strategic Living Lab Centre, located in the Research Park of Zellik, it stimulates cooperation between companies, knowledge institutions, governments and end users by offering unique living labs where they can test and refine their innovative developments in a realistic environment. With these living labs and its knowledge, expertise and training centre, Green Energy Park vzw is intended to form the bridge between research and economy.
VUB/EVERGi is part of the MOBI research centre. EVERGi focuses on developing holistic models that cover all aspects of the energy and mobility sector in an integrated approach, including electricity, mobility, heat, cooling, water, data, hydrogen, e-fuels and hydrogen. It has a special focus on the inclusion of key technologies to enable the energy transition, such as electric powertrains for vehicles, automation, bidirectional charging infrastructure, digitisation, Internet of Energy and artificial intelligence (machine learning). EVERGi is active in a number of European, national and regionally funded projects, and in direct contract research with industry. It has been closely involved in the development of the R&D roadmap and the projects at the Green Energy Park since its founding. VUB is also involved as the owner of the site on which the Green Energy Park Smart Village Lab is located.