Currently, Ecovat ® is in the development stage. In a theoretical point of view, the Ecovat system has been designed and recalculated. However, the practical relevance of the Ecovat ® system needs to be proven as well. For this in the near future a testing arrangement is realized, that will also function as a “Living Lab”. The Living Lab consists of a prototype Ecovat ® S (1.500 m3), that will be linked to the office building at the Loopkantstraat in Uden (The Netherlands). The Living Lab will also function as a visiting location for demonstrations to interested parties.
In the Living Lab the attention is given to improving the working of the Ecovat ® system and on doing esearch in the direction of new applications and the accompanying configurations (hard- and software control systems). In this, the Living Lab exists of three pillars: research, industry and innovative SMEs, that are bound together with the aim to deliver a contribution to the national as well as the international market. Potential buyers can be found in the health care sector, the renovation of houses, the building of new houses, cultivation under glass, retail chains and grid administrations. The figure above shows an overview.
Ecovat prototype
Ecovat has designed a subterranean storage barrel. With the help of TKI EnerGo, a prototype of this Ecovat thermal storage barrel is currently under construction at the Loopkantstraat in Uden. For the quarry see the pictures below.
Also with help from TKI EnerGo, this prototype is linked to the Ecovat zero-energy office, opposite the prototype, through a smart micro grid. The office is equipped with durable generators – cooled PV panels (PVT) – and an advanced building management system which is used to monitor, optimize and validate the different information and energy flows.
Why a living lab?
The idea behind the Living Lab is to continue to develop and innovate the Ecovat® Renewable Energy System, so that it will not only provide a solution for the present time, but also on the long term, and thus continue to offer a solution in the future. The focus in the Living Lab will lie on the exact configuration of hard- and software for every Ecovat ® application: control and monitoring of the energy flows, whereby the optimal economic result is achieved. This is done in cooperation with partners, such as the University of Twente and Vito.
To what does Ecovat® want to contribute? “Storage was the missing link”. Ecovat has the ambition that the ‘Ecovat solution’ will become a standard part of the total energy solution in approximately five years time, whereby Ecovat will be the smart tool for solving the imbalance between demand and supply in the field of (sustainable) energy looking at the short as well as the long term periods.