WeSmart joins the European BlueBird project: a major international deployment opportunity 🚀

WeSmart is proud to announce its participation in the European BlueBird project, an ambitious initiative funded by Horizon Europe over 3 years. This European collaboration represents an exceptional opportunity for WeSmart to deploy its innovative energy optimization and energy community solutions at European scale, alongside 17 leading international partners.

BlueBird: A consortium of excellence for energy transition 🌍

The BlueBird project brings together a European consortium of experts and organizations specialized in sustainable energy technologies. This initiative aims to revolutionize how buildings actively participate in energy management, transforming them into true energy flexibility assets.

An international consortium of scale 🤝

BlueBird unites 17 strategic partners from 8 European countries:

Scientific coordination:

• CIMNE - International Center for Numerical Methods in Engineering (Spain)
• UPC - Polytechnic University of Catalonia (Spain)
• INETUM España (Spain)

Technological excellence:

• AIT - Austrian Institute of Technology (Austria)
• USTUTT - University of Stuttgart (Germany)
• DTU - Technical University of Denmark (Denmark)
• IMEC - Interuniversitair Micro-Electronica Centrum (Belgium)
• PSNC - Institute of Bioorganic Chemistry Polish Academy of Sciences (Poland)

Industrial innovation:

• WeSmart (Belgium)
• Karno (Belgium)
• ENEA Operator (Poland)
• Energie Kompass (Austria)
• Elektrizitätswerk Hindelang (Germany)

Public institutions and sectoral expertise:

• AMB - Area Metropolitana de Barcelona (Spain)
• TERSA (Spain)
• BPIE - Buildings Performance Institute Europe (Belgium)
• SEEBURG - Seeburg University (Austria)

Technical objectives and innovation 🔬

BlueBird is structured around precise technical objectives perfectly aligned with WeSmart's expertise:

Intelligent building optimization ⚡

The project aims to develop a complete and validated set of tools enabling buildings to become competitive energy flexibility assets. WeSmart contributes particularly to the project's use cases and practical demonstrations.

Multi-energy integration 🔄

One of the most innovative aspects of the BlueBird project lies in its holistic approach to energy management. Rather than treating electricity and heat as separate systems, the project develops an integrated vision that optimizes all energy flows within a building.

• Global approach: Development of a strategy integrating heat and electricity, exploiting synergies between HVAC, storage, renewable energies, district heating and geothermal energy

• Intelligent optimization: Taking into account dynamic price signals and external conditions (weather, traffic, air pollution) to adapt consumption in real-time

• Energy flexibility: Transformation of buildings into Distributed Energy Resources (DER) capable of automatically adapting to supply and demand fluctuations

WeSmart pilots: Tour & Taxis and Greenbizz at the heart of innovation 🏢

WeSmart deploys its expertise through two major use cases of the BlueBird project, demonstrating the versatility and efficiency of its solutions in distinct contexts.

Tour & Taxis Pilot: Residential community energy 🏠

The first pilot focuses on the Tour & Taxis energy community in Brussels, an emblematic residential energy sharing project.

Technical characteristics:

• 3 MWp of solar panels installed on the Maritime Station
• 3,000 MWh/year of solar production
• Virtual distribution to Park Lane residents
• 40 residential participants

Pilot objectives:

• Deployment of advanced interfaces for real-time data acquisition
• Optimization of residential energy consumption
• Demonstration of tangible energy bill reduction

Greenbizz Pilot: Energy innovation for businesses 🏭

The second pilot builds on the Greenbizz.energy energy community, the first renewable energy community in an economic activity zone in Brussels.

Innovative technical characteristics:

• 240 kWp of solar panels ☀️
• 20 SMEs and 40 offices participants
• Storage battery 50 kW / 120 kWh 🔋
• Charging stations for electric vehicles 🚗
• Passive building with high-performance insulation 🌱

Innovative aspects of the Greenbizz pilot: Intelligent storage system 🧠: The presence of a second-life battery allows WeSmart to test and deploy its advanced intelligent control and energy optimization solutions. Electric mobility infrastructure ⚡: The integration of charging stations offers a unique experimentation ground for multi-use energy flow optimization. Multi-actor management 🔗: Coordination between solar production, battery storage, business consumption and electric vehicle charging. Specific Greenbizz objectives:

• Testing battery control algorithms in real-time
• Optimization of electric vehicle charging
• Development of flexibility recommendations for SMEs
• Validation of WeSmart solutions in a multi-technology environment

Local partners and ecosystem 🌐

Sibelga: The Brussels distribution network operator ensures the real-time interface for both pilots. Nextensa: Owner of Tour & Taxis assets, key partner for residential implementation. Brussels Greenbizz SA: Manager of the Greenbizz energy community, facilitating innovation for SMEs. BRUGEL: The Brussels energy regulator supervises the regulatory framework for both projects.

Impact and European deployment 📈

Participation in BlueBird with these two complementary pilots opens major strategic perspectives for WeSmart:

Structured geographical expansion 🗺️

The project allows WeSmart to deploy its solutions in new strategic European markets: Spain, Austria, Germany, Denmark and Poland, consolidating our European presence alongside our establishment in Belgium, France and Spain.

Accelerated technological development 🚀

• Real-time interface: Development of an advanced interface enabling real-time energy data acquisition on both sites

• Intelligent recommendations: Improvement and launch of real-time flexibility recommendation features in the WeSmart application

• Battery control: Development of advanced storage management and multi-source optimization algorithms through the Greenbizz pilot

• Electric mobility integration: Optimization of intelligent electric vehicle charging in the community energy ecosystem

• Predictive modeling: Development of modeling and prediction algorithms for energy production and consumption profiles

Concrete benefits for WeSmart clients 💡

Participation in BlueBird with these two pilots directly benefits our current and future clients:

Enhanced technological solutions 🔧

Real-time interface: Integration of real-time energy data for continuous optimization of energy flows. Multi-asset management: Intelligent coordination between solar production, battery storage and charging stations. European standards: Enhanced compatibility with European systems and regulations in energy management. Advanced algorithms: New prediction and optimization features developed with consortium partners.

Scientific validation 🎓

The project brings academic validation of WeSmart solutions through collaboration with leading European research institutions.

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A promising collaboration ✨

WeSmart's participation in the European BlueBird project, with its two complementary pilots Tour & Taxis and Greenbizz, perfectly illustrates our ambition to deploy our energy optimization solutions at European level. This collaboration with 17 leading international partners allows us to actively contribute to building a more sustainable and resilient energy future in Europe.

Together towards the intelligent energy future 🌟

Through BlueBird and the continuous innovation of our Brussels pilots, WeSmart continues to demonstrate its commitment to technological innovation and sustainability, while offering our clients the most advanced solutions in the European market for intelligent energy management.

WeSmart: Your technological partner for intelligent energy transition, now at European scale. 💚