The project will deploy and demonstrate local storage technologies which have reached TRL 5-6 in a real electrical grid, and will develop ICT tools to exploit the synergies between them, the smart grid and the citizens. The demonstration in this real environment will be driven by five use cases covering low voltage and medium voltage scenarios and a wide range of applications and functionalities. Viable business models will be defined for the cases, and proposal for changes in regulations will be made. Dissemination and exploitation activities will ensure these results drive market uptake of storage technologies. The expected outcomes of the project are: - An energy management system to be used by the energy companies to manage the energy of their associates´ storage devices. - Control systems to integrate management and decision support tools that enable the integration of renewable generation, forecasting and storage systems into the smart-grid. - Innovative storage solutions: • HESS (Hybrid Energy Storage System – Ultracapacitors + Li-ion batteries) • Second Life Electric Vehicle Batteries • Home Hybrid technologies (Ultracapacitors + Li-ion batteries) - Business models to allow easier deployment of energy storage technologies into the electricity market - Proposed changes to regulators in the social and economic areas in order to lower barriers to the deployment of distributed storage for the defined use cases. - Life Cycle Assessment / Life Cycle Cost of the storage systems used in the project The project will achieve topic expected impacts and also environmental and socioeconomic impacts, like carbon emissions reduction and lowering the EU dependency of fossil fuels. The project gives Energy Services Companies (ESCO) a main role in the deployment and exploitation of storage solutions. The consortium foresees the creation of an ESCO to exploit demonstrated business models after the project. The consortium is designed to meet the requirements of this innovation action, with strong industrial members, innovative SMEs, research organizations, experts, DSO and a follower smart-city. This consortium is capable of bringing innovative technologies to socioeconomically viable solutions.

Borkum is an island of about 30 km2 and 5,500 residents, located 20 miles from the north-western coast of Germany. Following concerns of the population regarding air quality due to a new coal fired power plant, Borkum started on a path towards renewable energy many years ago. Following several initiatives in that direction including a citizen dialogue, the island decided to become emission-free and fully decarbonized by 2030. Within this framework, the ISLANDER project will showcase the process of making Borkum a fully autonomous and decarbonised island energy system. Specifically, the project will focus on delivering: a) Distributed RESS systems (Renewable Energy + Small-scale Storage). b) Complementary short-to-seasonal, large-scale electricity storage. c) Seawater district heating coupled with heat storage and sized for 100 residential units, to make use of the heat of the North Sea water as a source of heating and cooling. d) Deployment of an EV charging network. e) A smart IT platform conceived to holistically perform the optimal aggregation of all these components while also implementing Demand Response (DR). f) An optimisation tool to optimally design zero-carbon island energy systems. To achieve such 2030 objectives of financing and maintaining the further roll-out of renewables and storage technologies across the island, the ISLANDER partners will facilitate the kick-start of a Renewable Energy Community in Borkum right during the project following a concrete roadmap. Additionally, and as part of an ambitious plan to replicate the project results, the partners have developed a 3-wave replication strategy including: Wave 1) Replication in the Follower islands, Wave 2) Replication in the related archipelagos. Wave 3) Further replication to the rest of EU islands.