INNOENERGY MSc RENE INNOVATION SEMINAR 2017

[eng] Living Lab LOW3 welcomed for the fourt year students of the InnoEnergy MSc Program "Renewable Energies" (RENE) from 8 different countries for a 2-day innovation seminar under the title “Holistic Sustainability Approach for Innovations”.

This year 46 students, divided into two groups worked again on the ambitious goal to develop "Sustainable Lifestyle Scenarios 2050" including technological, environmental and socioeconomic forcasting as a result of the presented projects and generated discusions.

Students got known to the innovative concepts of UPC's nearly zero energy buildings, exploring and analysing the technological concepts of the LOW3 prototype house in the fields of solar thermal, solar photovoltaic, HVAC, bioclimatic building management and energy monitoring systems.

A second focus has been to get known to a holistic approach to sustainability through the visit of the neighbourhood project PASaPAS at Les Planes, related to energy efficiency and energy poverty, focusing on lifecycle and system thinking at city level.

Finally, students got introduced into the currently running R4E - Roadmaps for Energy project (www.roadmapsforenergy.eu), getting known to the recently developed energy roadmaps for European partner cities in the field of Smart Buildings and Smart Urban Spaces in order to discuss energy transition of society in the coming decades.

Based on these multi-scale and multidisciplinary inputs, students co-created in dynamic group sessions innovative product or service concepts for “a more sustainable urban life in 2050” using concept maps, collective brainstorming, and finally a story telling approach. The holistic visioning of a more sustainable future, generated ambitious discussions and allowed to foster the creative potential of these future “game changes” of InnoEnergy.

Despite of  unusual hot temperatures, the domestic atmosphere of Living Lab LOW3 with its efficient cross ventilation contributed to the success of two days full of technology exploration, inspiring conversations and intense discussions about innovations in the field of renewable energies within a wider environmental and cultural context.

This fourth collaboration with the MSc Program RENE of KIC InnoEnergy confirms again that Living Lab LOW3 offers a valuable contribution to engineers’ students education through its holistic approach to sustainability within a unique, real-world environment.