Deltagrid 2050 is a research by design project oriented at the exploration of future energy infrastructure for the South Holland energy system.
How do we deal with energy if all sources and different energy carriers – molecules, electrons and heat – are connected and interchangeable? What happens if millions of energy users become producers as well, continuously, automated and digitalized interacting with the energy system as consumer and supplier? And how will this system work if all users have ultimate freedom to create their own energy infrastructure, or when the government decides everything?
Together with Kamangir, studio Wolfpack and studiomarcovermeulen, and commissioned by the province of South Holland and the Energy Innovation Board, two perspectives – ultimate freedom in an energy patchwork, ultimate efficiency in an energy mainframe, are related to the digitalization of our energy system: the Internet of Energy. This leads to two entirely different futures for the province of South Holland, with huge systematic differences, as well as economical, societal and institutional challenges. A synthesis of these perspectives explores how a robust energy infrastructure with room for local initiatives could appear, and where a patchwork or a mainframe approach would be dominant.
Location: Zuid-Holland, the Netherlands
Year: 2018
Commissioner: Energy Innovation Board Zuid-Holland
Partners: Kamangir, studio Wolfpack, Studio Marco Vermeulen
Project Leader: Rens Wijnakker
Team: Duong Bui, Jakob Moritz Becker, Wesley Verhoeven
Renewable energy related technologies are becoming more and more cost-effective on a smaller scale, and technologies that are integrated in architecture, are silent and work on a small and modular scale are emerging. This makes decentralized production, storage and local use more and more present in the built environment.
Patchwork 2050: the ultimate energy freestate.
High-dense mixed urban environments offer many opportunities to balance different demand-profiles. In order to generate enough electricity and heat, energy harvesting infrastructure will be omnipresent.
The smart-multi-commodity hub which facilitates the exchange of electricity, heat and storage in hydrogen. Leftover heat from conversion processes can be stored in water basins.
A cattle farm transforming into an energy factory, supplying hydrogen and biogas.
A local energy grid connects a series of energy farms and supplies a hydrogen gas station.
Deltagrid 2050: the benefits of a Mainframe and a Patchwork combined results in a network where local initiatives can thrive, backed by an interconnected network.