Focus

SMEs are an important, but hard-to-reach, target group in order to meet the EU 2020 targets in terms of sustainable energy production. Their limited resources (financial, spatial, organizational, etc.) often prevent them from investing in green energy. There is, moreover, often a mismatch between the technical and economic conditions and the needs of an individual SME. Every SME limits its energy concept to its own site and needs, leading to suboptimal energy solutions.

The scale of a business cluster, like a business park, creates a lot of advantages for sustainable energy investments. The main obstacles, preventing individual businesses to invest, can be overcome due to the economies of scale in a cluster. Their larger scale fits spatially and energetically very well with midsized sustainable energy technologies. By targeting business clusters, underused sustainable energy potential can be unlocked. However, energy synergies among businesses in a business cluster are rarely explored nor exploited.

The challenge for BISEPS is to enhance the market uptake of sustainable energy production by clusters of businesses by creating energy synergies. Therefore, existing barriers to implement energy solutions, further complicated by the context of cooperating businesses, need to be eliminated.