Green Energy Park has opened their first physical realization: an innovative living lab called The Smart Village Lab. It was the Flemish minister of Innovation Hilde Crevits who officially launched the innovative living lab with a touch of the virtual button. The lab is located on a research park close to Brussels and investigates how the future of living can be more smart, sustainable and energy efficient.
The Smart Village Lab consists of six houses that exchange electrical and thermal energy via a Smart Energy Grid. With this set up, different scenarios can be modeled and tested in life like surroundings. It is examined how and when technologies can be used and how we can best make them interact. This makes it possible to provide scientifically substantiated answers to questions of how the transition to an electric vehicle fleet and energy-efficient living can be made.
The living lab is developed by the Green Energy Park, an organization powered by the University of Brussels and one of the testbeds for the STEPS program. Realization was made possible thanks to the cooperation with the Flemish spearhead cluster for energy and STEPS partner Flux50. This article and video on their website explain more about the Smart Village Lab and how this lab helps to accelerate the energy transition in Flanders and Europe.
STEPS partner visit
The partner organizations of STEPS had the chance to visit the Smart Village Lab last month. Deputies of the STEPS partner organizations met in Brussels to evaluate the first two years of the program and look ahead. After a day of fruitful meetings, the partners cycled to the living lab in Zellik to learn about the Smart Village Lab and the Green Energy Park.
