MEENT

The energy transition poses a major challenge for the Netherlands: millions of homes must be disconnected from the gas grid and switch to sustainable energy sources such as solar and wind power. This means that the energy transition raises technological and social issues. In addition to investments in sustainable energy by residents and owners of small and medium-sized enterprises, the transition also requires better alignment of their energy consumption with the availability of sustainable energy. In energy communities, residents and businesses work together to generate and share sustainable energy.

The project MEENT aims to support energy communities in aligning energy consumption with the availability of energy by forming energy data commons. Data commons are platforms on which data can be shared and where the community jointly sets the rules for access and use. This allows the community to retain ownership of the data. This approach makes it possible to coordinate energy consumption while sharing data in a secure and acceptable manner. Ultimately, this can lead to lower energy costs, reduced CO2 emissions and better utilisation of the electricity grid.

In MEENT, Waag supports energy communities in setting up their own energy data commons. Waag leads the design research and works in close collaboration with the energy communities, technical partners and knowledge partners to ensure that to ensure that technical developments are well aligned with the wishes, needs, standards and values of residents.