Cities today have an essential role to play in tackling climate change by reducing their carbon emissions.
In the context of the Conference of the Parties (COPs) and the Paris Agreement, MAKING-CITY is an answer to urban transformation.
A H2020 PROJECT BASED ON
the PED concept
Launched in December 2018 and coordinated by the CARTIF Technology Centre, MAKING-CITY will address and demonstrate advanced procedures and methodologies based on the Positive Energy District (PED) during 72 months. A PED is defined as “a district with annual net zero energy import and net zero carbon emissions, working towards an annual local surplus production of renewable energy” in the European Strategic Energy Technology Plan (SET Plan).
Derived from the Positive Energy Block (PEB) definition established by the European Innovation Partnership on Smart Cities and Communities (EIP-SCC), a PED is a delimited urban area composed of buildings with different typologies and public spaces where the total annual energy balance must be positive. Therefore, the district will have an extra energy production that can be shared with other urban zones. The total energy balance is the energy taken from outside the district minus the energy delivered inside the district.
Even if all energy carriers can be considered as potential energy inputs and/or outputs, only primary energy units make a suitable calculation of energy flows to establish the total energy balance. Finally, achieving PEDs means that the amount of energy delivered by the district must be higher than the amount of energy supplied from outside.
ENERGY TRANSITION TOWARDS
A CITY VISION 2050
For a successful PED implementation, the MAKING-CITY project is considering a series of key sectors and applications which will ensure a long-term vision for energy transition. A structural shift from a system mainly based on finite energy sources such as fossil fuels, towards a system using more renewable energy sources is considered as energy transition. This significant change also leads to a better management of energy demand in addition to an increase of energy efficiency.
Currently, city energy plans for energy transition are designed within a 2030 horizon, which can be considered as a mid-term strategy (part of the 2030 Climate & Energy Framework in Europe). Nevertheless, learning from the past to plan the future of cities for more than the next few years appears to be a real need. In MAKING-CITY, the City Vision 2050 is used as a longer timescale to address the urban energy system transformation towards low-carbon cities, bringing appropriate energy planning tools as well as reconsidering municipal organisation (creation of City Planning Offices for instance).
INITIATE RETROFITTING BUILDINGS
TO MAXIMISE INFRASTRUCTURE PERFORMANCE
INCREASE RENEWABLE SOURCES
TO PRODUCE SELF-SUFFICIENT GREEN ENERGY
DESIGN, ADAPT AND UPGRADE
HEATING AND COOLING SYSTEMS
DEPLOY STORAGE & TRANSFER SYSTEMS
TO ANTICIPATE ENERGY DEMAND PEAKS
SET UP PUBLIC CHARGING STATIONS