Key Messages from our Fall Congress

Flux50’s Chairman Jan Jaeken outlined the ambitions for 2018. After two successful  feasibility study calls in 2017, Flux50 members will get more opportunities to submit proposals for funding in the year to come. The first pilot projects from the feasibility studies are scheduled to start in the late spring. In 2018, Flux50 will intensify its cooperation with the spearhead clusters for chemistry, materials, food and logistics.  Two VIS-trajectories are underway and Flux50 will act as the Flemish point of contact for European R&D-projects through ERA-net.

Wim Dries, Mayor of Genk and Chairman of Infrax and VVSG (‘Vlaamse Vereniging van Steden en Gemeenten’) feels positively challenged to translate the 17 UN Global Goals for Sustainable Development  (and especially the 7th one, regarding affordable, reliable and sustainable energy to all) to the local level. He believes citizen participation is essential to establish well-functioning smart cities. Smart City Genk and 43 other towns and municipalities from Limburg work together on a Datahub, making it thelargest collaborative undertaking in the EU. 

Ronnie Belmans, CEO of EnergyVille, presented the EnergyVille Navigation Map, that shows at a glance what the research center is working on. Its activities (knowledge development and experiments) can be positioned along two axes, according to their aggregation level (from material or components, via subsystems and buildings, to cities and energy highways) and the envisioned competences. Mr. Belmans stressed that companies or stakeholders in the EnergyVille ecosystem get maximum value in terms of technology development by linking different aggregation levels through application lines. Three innovation cases (SoLar@Home, Storage@Home and Edison@Home) illustrated this.

If Flanders wants to meet its objective of 2.65 million renovated houses by 2050, matters can not simply be allowed to run their course. Marc Dillen, General Director of VCB, made this very clear. In project RenoFase, that presented its findings in October 2017, a roadmap for qualitative energetic renovations was developed. The European Energy Action Mortgages Action Plan, that recently held a first roundtable in Brussels, is a first step towards increased financing for renovations through energy savings, as the video illustrates. 

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Assistant Professor at UGhent, Jelle Laverge doubts EPB indicators are an effective lever for renovation. After all, what incentive is there for renovation projects, when energy prices are low? He presented an alternative suggestion that shifts the focus from stringent rules for new buildings to incentives for deep renovation of the existing building stock. 

The Belgian, Liège-based natural gas and green electricity supplier Lampiris recently joined the Total Group, to the surprise of many. Tom Van de Cruys, CEO of Lampiris, put this decision in its context. The Total Group is strengthening its expanding portfolio of clean tech interests through major investments in green energy companies like BHC Energy, Sunpower, Eren, Pitpoint Clean Fuels, GreenFlex, Saft and Lampiris. The Total Group has committed itself to the 2°C scenario of the International Energy Agency and aims to reduce the carbon intensity of its production mix, develop renewable energy and improve energy efficiency.

Eandis is transforming from a largely passive DSO into an active energy system operator. CEO Walter Van den Bossche presented five building blocks for innovation in tomorrow’s energy grids: (1) Atrias, the federal data platform (or CMS, ‘central market system’) and its MIG6 (market implementation guide, version 6), (2) a datahub and bidladder to make flexibility accessible, (3) a customer-centered approach, (4) heating networks and (5) natural gas networks. 

Flemish Minister for Finance, Budget and Energy Bart Tommelein was detained by other priorities, but shared a video message in which he looks forward to working with Flux50 in 2018:

All participants of the Fall Congress received a pen drive with the presentations of the day. Should you wish to receive a certain presentation by mail, please contact sarah.vandekerkhof@flux50.com