Customer: Gasthof Hintersee GmbH & Co KG
CiMo Partner: Gemini
Challenge
The IMM2023 Hackathon, supported by EDIH “Crowd in Motion”, focused on the challenge of revolutionizing photovoltaic (PV) data management for homeowners and businesses. With rising energy costs and increasing societal awareness of renewable energy sources, homeowners and businesses that had invested in PV systems were faced with the challenge of using expensive apps to monitor energy consumption and additional fees to access data from new ModBus-equipped electricity meters.
The main goal of the hackathon was to develop cost-effective alternatives for owners of PV systems. The specific objectives included:
1. Development of open source prototypes: Development of open source prototypes that enable the evaluation of in-house electricity meters and offer users independence without having to rely on paid apps.
2. ModBus protocol integration: Overcoming the technical complexity of the ModBus protocol in electricity meters and creating user-friendly interfaces for seamless data visualization.
3. Sustainable Innovation: Exploring how the installation of PV systems can relieve existing buildings of their energy burden to promote sustainability in both residential and commercial sectors.
4. Community engagement: Engaging the community, including students, experts and industry professionals, in collaborative efforts to address these pressing challenges.
5. Real-world application in the hotel “Das Hintersee”: Implementation and testing of solutions in a real environment, leveraging the partnership with the hotel “Das Hintersee”, which serves as a pioneer in the field of green tourism with its own PV system and eBike charging stations.
6. Data accessibility for PV owners: Empowering PV system owners to access, monitor and optimize their energy consumption data without the financial barriers associated with existing solutions.
Result, Impact
Collaboration with EDIH services provided access to digital expertise, testing infrastructure, networks and financial advice. This joint approach should drive digital transformation by developing sustainable and efficient solutions for PV data management, consistent with EDIH’s broader objectives to support innovation in products, services and business models.