Intelligent Energy-Europe IEE

Last 20th of December, the call for IEE Programme was published for 2012 with a deadline for the submission of proposals of 8 May 2012, 17:00 CET.

Intelligent Energy – Europe (IEE) offers a helping hand to organisations willing to improve energy sustainability. Launched by the European Commission, the programme is part of a broad push to create an energy-intelligent future for us all. It supports EU energy efficiency and renewable energy policies, with a view to reaching the EU 2020 targets (20% cut in greenhouse gas emissions, 20% improvement in energy efficiency and 20% of renewables in EU energy consumption).

Running until 2013, the programme is open to all EU Member States, plus Norway, Iceland, Liechtenstein, Croatia and the Former Yugoslav Republic of Macedonia. A budget of € 730 million is available to fund projects and put into place a range of European portals, facilities and initiatives.

Intelligent Energy – Europe creates better conditions for a more sustainable energy future in areas as varied as renewable energy, energy-efficient buildings, industry, consumer products and transport. Following explains which types of actions are eligible for funding:

Energy efficiency and the rational use of energy (SAVE)

Funding in this area mainly targets the improvement of energy efficiency and the rational use of resources in the industry, products and building sectors.

New and renewable resources (ALTENER)

In this area, funding is provided to increase the share of renewables in the production of electricity, heat and cooling, and to integrate them in the local energy systems.

Energy in transport (STEER)

This strand covers initiatives targeting energy savings and energy efficiency in the transport sector, including stimulation of demand for alternative fuels and clean and energy-efficient vehicles.

Integrated initiatives

These initiatives cover several economic sectors or several of the main areas of energy efficiency, new and renewable resources and energy in transport at the same time. Projects educating children, tomorrow's energy savers and consumers, are covered by this part of the programme.

More info:

http://ec.europa.eu/energy/intelligent/about/index_en.htm

Source: CORDIS

WeLight new Pilot

Public Lighting is one of the major sources of electricity consumption in any municipality. Very often, the infrastructure is obsolete and there is no control or monitoring system.

To reduce consumption levels, various strategies have been developed to reduce the light level in the early hours of the morning, using a device such as a post-top regulator or bi-level ballast.

Although these devices provide an adequate level of savings, normally there is still the problem of a lack of information on consumption and the savings obtained, so that very often it is difficult to monitor the profitability of the investment and the state of the equipment.

The few solutions that do permit some kind of control over consumption or saving policies cannot be used with the products from different manufacturers. If one has different types of equipment, it is necessary to have access to several management utilities, which makes the operation expensive and slows it down.

To solve this, Wellness Telecom offers it solution WeLight; the open architecture and adaptable system to control and monitor any public lighting panel.

The system also does not need its own server or its own communications infrastructures: All the information is avaible through an Internet-based software service.

You can find more information here.

After one year of internal testing in Wellness Telecom laboratories WeLight have been installed in two Local councils in the province of Sevilla (Tomares and Mairena del Aljarafe), obtaining between 25-35% of cost savings for this municipalities.

The great news is that last week the third pilot was implanted in the city of Burgos in Spain, specifically in the region of Medina de Pomar, the first prototype outside Sevilla. This prototype has been a big challenge for the company, and it has been deployed with the help of our partner of the area Wifinova. It is a promising prototype, which for sure will lead to a bigger acquisition of the system in the area. This innovation will make Medina de Pomar a reference area in Spain in the area of smart saving in public street lighting.

eGarbage project

These days we are hearing more and more in expertise ICT forums about concepts such as “future internet” and “smart cities”, as high challenging R&D that cannot be achieved in the medium term.

From Wellness Telecom we believe that an effective development of existing ICT emerging technologies, will lead the innovation in cities, as intelligent welfare services for citizens and administrations, for improving their sustainable de development in the near future.

Following this R&D line, the Technological Corporation of Andalusia (CTA) has support Wellness Telecom with a funding grant for our eGarbage project.

eGarbage project aims to develop an intelligent system based on sensor technologies and mobile applications for providing efficient routes and promoting selective collection of urban trash.