Baterias 2030: renewable production technologies at the service of the community

Photovoltaic solar modules for facades, wind systems and pavements capable of generating power: welcome to the cities of the future! The journey that began in 2020, towards promoting the decarbonisation of cities through renewable energy communities, is now coming to an end.

The 2030 Baterias project is no longer just a vision: the installation of a Living Laboratory in Braga will act as a demonstrator of the energy production and storage technologies developed. The recovery of lithium-ion batteries for new applications and the development of renewable production technologies adapted to urban environments were the focus of this project.

“All technologies were integrated through an energy management platform for renewable energy communities, developed by INESC TEC, together with other consortium partners – which represents the intelligence layer that ensures the efficient management of all resources for the benefit of the urban renewable energy communities”, explained INESC TEC researcher Clara Gouveia.

The project integrates 23 national entities – 14 companies and research centres – and the partners that developed the technologies can now fully benefit from said breakthroughs; in addition, “the results also benefit municipalities and consumers, demonstrating that the concept of energy communities allows to maximise local renewable production, reduce CO2 emissions and minimise energy costs,” said the researcher.

INESC TEC’s main objective was to develop the management platform for renewable energy communities, as well as new solutions for sensing and intelligent battery management. “Our work also consisted of developing the management algorithms for energy storage systems for renewable energy communities”, mentioned Clara Gouveia.

The technologies developed were mostly installed in the Living Laboratory, including a photovoltaic Perovskite facade, fixtures with wind power production, thermoelectric pavement, an electrolyser and a hydrogen cell, a drainage battery and secondi-life batteries. According to Clara Gouveia, “the technologies developed are managed by the energy management platform, considering the production of the photovoltaic plant and the consumption of the municipality’s buildings that are part of the Living Lab”.