COMET 2023 Project – Wieselburg Communities go hand in hand with science and research

The COMET program of the Austrian Federal Government aims to provide a planning basis for the development of efficient, decentralized and renewable energy supply for both urban and rural communities in the Wieselburg region. Both local councils have concluded independent cooperation agreements with BEST – Bioenergy and Sustainable Technologies GmbH to participate in the COMET project, which runs from April 1, 2023 to March 31, 2027.

The goals in both communities are energy-optimal spatial planning and energy self-sufficiency of selected public (internal community) buildings as well as real-time control and scientific experiments. Experimental systems and techniques should be integrated into a comprehensive data and measurement architecture and operated optimally using control algorithms. The results obtained from BEST aim to demonstrate opportunities for use, feasibility, sustainability and cost savings for communities.

“This topic is of great concern to us as the e5 community. With BEST’s scientific expertise, we want to develop energy-related projects to create energy communities, heating networks, microgrids or pilot plants. In order to implement optimal control strategies for energy technologies, an architecture is being created Data and measurement infrastructure so you can convert renewable energy sources into useful energy in a resource-efficient, energy-efficient and sector-specific way.” City Mayor Josef Leitner (SPÖ).

The municipality invests €10,000 per project year (total €40,000) and €25,000 as “benefits in kind” (work hours). In a rural community, the project is somewhat smaller. They decided to get €5,000 per project year.