Smart V4 Strategies

South Poland Cleantech Cluster participates in a newly started Visegrad project together with partners – Czech Smart City Cluster, Slovak Smart City Cluster and Digitalis Jolet nonprofit from Hungary. The project “Smart V4 Strategies” was awarded financing support from the Visegrad Fund.

The aim of the project is to connect relevant partners in the given area of SMART strategies and prepare procedures for classification of SMART strategies in V4 countries into one complex database portal. The project offers V4 partners international cooperation in unifying SMART strategies to GreenDeal/SDG rules. The vision is to strengthen the unity and effectiveness in implementation of SMART strategies in all V4 countries.
More about the project

South Poland Cleantech Cluster

is the initiator of the krk UrbanHub project - a sustainable CEE (Central- and Eastern European) urbanization hub
krakowurbanhub is a partner in the urbanhub europe consortium of European cities consisting of BLOXHUB in Copenhagen, KIRAHub in Helsinki, Munich Urban Colab, FACTORY Hammerbrooklyn Hamburg, FAKTORY Berlin, Urban Resilience Hub Barcelona
krk UrbanHub is a national and international meeting place that engages people in architecture, design and sustainable urban development. This is done through exhibitions, debates, events, business development and new partnerships.
krk UrbaHhub is an ecosystem for creating cities of the future, and at the same time a space to share ideas, skills and strategies for designing buildings and urban development based on a people-centered approach and high standards of sustainable development, and a membership-based community combining urban development, architecture, design, design, construction, circular economy and digitization.
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South Poland Cleantech Cluster

SPCleantech is co-founder of European Alliance for Cross- Industrial Circular Economy Investments (ICEI Alliance) consisting of European clusters and universities. During 2020-2021 there have been held meetings to prepare the establishment of the European Alliance for Cross- Industrial Circular Economy Investments, hosted by the Circular Economy Centre at Digipolis, Kemi, Finland.

The ICEI Alliance has for ambition to make Europe the global industrial circular economy platform to accelerate the deployment of world-class circular economy solutions to industry. It acts as a pipeline of business-led circular economy investment projects. Alliance members support businesses with the structuring of their investment cases as well as with accessing funding and financing streams.
More information on ICEI Alliance

University of Agriculture in Krakow

The innovative energy storage technology in the production tunnels

In the years 2010-2015 at the Faculty of Production and Power Engineering of the University of Agriculture in Krakow and the Institute of Horticulture in Skierniewice project research and implementation was realized in the field of energy storage in batteries surplus heat from inside the foil tunnels.

Three types of materials were used for the energy accumulations in the special constructions. The research was conducted with stone, liquid and phase change material.

The idea is based on battery life by blowing during a temperature in excess of plant requirements, warm (charging period) and the period of demand for heat, cold air (discharge process). Battery stone (bed filled with stone porphyry type size 35 to 60mm) must be made to ensure the proper insulation of the walls and the sides of the battery. The design of the battery plants (prepared as patent pending) has been awarded medals for innovative solution shows in Nuremberg and Brussels.

Fig. 1 shows the substantiation of the process of charging excess heat

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Fig. 1. The duration of heating and the potential storage of excess heat in the facility

Fig. 2 show the principle of operation of the system of heat storage in the accumulator and its discharging

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Fig. 2. Scheme storage system (a) and discharge (b) of the bed stone accumulator

The idea of work bed stone accumulator consists of storing heat in the stone bed in times of high air temperatures and unloading when the temperatures are too low for crops. In addition, the battery can be used to cool the plant during the morning rapid temperature rise inside the building. An integral part of the battery, in addition to cables, the bed, the fan system is controlling the position of the steering damper air flow.

The bed stone accumulator has four independent, equal and isolated sections. Each section has dimensions (without insulation) 1,7×11 m. These sections are located in the tunnel area of 144 m2.

Schematic section of the battery (for its construction were obtained patent: Application number: 400 690) is shown in Fig. 3.

Fig. 3. Battery stone (cross-sections)

Influence of the accumulator on microclimate in facility was tested during cultivation of tomatoes and cucumbers in tunnel foil. The studies were carried on two types of horticultural substrates. Key results include:

  • system design heat storage
  • recommendation of the type of substrate for cultivated plants,
  • determine the parameters related to: time of the charging process and optimum conditions with his discharge,
  • selection of fan parameters (dynamic pressure, a stream of forced air)
  • control the process of cooling the air inside the building.

The analysis found that by using this system you can get an earlier and higher yield of crops, reducing the use of pesticides, reducing the consumption of fossil fuel to maintain the recommended microclimate parameters.

As a result of the arrangement and keeping the recommended process parameters blow air (cycle time, a stream of forced air), payback period of the construction and operation of the system is approx. 8 years.

More information can be obtained from the project contractors (prof. dr. Sławomir Kurpaska and dr. Hubert Latała – employees of the Faculty of Production and Power Engineering of the University of Agriculture in Krakow).