R-Aces

R-ACES means a step-change in the contribution of European Industry to the climate targets of the EU. The sector afterall represents 25% of all energy demand – and 50% of all cooling and heating - on the continent; yet only 16% comesfrom renewables. By focusing on collective measures and clustering, the efficiency of industry can be drasticallyincreased.The focus of R-Aces therefore is to turn high-potential, high-impact industrial clusters into EcoRegions that achieve atleast a 10% reduction in emissions. An Eco-region is an area where energy, material and information exchanges occurbetween various companies and actors to reduce waste and energy/material consumption. Each region is centeredon an (eco-)industrial park or (eco-)business park, linked to its surroundings by a 4th/5th generation district heating/cooling network.The consortium sees this project as a capping stone, condensing the knowledge and experience gathered throughoutH2020 into a set of three focused tools embedded in selected support actions. The tools consist of an assessment tool;legal decision support for joint contracts; and a smart energy management platform for clusters. The support actionsare built around peer-to-peer learning, more formal coursework and serious games.Together they enable a cluster to really become an EcoRegion and set up meaningful energy collaboration.The entire package of tools and support is aimed at the high-potential clusters identified in the European ThermalRoadmap. It will be validated in three of them (all are part of the consortium); actively deployed in another seven; anddisseminated to ninety of them. In addition, the tools and support methodology will be made available to third partiesin a sustainable way after the end of this two-year project.The project consortium consists of the entire value chain needed for energy collaboration – suppliers, ESCO, clustermanagers, support – and represents many years of proven experience in this field. EU funding No.