The municipality of Burgwedel has set itself the goal of becoming energy self-sufficient - and is relying on a partnership with Energiegenossenschaft Burgwedel eG, which installs photovoltaic systems on public buildings. In order to identify the best buildings for investment, DAISEC has developed AI-based software for the energy cooperative that can be used to make informed investment decisions.
How can a municipality become energy self-sufficient?
The municipality of Burgwedel aims to become as energy self-sufficient as possible in the future. A first step in this direction is the installation of photovoltaic systems on all suitable public buildings in order to have as much locally generated electricity from renewable energies available as possible.
However, because the city lacks the manpower, expertise, and financial resources to comprehensively install PV on all of its buildings, an energy cooperative was established with the participation of the city. This cooperative, which is largely supported by the citizens of the city, takes care of the planning, installation, operation, and investment in the PV systems. The municipality pays the cooperative for the solar power it consumes, but at a much lower price than if it were purchased from a utility. Together with subsidies from the Renewable Energy Sources Act for excess feed-in, this income represents the future income of the cooperative, which in turn will be used for further investment in photovoltaic systems.
Since the initial resources of the cooperative are limited and therefore not all public buildings can be equipped with photovoltaic systems at the same time, the investment must be optimized by first identifying the buildings that offer the greatest benefits for electricity generation. A solution is needed to prioritize these buildings, taking into account the possible PV systems (size, positioning) and local consumption.
Informed investment decisions with the help of AI
To address this challenge, DAISEC has developed AI-based software that uses geographic information about the buildings, their electricity consumption profiles, and current weather data to calculate the optimal selection of building roofs, including the size of the photovoltaic systems.
The software takes into account the required investment costs and calculates which buildings should be equipped with PV and how to achieve the highest cost-benefit effect. This includes both the profit for the cooperative and the savings for the municipality.
The software allows the input of all required data via CSV files and delivers the results in text form. On this basis, the cooperative can make informed decisions and use its financial resources efficiently.
AI software can also help elsewhere
The DAISEC software is non-proprietary and can therefore be used by other municipalities that follow a similar model as the Burgwedel energy cooperative for the installation of photovoltaic systems.
Future applications of the system, even with changing boundary conditions, are easily possible because the software can always be updated with new data or obtains its data from current data sources via the Internet. This means that investments can be optimized in the future and the energy transition can be driven forward.
Your DAISEC contact
If you have any questions or would like to find out more about how Burgwedel is shaping the future with AI and photovoltaics, please contact us.
Managing Director
