An answer to the question of how we want to live in the future
At the Ideas Award 2025, HSWT student Nicole Keller presented her concept for bioeconomic housing (BÖW) and won in the „Best Idea“ category with a future-oriented solution.
The BÖW concept combines technical networking and energy sharing in construction with social aspects. With her idea, Nicole Keller wants to show that the housing of the future can be affordable, sustainable and communal - but above all full of quality of life - while being ecological and economical. Nicole is studying Business Management and Renewable Energy Entrepreneurship in her 3rd semester.
The idea
Nicole Keller's desire to meet the current challenges in housing - rising rents, high energy costs and increasing loneliness - led her to ask herself why housing, energy and community cannot be thought of together. This is how the idea for BÖW was born. „The housing shortage is escalating. In the first quarter of 2026, there will be a shortage of 1.4 million homes in Germany alone, mobility costs have risen by 30 per cent in the last five years and 40 per cent of Germans barely know a neighbour personally,“ says the student. Her solution: a sharing economy that brings sustainable ecological, economic and social added value.
The concept
„The housing of the future is bioeconomic,“ emphasises Nicole. BÖW combines energy-autonomous, ecological and social living in a professional, scalable business model. It is a B2B service (business-to-business service) for both municipal and private-sector building contractors and, among other things, takes on the acquisition of interested parties (buyers and tenants) or the implementation of the energy concept together with a regional partner network as well as the handling of energy sharing in accordance with §42c EnWG.
Why now?
Three trends come together in BÖW's idea. Firstly, it incorporates the energy transition at end consumer level and represents a new housing model in times of housing shortages. It benefits from the latest technology, such as energy management systems, smart meters, dynamic electricity tariffs and energy sharing. In addition, the introduction of the new Energy Industry Act (Section 42c EnWG) from June 2026 will adjust the regulatory framework for energy sharing, i.e. the sharing of electricity from jointly operated renewable energy appendices through the use of the public electricity grid.
