During this first operating year the project consortium, consisting in 11 European organizations that are active in 9 different European countries, has investigated the existing European business models for aggregation of renewable energy sources, their benefits and the barriers preventing their implementation.

The following results from this first stage of the project are available in the project website at the following link: http://bestres.eu/about-project/results/

–   Existing business models for renewable energy aggregators.  The report defines  and  classifies  existing European aggregation business models within and outside the consortium of BestRES. This report highlights the importance of aggregators, who act on behalf of consumers and use technological solutions and ICT for optimization, to bring aggregated renewable energies to the market.

– Technical, market, environmental and social benefits of aggregation BMs within the consortium. This report analyses the potential technical, market, environmental and social benefits of energy aggregation. The focus has been set on the countries in which the consortium is active: United Kingdom, Germany, France, Belgium, Austria, Portugal, Spain, Italy and Cyprus.

– Technical, legal and regulatory barriers for optimal deployment and operations of current business models. This report focuses further on identifying the technical, regulatory and legal barriers for the implementation of the business models that exist at a national (for target consortium countries) and European level.

To date, one European Workshop has been organised within the framework of the BestRES project. The 1st Workshop on Business Models for Renewable Energy gathered more than 40 participants including EC representatives, electric power industry associations, consumer associations, grid operators and renewable energy aggregators. The event represented a unique opportunity to obtain an overview of the existing framework and business models available in Europe for the aggregation of renewable energy sources and explore the benefits from collaborating with the aggregators.

What is next?

The project is on its way to deliver next outputs. The preliminary research undertaken towards the fulfilment of the first milestones has provided the basis for the upcoming study Review of future electricity market options in which the consortium is carrying out and extensive work on the development of innovative market design to improve the role of aggregators in the future. The report will be available soon in the project website. Furthermore, the project consortium is strong committed to provide findings on the improvement and implementation of business models for aggregators in the next months. An event in Amsterdam will continue to be organised together with the IndustRE project in September, 2017 on the occasion of the European Photovoltaic Solar Energy Conference 2017 (EUPVSEC 2017) which is the largest international Conference for Photovoltaic research, technologies and applications, and at the same time a top international PV Industry Exhibition.

Find out more about the Project by visiting our dedicated resources available on the project website: http://bestres.eu