Breda
Air qualityAirQon - Air Quality through EV Battery Connectivity
“Festivals are important for the attractiveness of a city and at the same time, the energy transition is important for life quality on a global scale. AirQon connects both worlds through common grounds: social behaviour with a low threshold for people to actually participate”
Breda (NL) is a vibrant festival city and features numerous emission hotspots because of that. Nearly 200 events yearly put particular environmental strain on the city’s air quality, as events are mostly powered through diesel generators. It is estimated that on a yearly basis 180,000 litres of diesel are being used, emitting 0,6 tons of PM10 and 4,7 tons of NOx.
The largest festivals (about 10%) will have budget available to replace generators with more sustainable power supply like battery systems or fixed sockets in public space. The dominant challenge however, is making smaller events more sustainable. Lack of funding and disperse use of public space force us to research new solutions. Social innovation is the key to keep budgets economically viable.
The AirQon project will tackle technical and social challenges to replace diesel generators at festivals. The main solution is that visitors park their electric vehicle behind the stage of an event and supply energy to power up an entire podium or cool drinks with energy from the battery. Numerous challenges will be addressed in order to do so:
- Software development: a digital platform to connect visitors to events, communication between individual hardware components and a viable method to calculate total amount of necessary cars to power up the event.
- Learn about the incentives of car owners to cooperate with AirQon. Is a simple parking space enough to convince visitors, or should there be more? Ticket discount, valet taxi “back home” and free drinks come into mind beforehand.
- AirQon is a project that addresses a blind spot in air quality regulations. Diesel generators have limited emission standards, which results in limited knowledge on actual emissions and effect in public space. AirQon will deliver insights in dispersion, public opinion and suggestions how to improve or prevent use of diesel generators.
- Municipality of Breda
- SBPF - energy transition company focused on energy transition technologies
- iHomer - energy transition company focused on software solutions
- Faraday Keys - energy transition company focused on technical and social needs
- ZAP Concepts - energy transition company focused on festival energy layouts
- Kairos Events - festival organiser
- Breda Barst - festival organiser
- Buurauto - EV fleet provider
- Nissan Breda - car dealer
- IRAS - research institute
AirQon will disrupt the local Power Generator (PG) based energy supply market to fuel off-grid events by sharing an economy energy storage & supply system based on Electric Vehicle (EV) batteries, thus eliminating a serious & growing air pollution source in Breda. Strategic objectives are:
- to build up and manage a community of energy suppliers who will be willing to fuel open-air events with clean electricity
- to support event organisers in the transition to EV battery based operation by demonstrating the resulting economic, social and environmental benefits based on accurate data
- to mobilize and engage EV users through an online platform and mutually beneficial incentive schemes to supply events with clean energy through their EV batteries
- to introduce new air quality monitoring systems also reflecting personal exposures enhancing knowledge and awareness on air quality
- to promote greening outdoor events and festivals and
- to contribute to new city level policy making on air quality and sustainability
