As part of the EU-funded NRG2peers project, Geckotech has developed several tools to help emerging energy communities make the world more sustainable.

Requirements Analysis

The goal of the NRG2Peers project was to facilitate residential energy communities to increase energy efficiency and utilize a higher share of renewable energy without putting more strain on the grid. While there was no lack of ideas for providing a gamified platform, it was a challenge to bring the solution back into scope. By cleverly utilizing open source and off-the-shelf solutions, in addition to a custom-built community portal, Geckotech was able to help the project meet all the requirements set out in the grant agreement.

Schoonschip, an energy sharing community and pilot site.

Adapting open source solutions

During the exploration and discussion of requirements, it became clear that a forum would provide a large part of what the project needed. However, the discussion forum should also integrate seamlessly with the community portal and decision tools. Instead of rebuilding forum functionality in the community portal, Discourse was set up and integrated. Geckotech provided seamless integration by adapting the theme and integrating the (non-standard) single sign on solution with the community portal.

Dynamic forms powered by Boost

The "Readiness Level Indicator Tool" gathers information and provides recommendations to energy communities. It was implemented as a series of questionnaires configured in another Geckotech project: Boost. By using an out-of-the-box solution, the project was able to quickly gather the necessary input from the pilot sites.

The platform:

The entire platform is made using the following tools:

• Custom built community portal with gamification.
• Boost, which powers the Readiness Level Indicator decision tools.
• Discourse, a discussion form with single sign on shared with the community portal.