Consumers in the Isles of Scilly will receive smart power solutions and act as a test-bed for a smart flexible power industry, in a £10.8 million project led by Hitachi Europe.

The Smart Energy Islands (SEI) project, part financed by £8.6 million from the European Regional Development Fund, will lay the foundations for the wider Smart Islands programme. It aims by 2025 to meet 40% of energy demand through renewables and see 40% of vehicles be electric or low-carbon.

Around 450kW of solar panels will be installed on the roofs of more than 70 council-owned homes, on the islands’ fire station, recycling facility and desalination plant, and in a solar garden by the airport (subject to planning). They will more than double the islands’ renewables capacity.

To bring consumers into the smart network, PassivSystems will deploy its cloud-based energy management systems to 100 homes (10% of all homes on the islands).The technology is designed to forecast energy demand and control the use of energy for heating, storage and generation.

Meanwhile, Moixa will install 43.8kWh of smart batteries in homes and at several non-domestic sites. Ten smart homes will pilot different mixes of low-carbon technologies which will also include air source heat pumps and smart water heaters.

The Smart Energy Islands project is the first in a series of interconnected projects delivered by the Smart Islands Partnership – the Council of the Isles of Scilly, Duchy of Cornwall, Hitachi Europe, the Islands’ Partnership and Tresco Estate.