REFER

The REFER project promotes energy cost-reduction and greater efficiency in residential and service buildings by monitoring and optimizing the conditioning systems of residential buildings and, on the other hand, incorporating to service buildings intelligent and interoperable energy management systems and new innovative solutions for the generation and storage of renewable energy.

During the project, energy measurement, generation and storage systems have been implemented, and more than 17 products have been developed, granting energy flexibility to buildings in ongoing rehabilitation processes.

REFER has also allowed to improve technologies that participate in the energy flexibility of the buildings of the future and implement new concepts to substantially improve the technologies of photovoltaic solar panels and fuel cells, as well as new methodologies for the reuse of electric vehicle batteries in buildings. Finally, partners have developed a software to easily determine possible energy improvements in retrofitting buildings.

The technologies developed have been validated with different demonstrators in the Tirant lo Blanc library, in Montgat, as an example of a service building, and in residential buildings home to more than 300 users.

Eurecat has led the development of different BIPV construction solutions to integrate solar modules in buildings of the tertiary sector, offices and hotels, mainly in ventilated facades, curtain walls or solar protection elements. It has also contributed with its experience in the reuse of batteries of second life of electric vehicles to be used as storage to facilitate the flexibility of energy management in buildings.

On the other hand, the center, through its offices in Manresa, formerly the CTM Technology Center, has contributed with the development of a cost-effective BIPV software tool that uses an innovative methodology to design and optimize the integration of photovoltaic panels in buildings.