Universities, due to their sizeable estates and populations of staff and students, as well as their connections with, and impact within, their local and wider communities, have significant environmental, social and economic impacts. There is a strong movement for universities to become leaders in driving society towards a more sustainable future, through improving the sustainability of the built environment and the universities’ practices and operations, and through their educational, research and wider community engagement missions. Around the globe the concept of ‘Living Labs’ has emerged as an instrument to integrate these different aspects to deliver sustainability improvements, through engaging multiple stakeholders in all of these areas, and through the co-creation of projects to improve the sustainability of the campus environment and operations, and to link these to the education, research, and wider community missions of the institution. This chapter describes a living, shared framework and methodology, the ‘Campus as Living Lab’ learning system, created through global participatory workshops and Living Lab literature, aimed at supporting universities and their Sustainability (Coordinating) Offices in the development and monitoring of Living Lab projects. The framework includes seven categories of supportive data collection and three levels of details to meet different requirements of potential users. The Living Lab framework presented in this chapter, aims to create value and help universities maximise the benefit of Living Lab projects within an institution, support monitoring, reflection and learning from projects, and facilitate communication with stakeholders, and the sharing of practices and learning between peers across the globe. As a living shared, framework and learning system, the framework will adapt and develop over time and within different contexts. To provide feedback and fast (practical) learning from users, the system will be further developed to facilitate transparent peer reviewing.

@en

The world's future energy supply will include intermittent renewable sources, such as solar and wind power. To guarantee reliability of supply, fast-reacting, dispatchable and renewable back-up power plants are required. One promising alternative is parked and grid-connected hydrogen-powered fuel cell electric vehicles (FCEVs) in "Vehicle-to-Grid" systems. We modified a commercial FCEV and installed an external 9.5 kW three-phase alternating current (AC) grid connection. Our experimental verification of this set-up shows that FCEVs can be used for mobility as well as generating power when parked. Our experimental results demonstrate that present-day grid-connected FCEVs can respond to high load gradients in the range of -760 % s-1 to + 730 % s-1, due to the parallel connection of the high voltage battery and the fuel cell stack. Virtual power plants composed of multiple grid-connected FCEVs could perform higher power gradients than existing fast-reacting thermal power plants with typical power gradients of 1.67 % s-1. Hydrogen consumption in 9.5 kW AC grid-connected mode was 0.55 kg h-1, resulting in a Tank-To-Grid-AC efficiency of 43% on a higher heating value basis (51 % on a lower heating value basis). Direct current to alternating current efficiency was 95 %.@en

The effect of disruptive technologies unrelated to the energy sector, such as additive manufacturing (AM), tends to be overlooked in energy scenarios. The present research assessed the potential effect of AM on the global energy demand in four energy scenarios for 2050 with extended versus limited globalisation and limited versus extensive adoption of AM. These scenarios were developed and applied for two cases, namely the aerospace sector and the construction sector, analysing the effect of AM on each phase in the value chain. In the aerospace sector, energy savings of 5–25% can be made, with the largest effect in the use phase because of weight reduction. In the construction sector, energy savings of 4–21% are achievable, with the largest effects in the feedstock, transport and use phases. Extrapolated to the global energy demand in 2050, a reduction of 26–138 EJ/yr, equivalent to 5–27% of global demand is achievable. It is recommended that energy policymakers should consider integrating AM and other disruptive technologies, such as robotics and the Internet of Things, into their long-term energy planning, policies and programmes, including Nationally Determined Contributions under the Paris Agreement on climate change.

@en

This paper presents an alternative approach and preliminary results to developing a sustainable campus by connecting research, education and real estate management. It is coined ‘ShowHow’: the deployment and display of the knowhow of all stakeholders in a university. The approach is built upon five pillars: (1) Projects: the initiation of a variety of projects; (2) Intensive real estate involvement: the introduction of sustainability and innovation to all levels of real estate strategy and decision-making processes; (3) Programmatic themes: the development of multi-faculty, overarching programmatic themes; (4) Stakeholder integration: The involvement of and intense liaison and co-creation with real estate, facility management, professors, and students, and (5) Outreach: the provision of impetus for regional/national sustainability systems with campus projects. The results are encouraging: In a short period of time, one year, more than 20 projects have been developed, the board of the Real Estate department adopted sustainable development as a key value, three programmatic lines are under construction, personal connections between students, operational and scientific staff were established, and 2020 goals for greening the energy supply will be met in 2017. Additionally, the University also performs a catalyst role for regional sustainable heating transformations. New PhD positions could be established. This approach seems very promising, generating enthusiasm throughout the university. It has elements, typical for technical universities, but the formula may be replicated at other universities in general, by deploying non-technical knowhow, and by including existing local sustainability themes and opportunities@en

Reliable and affordable future zero emission power, heat and transport systems require efficient and versatile energy storage and distribution systems. This paper answers the question whether for city areas, solar and wind electricity together with fuel cell electric vehicles as energy generators and distributors and hydrogen as energy carrier, can provide a 100% renewable, reliable and cost effective energy system, for power, heat, and transport. A smart city area is designed and dimensioned based on European statistics. Technological and cost data is collected of all system components, using existing technologies and well-documented projections, for a Near Future and Mid Century scenario. An energy balance and cost analysis is performed. The smart city area can be balanced requiring 20% of the car fleet to be fuel cell vehicles in a Mid Century scenario. The system levelized cost in the Mid Century scenario is 0.09 €/kWh for electricity, 2.4 €/kg for hydrogen and specific energy cost for passenger cars is 0.02 €/km. These results compare favorably with other studies describing fully renewable power, heat and transport systems.@en

In order to facilitate the deployment of the Fuel Cells and Hydrogen (FCH) technologies, KnowHy project aims to provide specific training modules and practical sessions to the widest possible audience of technicians, in an appropriate format and at affordable cost through an online methodology. This paper describes the goals and advances of the KnowHy project considering the targeted audiences. The deployment of an innovative training methodology based on an e-learning platform specific for FCH technologies is explained next, as well as the key features of the project and its different modules.@en

Delft University of Technology, under its "Green Village" programme, has an initiative to build a power plant (car parking lot) based on the fuel cells used in vehicles for motive power. It is a trigeneration system capable of producing electricity, heat, and hydrogen. It comprises three main zones: a hydrogen production zone, a parking zone, and a pump station zone. This study focuses mainly on the hydrogen production zone which assesses four different system designs in two different operation modes of the facility: Car as Power Plant (CaPP) mode, corresponding to the open period of the facility which uses fuel cell electric vehicles (FCEVs) as energy and water producers while parked; and Pump mode, corresponding to the closed period which compresses the hydrogen and pumps to the vehicle's fuel tank. These system designs differ by the reforming technology: the existing catalytic reformer (CR) and a solid oxide fuel cell operating as reformer (SOFCR); and the option of integrating a carbon capture and storage (CCS).Results reveal that the SOFCR unit significantly reduces the exergy destruction resulting in an improvement of efficiency over 20% in SOFCR-based system designs compared to CR-based system designs in both operation modes. It also mitigates the reduction in system efficiency by integration of a CCS unit, achieving a value of 2% whereas, in CR-based systems, is 7-8%. The SOFCR-based system running in Pump mode achieves a trigeneration efficiency of 60%.

@en

Fuel cells and hydrogen technologies have the potential to decarbonize both transport and energy sectors across the EU. Today, several initiatives and projects have successfully proven this high potential by means of research as well as demonstration actions. However, the acceptance on these technologies for public and private stakeholders and especially for the general public is a critical aspect which remains lagging behind technical progresses. Thus, increasing awareness in a wide sense in the EU as a whole becomes a key task to achieve the expected deployment of these technologies and their generalized implementation as foreseen in the different EU and member states energy roadmaps. This paper describes the state of the art in the advances made towards awareness and public acceptance on fuel cells and hydrogen technologies inside the different initiatives carried out at the moment. After that, it enters to describe the goals and advances of the recently started HY4ALL project which is devoted to align efforts from the main stakeholders in the EU and to nurture from existing initiatives to show its society the potential, opportunities, strengths and benefits of these technologies by means of dedicated communication strategies and actions. These communication strategies are implemented by means of a series of tools and resources to achieve wider penetration considering the features and specificities of targeted audiences including a reference web platform, a 'hydrogen and society roadshow', demonstration items and end applications as well as a study on macro benefits on these technologies and dedicated debates across eleven member states.@en

Fuel cell cars can provide more efficient and cleaner transportation. However, we use our cars for transportation only 5% of the time. When parked, the fuel cell in the car can produce electricity from hydrogen, which is cleaner and more efficient than the current electricity system, generating useful ‘waste’ products in the form of heat and fresh water.

The produced electricity, heat and fresh water can be fed into the respective grids or be used directly in our house, office or the school of our kids. The required hydrogen can be produced from gas (natural gas, biogas) or electricity (hydro, wind, solar, etc.). In the end, these fuel cell cars can replace all power plants worldwide. As a result, the ‘car as power plant’ can create an integrated, efficient, reliable, flexible, clean, smart and personalized transport, energy and water system: a real paradigm shift.

The ‘Car as Power Plant’ is developed at Delft Technical University, in The Green Village: a sustainable, lively and entrepreneurial environment where we discover, learn and show how to solve society’s urgent challenges. The Green Village unifies clever, imaginative strengths of scientists and entrepreneurs and turns ideas and visions into experiences and commercially viable products and services. Innovative power that sets horizons for a new, sustainable, green and circular economy.@en