S3C Toolkit

UppSol 2020 was initiated to stimulate PV installations in the Uppsala (SE) region by spreading experiences in a new way with true customer focus. Simon Strandberg,  member of the UppSol 2020 project team and employee at STUNS, tells about their experiences from joining S3C.

What is your project about?

“Uppsol 2020 engaged stakeholders who already decided to install PV and invited a group of followers to take part in the installation and get insight into both positive and negative experiences from the process. The idea is that followers will be inspired to start their own installation when they know what to keep in mind when installing PV, and by seeing that the forerunner managed to get through the whole installation process without prior or formal knowledge about PV.”

Simon Strandberg and  his colleague Hans Nyhlén, STUNS/UppSol 2020 (Picture provided by STUNS)

Why did you participate in S3C?

“The reason we decided to collaborate with S3C is that it would be fun to be a part of an European project, and to get insight in the experience of others. The collaboration has provided a valuable opportunity to benchmark our work against other projects. In addition, the collaboration has enabled a good way of evaluating UppSol2020 – both regarding the internal project work but also in terms of providing input to the reporting to project funders.”

How did S3C help you?

“The support offered by S3C has been valuable in several aspects. The S3C team has been a good discussion partner related to project development (based on the guideline Self-assessment to create a reflecting team culture), and has provided support for developing our own thoughts on the project. Concerning the evaluation of UppSol 2020, it has been beneficial to have a third party contacting the customers who participated in the project. It can be difficult for members of the project team to receive an honest evaluation of project activities in face-to-face meetings with participants. In such occasions, a third party is better suited to talk to participants. Further, S3C has served as a bridge towards other European projects, providing us with insights into how our project relates to other projects; what our strengths are, what makes our project unique and how we can improve our work.”

How did it work out and what did you learn?

“What we learned from this collaboration is mainly related to results from the evaluation and from the discussions regarding S3C guidelines and tools, particularly the guideline How to improve your smart energy project through check-ups. The results from the evaluation of project participants’ experience has been very informative. Our dialogue with S3C on different tools and guidelines has been rewarding and stimulating, and has started a lot of intellectual processes within the project team. One thing that could have made the collaboration even more beneficial for us is a higher level of S3C participation in our activities, which would enable more guidance of how our work can be improved.”

Hans Nyhlén, STUNS/UppSol 2020 (Picture provided by STUNS)