Objectives
S-PARCS aims at moving from a single-company energy efficient intervention approach to cooperative energy efficient solutions within the framework of industrial parks, thus enabling higher energy savings and the subsequent increase of competitiveness of the companies located in the parks.
S-PARCS hassystematically analysed technical, economic, regulatory, legal, organisational, environmental and
social barriers to energy- efficient park design and operation on all levels and has provided innovative, market-ready solutions to overcome them.
The specific objectives of S-PARCS therefore addressed the fundamental components required to implement these new and innovative concepts and to facilitate timely actions, to raise widespread awareness and to foster their swift replication.
All Lighthouse Parks have identified the prospects of mutualised energy cooperation as one cornerstone for increasing their competitiveness in the continuously globalizing industrial environment.
S-PARCS solutions and instruments have been designed to improve energy efficiency of the Lighthouse Parks, while substantially improving their competitiveness through reduced energy costs, or, in some cases, mutually improved supply reliability.
Achievements
For each park the most promising solutions in terms of economic as well as environmental and social feasibility were analysed. Furthermore, individual energy cooperation plans were elaborated that aim on further technical and networking energy cooperation within the Lighthouse Parks but also with external players. Some solutions planned for implementation decrease the companies dependency on third parties, as energy is provided or wastes are processes internally, some lead to reduced energy demand and cost while others strengthen the knowledge exchange between industries. Find out more about the instruments we developed (D2.1 and D2.2), the KPIs we developed (D4.1), the real-world feasibility studies we conducted (D5.4) and the Energy Cooperation Plans for our Lighthouse parks (D5.5).
The Lighthouse Parks have identified a number of energy services as priority topics for the assessment and subsequent support actions as carried out in S-PARCS. A related key issue as defined by the parks in the consultations during the proposal preparation was the development of sustainable business models to ensure a lasting provision of these services. S-PARCS therefore included a dedicated task T2.2 to enable a focused development of such business models under different scenarios of the future EU energy market. Deployment thereof has been done in WP5.
Achievements
Three business model archetypes for energy cooperation were identified that can be individually adapted:
1) Maximise energy efficiency and material use
2) Create value from waste
3) Substitute with renewables and natural resources
These archetypes were allocated to the various solutions identified in D1.1, leading to 42 theoretical business models. The deployment thereof has been done in WP5 when suitable solutions from D.1.1 were analysed for the individual parks. Find out more about our business models (D2.2) and our guidance on contractual issues related to energy cooperation (D2.3).
Contribute to the creation of regulatory frameworks that accelerate and facilitate the adoption of innovative instruments for energy cooperation and feed insights into political debates
Several barriers have been identified by the consortium, that are related to unfavourable legal and/or regulatory provisions. S-PARCS aimed at forming a coalition for pointing policy makers to the most obstructive barriers and how best to overcome them, from an industrial perspective. As such, S-PARCS drafted amendments to existing regional/national/EU policies and legal frameworks to simplify energy cooperation/services at all governance levels.
Achievements
As such, workshops with local stakeholders and companies were conducted in order to discuss regulatory barriers on national and regional level. Finally, S-PARCS published one report (D2.4) and four policy briefs commenting on barriers caused by existing regional/national/EU policies and legal frameworks, demanding to simplify energy cooperation/services at all governance levels. We also summarized our policy-relevant results in D6.9.
S-PARCS considered information lacks on the side of industrial players as a significant barrier for more wide spread deployment of energy cooperation/services. A key objective of S-PARCS was therefore to address these information lacks by informing stakeholders about the opportunities through such solutions in general, and train them towards assessing the prospects for their specific entity. The objective was – among others – tackled by establishing the Follower Community and coordinating their activities.
Achievements
We established a close collaboration of the R&D project partners, which had a facilitating role, with their local Lighthouse Parks: in bi- and multilateral discussions as well as workshops, the needs of the parks as well as potenial solutions were discussed and analysed. These meetings were also used for networking among the companies with a focus on “energy cooperation” and to discuss upcoming changes in relevant regulation as well as potential barriers and business models. Furthermore, the online “Initial Assessment Tool” (IAT) and S-PARCS Community Platform were developed (https://www.sparcs-community.eu/) which offer free information on industrial energy cooperation, the possibility to conduct a first check-up on energy cooperation possibilities and savings potentials as well as to get in touch with other companies, stakeholders and investors who focus on energy cooperation and industrial symbiosis. Our training toolkit (D6.4) provides an easy to access overview of our key methods and approaches and is available in several different languages.
