Periodic Reporting for period 1 - INCUBIS (An Industrial Symbiosis Incubator for Maximizing Waste Heat/Cold Efficiency in Industrial Parks and Districts)
Reporting period: 2020-05-01 to 2021-10-31
There is therefore an opportunity for increasing energy efficiency growth rates and contributing significantly to the decarbonization targets of European Industry by using the large underutilized energy resources found throughout European EEIs to substitute conventional heat sources in the European industrial and urban sector. As such, Industrial symbiosis (the business strategy involving commercial transactions of underutilized materials, energy and services between two or more production sites) has been identified as key area with promising potential to valorize energy losses streams and better manage energy globally. Although some examples of industrial symbiosis with energy resources (from now on referred as Energy Symbiosis or ES) have gained attention around Europe, and despite its increased uptake in both policy and industry, Energy Symbiosis is still a fringe phenomenon.
The overall objective of INCUBIS is: To help decarbonise European industry by 2050 by unlocking the market potential of ENERGY SYMBIOSIS through developing and deploying five (5) Energy Symbiosis Incubators across Europe, complemented by a digital Cloud Incubator, thus enabling the utilization of waste energy from EEIs. This objective is further elaborated to the following specific objectives: (i) Define an operational framework that will address the gaps in the energy symbiosis ecosystem, (ii) Establish the necessary tools and services for lifting barriers and supporting the delivery of energy symbiosis, (iii) Develop the Cloud Platform that will enable the provision of energy symbiosis support services under the “Virtual Incubator” delivery model, (iv) Deliver impact by rolling out the energy symbiosis incubator to the project’s regions and supporting realization of energy synergies across Europe, (v) Capacity-building and training for energy symbiosis at individual, organizational, and institutional level, (vi) Verify the environmental, economic and social impacts of INCUBIS project, (vii) Develop a sustainable business model for the Energy Symbiosis Incubator and a business plan for its post-project commercialization, (viii) Maximize the impacts of the project through effective communication and dissemination and by establishing synergies with projects and initiatives across Europe