Innovation project creates leverage for local businesses
Fossil-free Energy Districts (FED) is an innovation project in Gothenburg, Sweden, that tests a new type of energy system, allowing smaller players in a defined area to participate in a local trade of electricity, district heating and cooling in order to reduce costs and the use of fossil fuels. As one of nine partners, Business Region Göteborg is tasked with strengthening the competitiveness of local businesses through the project.
Fossil-free Energy Districts (FED) is an innovation project in Gothenburg, Sweden, that tests a new type of energy system, allowing smaller players in a defined area to participate in a local trade of electricity, district heating and coolingin order toreduce costs and the use of fossil fuels. As one of nine partners, Business Region Göteborg is tasked with strengthening the competitiveness of local businesses through the project.
“There are a number of local companies delivering different solutions to the challenges we face in the project,” says Lars Bern, Area Manager for Innovation at Business Region Göteborg. “The benefit for these smaller companies is that they will be able to refer to FED and say: `we have been part of testing this in Gothenburg. It works amazingly well and we could repeat this on a different market, in Europe or globally´.”
One of the strengths of the FED project, according to Lars Bern, is that it brings together a wide coalition of local partners, from the property ownersChalmersfastigheterandAkademiskaHus, to the municipal energy company Göteborg Energi, the multinational company Ericsson and academics at Chalmers University of Technology. The marketplace for energy trading is completely digital andautomizedand will be connected to buildings at the University Campus of Chalmers. One of the reasons for choosing this area is that it is outside the energy distribution concession, controlling who can trade via the power grids. Business Region Göteborg has the additional task within the project of stating which policy changes are necessaryin order forthe FED system to be exported to other locations in Europe.
“Our hypothesis is that there is an added value in creating a local marketplace for electricity, district heating and cooling. By pointing to the future outcomes of FED, we will be able to suggest how regulatory frameworks need to be changedin order tocreate incentives for investing in these types of energy solutions,” says Lars Bern.
The FED project is funded by the EU and one of the conditions is that the system is replicable and can be implemented in other areas, cities or neighborhoods. To increase knowledge and interest in the project, Business Region Göteborg includes FED in some of the about 50 international study visits they receive each year to showcase the green innovations of Gothenburg.
“The delegations we receive from all over the world are very interested in what we are doing and how they can bring this to their own environments and create the same values with the technology we have already tested in Gothenburg,” says Lars Bern. “From the perspective of Gothenburg, this kind of projects provides opportunities for us to highlight Gothenburg and what we jointly create here, as well as being tools for keeping the overall innovation level in the city up.”
Contact
Lars Bern,Area Manager Innovation, Business Region Göteborg
Claes Sommansson, Project CoordinatorFED, Johanneberg Science Park
Do you want to visit FED?Green Gothenburg arrange study visits for delegations and decision-makers. Please contact us viamailor read morehere.
About the project
The Fossil-free Energy Districts project, FED, is an innovative effort by the City of Gothenburg to decrease the use of energy and the dependence on fossil fuel in a built environment. A unique local marketplace for electricity, district heating and cooling is being developed together with eight strong partners.
The City of Gothenburg, JohannebergScienePark, Göteborg Energi, Business Region Göteborg, Ericsson, RISE Research Institutes of Sweden,AkademiskaHus,Chalmersfastigheterand Chalmers University of Technology are all contributing with their expertise and knowledge to make FED attractive for other European cities as well.
During 2017−2019 the FED testbed will be situated on Chalmers Campus Johanneberg. FED is co-financed by the European Regional and Development Fund through the Urban Innovative Actions Initiative, an initiative of the European Commission for cities to test new solutions for urban challenges
