Energy Communities + decarbonisation in urban areas

Project idea 1 — Smart energy management for citizen energy communities

Energy citizen communities are growing across the EU, yet most operate with limited visibility into their own collective consumption and generation patterns. effiziente.st proposes to develop and validate an intelligent energy management system tailored specifically to the citizen energy community scale — sitting between individual household meters and the grid connection point. Drawing on expertise in IoT sensing, server-based data collection, and model predictive control, the system would forecast local generation, anticipate community demand, and coordinate storage and flexible loads in real time. The goal is to maximise self-consumption, reduce grid fees, and give community members transparent, actionable insight into their shared energy flows. A field pilot within an existing Austrian citizen energy community would bring the solution to TRL 6–7, producing validated performance data and a replicable governance and technical blueprint for communities across the EU.

Project idea 2 — Renewable power and heat for dense urban neighbourhoods

Heat pumps and building-integrated renewables are well established in suburban and rural settings, but dense urban fabric — shared walls, minimal roof area per dwelling, noise constraints, and complex ownership structures — creates barriers that standard solutions cannot overcome. effiziente.st addresses this through two complementary developed concepts. pv-shutter.effiziente.st delivers building-integrated photovoltaic generation via a shutter-integrated PV system that replaces conventional façade elements, unlocking renewable electricity generation on the vertical surfaces of dense urban buildings without requiring dedicated roof space or planning-sensitive installations. wp.effiziente.st tackles the heat and cooling side through a compact heat pump concept engineered specifically for urban constraints — low noise, modular, and suited to multi-apartment and mixed-use buildings. Together, the two systems form an integrated renewable energy and thermal comfort solution for dense housing stock. Custom instrumentation and simulation tools developed in prior research underpin performance monitoring and system optimisation at block level, and the combined approach produces design guidelines and a transferable methodology applicable to similar urban contexts across the EU.