Results of the 2020 Tallinnovation competition

Bikeep’s smart bicycle garages combine technology and environmental sustainability – a combination that can be used by all city residents. The Bikeep smart solution works on the principle of identification and allows renting out the same bicycle garage to different people, thus reducing the amount of necessary infrastructure to serve the required number of riders. In the future, the Bikeep system will enable the use of a bicycle garage with a Tallinn public card and has the potential to serve a person arriving at a public transport stop by bicycle and later as a passenger on public transport, all through the public card system.

Bikeep’s cooperation with each individual department of the City of Tallinn was good and new contacts were found in the City of Tallinn with whom to consider certain projects and cooperate in the future. All the offices of the City of Tallinn were supportive of bicycle garages and the development of bicycle traffic, and in general there has been a change in mentality of the city. In the future, it will certainly be easier to communicate with the city on various bicycle-related projects.

Problem: There are more and more cars in Tallinn and therefore there are more traffic jams than in many big cities. The use of public transport as the preferred mode of transport in modern society is declining (although it is free). More comfortable transport is preferred by people.

Solution: Smart public and private bicycle garages at public transport stops, to provide more protection from the weather and theft.

Result: More people will combine a bicycle-public transportation solution. The number of cars in urban traffic will decrease, the air will be cleaner, and noise and stress levels will be lower.

The Tallinnovation project enabled Teede Tehnokeskus to focus and accelerate hardware development activities and to adapt its products and services to suit urban conditions. This, in turn, increased the interest of both the city authorities and the companies providing road maintenance in the city in the idea presented by Teede tehnokeskus and the services offered. The 16 final locations of the autonomous mini weather stations were selected in cooperation with the Tallinn Environment and Public Utilities Board.

The new, upgraded mini weather stations support the creation of a safe, peaceful, and human-friendly urban environment and, among other things, help to contribute to the development of an environmentally friendly and safe transport system that supports Tallinn’s ambition to modernize and make road maintenance more sustainable. In addition, weather stations support other goals of the Tallinn City Development Strategy. The project has helped to introduce the company’s activities and innovative mini weather stations to potential customers both in Estonia and elsewhere.

Problem: Road maintenance planning is based on a general forecast, there is no location-based road weather forecast, the monitoring network is sparse and the equipment is expensive.

Solution: Creating a network of road weather monitoring devices, launching road-specific weather forecasting, and publishing observation and forecast data. The stations are quick and inexpensive to install and the results will be received within one hour.

Result: Road weather forecasting and data output to optimize road maintenance planning and management.

The aim of the R8 Technologies solution in the pilot project was to optimize the indoor climate of Kaja Culture Center, save energy costs by up to 20%, and achieve lower CO2 emissions. This makes their solution sustainable and supports the City of Tallinn’s goal to reduce its ecological footprint. There is no need to produce-buy-install physical products and everything is automatic – the solution includes artificial intelligence and is an extremely innovative solution.

The R8 Technologies solution generated a lot of talk and the need for it is known in Tallinn, unfortunately this project lacked a larger selection of suitable commercial buildings. However, new technological developments are in great need of such pilot projects, which help companies to better introduce their new services/products.

The cooperation with the representatives of the City of Tallinn and the Kaja Culture Center went smoothly and although the project could not be completed in full, R8 Technologies wants to continue cooperation with the city, Tehnopol, and the Kaja Culture Center in the future.

Problem: Commercial real estate consumes one fifth of the entire energy sector, of which about 8% is made up of technical systems such as ventilation, cooling, and heating. This is often costly, as real-time data is not used to ensure a comfortable indoor climate and manual errors can lead to human error.

Solution: Digital operator, which is an artificial intelligence software that takes the management of commercial real estate technical systems to the next level. Energy efficiency, comfortable indoor climate and technical conditions are the three key indicators monitored. AI increases system performance efficiency and data-driven automation analytics detects (HVAC) system errors.

Result: An automatically and efficiently controlled HVAC system that lowers costs and makes the system more energy efficient.

Participation in the Tallinnovation competition created an opportunity for Fusebox to start cooperation with the Finnish company Suomen Tekojää, and negotiations are also underway with other projects in Estonia and Finland. Many new contacts were made during the project, and the solution presented within the Tallinnovation competition has been received with great interest by the representatives of the ongoing pilot buildings.

The buildings connected to the Fusebox virtual power plant can increase or decrease their electricity consumption in the short term (within minutes), which in turn provides a balancing service to the Baltic electricity system and earns income and savings for the owners of the buildings connected to the network. The innovative virtual power plant will cost the city authorities the revenue that their flexibility will bring. The solution is smart, economical and cost-effective, and supports the goal of energy efficiency in the smart city of Tallinn. With the help of the city of Tallinn, it was easier to get in touch with the city’s sub-agencies within the pilot project, and the experience of cooperation is positive.

Problem: Wind turbines and solar panels do not generate electricity regularly. Due to changing weather conditions, electricity productivity is either too high or too low. However, demand is usually clearly structured.

Solution: Connect a number of different buildings to a virtual power plant to consume or save more or less electricity as needed.

Result: The Fusebox virtual power plant provides a service to the Baltic electricity system and earns revenue for electricity producers or electricity-producing buildings connected to the grid (finding consumers for instances of overproduction). The goal is to achieve 10-40% energy savings from indoor climate management.

The goal of the City of Tallinn to become more modern and sustainable is possible with the help of the digitalSpace solution proposed by Aiotex. Using the solution, Tallinn residents can quickly and directly communicate with departments responsible for assets in the city space about related problems and issues, thus making the work of city employees more efficient.

The City of Tallinn’s 2035 strategy emphasizes the goal of making the communication between the city and the residents smoother and more direct. Another goal is that city residents can contribute to the maintenance of their home environment. Using the digitalSpaces platform, we can create a link between physical location and digital information – bus stops, buildings – so citizens can inform the building manager about possible problems, and get information about the building or control equipment (ie. doors, gates, heating, ventilation).

Thanks to the pilot, Aiotex has received confirmation of the need for its solution. As the solution is location-independent, it is also planned to be made available in foreign markets.

Problem: There are many objects in the public space and maintaining them takes a lot of time because information moves slow between people and parts. Everything is done manually.

Solution: Automate the information sharing process using a network of QR codes placed on objects. It can be used to obtain information about the objects’ owner, administrator, etc. Reporting a faulty object is easy and can be done by the consumer who is usually most interested in repairing it (eg a broken swing on a children’s playground).

Result: A tool created with a network of QR codes that connects all actors together (users, owners, administrators, and contractors). The solution connects physical objects, information systems, contractors, and citizens and requires nothing more than a regular smartphone to use.