In this episode of Shaping Sustainable Places, we take a closer look at how turning buildings into intelligent, networked energy storage makes them more resilient, as well as improving the efficiency and reliability of the power grid as a whole.
Seeing buildings as batteries is part of a paradigm shift, where they become integral components in energy systems. Where buildings and power grids were once discrete, fundamentally separate systems, now things are different.
Henrik Ahnström, Director of Product, Process And Innovation within Skanska's commercial development arm in the Nordics, sees a shift taking place right now: “Buildings are becoming active parts in the system. We're in a very explorative phase – we're trying new things, we're trying to learn on our own and together with our customers and energy companies… Buildings have a great opportunity to be the solution here.”
Energy storage doesn’t have to mean electricity – you can do the same thing with thermal energy. And that could have an even greater impact on sustainability and cutting carbon. E.ON, a leading European energy company, has developed E.ON ectogrid™, an intelligent, low-carbon, district heating and cooling solution.
Niklas Johansson is E.ON’s Commercial Product Manager for E.ON ectogrid™. He tells us: “We can provide the same heating and cooling to the end consumer, but we would use 75 percent less energy by doing so. And since 80 percent of the heating and cooling in buildings is from non-renewable sources, the impact on the climate could be huge if we instead use all available energy that is in the city quarter.”
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Guests in this episode:
Niklas Johansson, Commercial Product Manager for ectogrid ™, E.ON.