Flight Forum is a business park situated next to Eindhoven airport. It is composed of various clusters of buildings which are home to different types of businesses. Most of the roof surface is allocated to logistics companies. They can generate a substantial amount of solar energy, but are not always able to directly consume this energy. Meanwhile, other companies and business in this park have a demand for energy, while their potential for generating it on their own roofs is limited.
Flight Forum wants to become more sustainable and stimulate large-scale energy generation through PV systems. If all suitable roofs are used, at times more energy will be generated than consumed in the corresponding building. This surplus could be used locally within Flight Forum, contributing to their sustainability goals and fostering community building.
Over Morgen was asked to map the possibilities for this large-scale energy generation and exchange.
Our solution
We started by mapping the different technical options (energy generation, storage and conversion). On that basis, we have established an assessment framework and carried out a qualitative analysis on the following aspects: technical, financial, legal, governance and area specific applicability. Accordingly, Flight Forum has developed four promising scenarios, which will be further elaborated.
These scenarios vary in terms of technology and level of ambition:
- Solar panels on the roofs of logistics properties and redelivery to the grid
- Solar panels on the roofs of logistics properties and investment in energy management (demand-driven) and behind-the-metre energy storage
- Virtual exchange of generated energy within the area
- Physical exchange of generated energy with investment in a private energy grid and energy storage in the area
In elaborating these scenarios, we have looked closely at investments and business case, risk profile and governance specific to Flight Forum. Through careful consideration of all these aspects we were able to compare the different scenarios. On this basis, Flight Forum intends to further develop scenarios 1-3 in the coming years. Because of the business case, the current state of technology and legislation, scenario 4 will be viable only in the future.