Cegal won the Climate Hackathon 2022 with energy saving for homes
Cegal won our class in the Climate Hackathon 2022 with a solution to a very relevant topic: How to reduce electricity consumption in homes and office buildings.
- A hackathon is like a fire drill with smoke. We get to practice real situations, gain important experiences and learn things that we use in the real world without any risk involved. Putting together a team from various fields with both young and more experienced resources gives a good introduction to how we solve problems for our customers, says Pål Stian Bendiksen, who led the team from Cegal that participated in Climate Hackathon 2022.
Our solution provides insight into which buildings can benefit the most from energy saving measures
Pål Stian Bendiksen, Lead Solution Architect at Cegal.
Microsoft invited technology companies and IT consultants to the Climate Hackathon 2022, and 250 participants from large and small consulting houses around the globe participated. The tasks to be solved were provided by, among others, DNB, HUB Ocean and Cognite.
A hackathon is a good learning arena for our consultants. The fact that we get to work on a specific case given by a third party with a deadline means that we get a situation that is similar to real assignments, but with a focus on creativity, learning and having fun, says Bendiksen.
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Reduces energy consumption and CO2 emissions
The competition involves choosing one of three climate challenges and finding a solution to the chosen problem using technology. There are concrete issues to be solved and the solutions that the participants come up with are used to overcome the current climate challenge and thus contribute to creating a better world.
The three climate challenges that technologists all over the world sat down to solve were:
- Nature- and environmentally friendly sea transport with zero emissions.
- Precise calculation of energy and water consumption in factories.
- Reduce energy consumption in homes and office buildings.
The team from Cegal chose to solve challenge number 3 and won the class in tough competition from developers from all over the world.
What we did was to find buildings, homes and commercial buildings, which have great potential to be made more energy efficient. We found the buildings by using data from Finn.no combined with building data from Statistics Norway, says Bendiksen.
The topic has become very relevant recently with the electricity crisis. The challenge chosen by the Cegal consultants also fits well with Cegal's vision of creating a leading, global technology company that will be a strong contributor to the green shift for the entire energy industry, from oil and gas to hydropower and other renewable energy sources. Cegal's hackathon group used the experience from previous solutions and applications developed for the energy sector.
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Finds profitable energy projects among homes
Reducing energy consumption in homes and commercial buildings is an important contribution to reducing CO2 emissions. On average in Europe, the use of one KWh of electricity accounts for the emission of 200 grams of CO2 into the atmosphere.
We know that some buildings are more energy efficient than others. That is why we have energy labeling of houses in Norway. The solution we developed can help house owners and business save big costs. At the same time, it can help the authorities to reach climate targets, continues Bendiksen.
To find out which buildings were good and bad, the team used data on apartments for sale in the Oslo area, and created a model that took into account the most relevant parameters to influence energy use. With the help of the model, you got an overview of whether a property is better or worse than expected. Afterwards, the team used text analysis (NLP – Natural Language Processing) to find properties where the energy labeling is clearly wrong. For example, if you have installed a heat pump and modern insulated windows, it is unlikely that low energy labeling is correct.
The team used technologies such as Python, Microsoft Azure Logic Apps, Azure Storage and Google Data Studio during the Climate Hackathon 2022.
The solution we developed during the Climate Hackathon provides insight into which energy saving projects are the most profitable to support. Most people are interested in measures that save both money and the environment. In addition, the solution can help make the best use of public support schemes, says Bendiksen.
Cegal's winning solution from Climate Hackathon 2022 has been presented to DNB. DNB can use the solution to help their customers to do what they should to get a lower electricity bill. Electricity companies can also benefit from such a solution. It is also possible to connect this to other Cegal solutions that retrieve more information related to the individual customers around consumption and needs. Cegal is also in dialogue with Enova to see how the solution can be developed further.
By collecting data, we will also be able to help Enova and others to determine reasonable rates for contribution and to better understand the effects of various actions, Bendiksen concludes.
Watch video from the Climate Hacksthon 2022 award ceremony on YouTube here >
Read the case: With Green Tracker, large businesses can halve their energy consumption >
Read about how Cegal works with sustainability >
