CSSC Lab - Innovative city storage and sector coupling solutions for a greener Europe - december 2020

Welcome to our first newsletter!

We are happy to share the results of the first six months of our project with you. This newsletter is an opportunity to give you an overview of the project, update you on our main achievements and introduce you to the demo sites.

Merry Christmas and Happy New Year!

CSSC Lab team

About the project

City Storage and Sector Coupling Lab (CSSC Lab) is an INTERREG-financed project, which will run from July 2020 to December 2022. It tests and supports the roll-out of innovative city storage and sector coupling solutions at the municipal level in Europe. As part of the project, the consortium will:

• craft and test a comprehensive training programme for municipalities, which will showcase the application of typical city storage and sector coupling solutions
• develop a tool kit for a quick assessment of both the ecological and economic effects of a given investment
• create action plans for each of the project regions to ensure that the newly acquired know-how is applied in practice
• elaborate strategic recommendations within a roadmap, guiding the target municipalities in their future implementation of the city storage and sector coupling solutions
• share all relevant material on the CSSB Lab Platform, making it accessible to stakeholders beyond the original project region.

The project relies on the know-how of its 17 project partners and 12 associated strategic partners.

Want to know more? Visit our website!

Demo sites in 4 countries

In 2021, four demo sites will be set up in Austria, Bulgaria, Croatia and Slovenia. Each site will test city storage and/ or sector coupling solutions in line with its local needs. All these solutions will be demonstrated on the CSSC Lab Platform. The platform is currently being prepared and will be launched in 2021. 

• In Austria, photovoltaic electricity and thermal heat will be stored for charging e-vehicles and for the heating of a renewable energy competence centre - read more
• In Bulgaria, an office building will be heated using a biomass heating unit. At the same time, photovoltaic electricity will be stored in batteries to cover the energy needs of the building and for charging e-vehicles at a public charging station - read more
• In Croatia, solar thermal energy will be captured to heat a local school building and heat will be exchanged with the district heating system during times of peak production, making the school a heat prosumer - read more
• In Slovenia, electricity will be generated with photovoltaics, stored in batteries - read more

Find out more about our demo labs in our demo lab blog series (links above). The first blog series focuses on the preparation behind the labs and the benefits for the local community. A further series will follow in the next 6 months of 2021.

Europe-wide attendance confirming the relevance of sector coupling and city storage solutions

On 29th October 2020, CSSC Lab held its online kick-off meeting, serving as an opportunity to share the key facts of the project with its stakeholders.  To begin with, Team Leader Marko Čavar from North-West Croatia Regional Energy Agency, introduced the partnership and then outlined the main project approach.  After that, each representative from the four demo sites in Austria, Bulgaria, Croatia and Slovenia presented the principal elements of their respective site and the specific sector coupling and city storage solution to be tested.

The event ended with a discussion, during with another demo centre in Romania reached out to the project team and proposed cooperation. The event therefore proved to be informative and interactive, reaching over 50 participants from Austria, Bosnia and Herzegovina, Bulgaria, Croatia, the Czech Republic, Germany, Hungary, Moldova, Montenegro, Romania, Slovakia and Slovenia.

This indicates that sector coupling, and city storage are indeed topics, which resonate with a range of actors across Europe. In fact, attendees hailed from the public and the private sectors (NGOs, universities, agencies, ministries, municipalities among others) highlighting that the transition to cleaner and more energy efficient municipalities in Europe requires a concerted effort by all parties. Stakeholders can receive further updates by signing up to our newsletter. There will also be regular blogs on the setting-up and management of the demo sites. The first of these blogs is scheduled to appear on 16.11.2020 and presents the case of storing photovoltaic electricity in a rural municipality in Slovenia. 

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