N-INKOBA - Realizability of sustainable energy systems in INKOBA Parks

Energy provision for industrial parks in rural regions has acquired new interest due to the requirements of climate mitigation as well as rising energy and resource prices: secure, clean and adequately priced access to energy has become a major factor for choosing the site for a particular industrial installation. Industrial parks in rural regions can achieve a distinct competitive advantage in this respect. They have easy access to cheap resources that due to their low transport density and/or humidity may not be utilised in more central installations. On top of that rural areas often have demand for energy services like drying of crops or wood (for construction wood, furniture as well as pellets production), that may be satisfied by low grade off-heat from industrial processes, thus increasing economic profit for the parks. INKOBA will develop integrated energy systems for INKOBA parks in Upper Austria. These energy systems will be based on renewable, regionally available sources and will eventually utilize regionally available energy from other sectors. INKOBA will deal with sites on different levels of realisation, from existing parks (in this case the goal will be to optimise the existing energy system) to parks in different developing phases (in this case, INKOBA will provide a planning base for implementing a sustainable energy system in the park). The scenarios developed in INKOBA will link the processes within the park in terms of optimal energy utilisation and will investigate the hinterland in terms of possible energy services to be supplied by the energy system of the industrial park. The scenarios will be subjected to a rigorous economical and ecological impact assessment. The results of the assessment phase will be processed into a form that is amenable to local decision makers from the municipalities concerned and the companies in the parks in order to help them with the implementation decisions necessary to transform existing energy systems in a park respectively for planning a sustainable energy system in new park sites.