Another day, another project partner we would proudly like to present you: In the folllowing you can learn more about University of Ljubljana - enjoy reading!

The University of Ljubljana was established in 1919. With more than 43.000 graduate and postgraduate students and approx. 4000 higher education teachers and research associates in 19 faculties, 3 arts academies and one university college it ranks as the largest university in Slovenia. It practices basic, applied and development research and promotes interdisciplinary and multi-disciplinary studies and cooperation with various other institutions in both the public and private sectors, with the government and local authorities, and with civil institutions in Slovenia and abroad.

As one of the project partners of PLEEC project the Chair of Spatial Planning - being part of the Faculty of Civil and Geodetic Engineering (UL-FGG) - is actively contributing to PLEEC project, especially in relation to WP2 (Smart City Profiles), WP6 (Synergy of perspectives and action plan) and WP7 (Dissemination). These are mainly dealing with the performance of the six middle-sized European PLEEC cities and their profiles revealing specific opportunities and threats on their innovation journey to become sustainable, energy efficient and smart cities.

A great partner to contribute to the goals of PLEEC!

In order to continue the presentation of our PLEEC project members we would like to go on by giving you some facts about our scientific partner “Angel Kanchev” University of Ruse.

"Angel Kanchev" University of Ruse is an autonomous state higher school. It was transformed with a Decision of the People's Assembly of 21 June 1995 and is a successor of the higher technical school, established in Ruse on 12.11.1945. Around 10 000 students and doctoral degree students study in state-of-the-art study halls and research laboratories, spread on 67 490 sq m. The teaching staff consists of 480 highly qualified full-time lecturers, of whom 41 professors, 171 associate professors and 282 PhD lecturers. 

PLEEC work will be carried out by the Technology Innovation Center: The project benefits from the center´s devotion to research activities and the high qualification of its members in advanced ICT technologies and their implementations. The cooperation in several research and academic projects of the centre tells its own tale. 

In the PLEEC project this partner will support in two areas: on the one hand providing transfer of knowledge in energy efficiency at domestic level with experience based on developed Living Labs. On the other hand transferring knowledge about how positive behavior change in domestic energy consumers in the EU can be encouraged. Therefore it is necessary to understand the domestic energy consumers’ attitudes towards the environment and towards ecological behavior (e.g. saving energy) but also to know the constraints on changing behavior. 

As you can see – an experienced partner in the field of energy efficiency and due to this an ideal partner to reach PLEEC´s goals! Beside this you can feel the deeply rooted European influences and national spirit if you are visiting this place once!

We are starting full of energy into the year 2014!

... and the next event doesn´t take long to come: On 5 february PLEEC city partner Jyväskylä is hosting its local kick-off meeting. The event takes place at Aalto hall in Väinönkatu 7, 40100 Jyväskylä, and is organized in conjunction with the Central Finland Energy Day 2014. 
You can find more information about the event on the project website pleecproject.eu.

And hereby, we will use this opportunity to present PLEEC city partner Jväskylä more in detail. 

Read and enjoy...

The City of Jyväskylä is located in the lake district of Central Finland. With the population of 136.000 City of Jyväskylä is the seventh largest city in Finland. Jyväskylä is known as a city of education: the city has 47 000 students during the academic year and every fourth passer-by is a school goer or a student in Jyväskylä.

Jyväskylä is also one of Finland's centers of growth. Special expertise can be found in the fields of paper machinery as well as in energy, environmental, information and wellness technology and nanotechnology.

 Several important actors having world-class expertise in promoting energy efficiency and renewable energy are located in Jyväskylä. These include VTT Technical Research Centre of Finland, JAMK University of Applied Sciences, leading energy efficiency service company Energiakolmio, as well as leading smart grid companies Landis+Gyr and Aidon. Also the city utility company Jyväskylän Energia is a forerunner in energy efficiency and renewable energy: its production is based on energy efficient combined heat and power (CHP) and 90 % of its fuels are local (wood, biogas, peat) and 50 % renewable (wood, biogas). In addition, the electricity grid of Jyväskylän Energia is being developed towards smart grid; the first major step was installing smart meters to all their grid customers.

As part of the above mentioned expertise, also the Central Finland Energy Agency is located in Jyväskylä. The agency’s mission is to develop awareness, policies and uptake of renewable energy and energy efficiency in the region’s municipalities and cities. This includes work such as offering energy advice to citizens, consulting municipalities and analyzing the region’s progress by making municipal and regional energy balances.

Yes, it is obvious... Jyväyskylä is significantly contributing to create an energy efficient future for smart cities!

 

As promised we now continue with the introductions of each of our project partners. Let´s go on with our partner city Stoke-on-Trent as the last PLEEC project meetings have been hosted there.

Here is a story about a beautiful city on a beautiful island… 

PLEEC partner city Stoke-on-Trent is a confederation city of six diverse and distinct towns with a population around 250,000 inhabitants. The City is known as the Potteries and the World Capital of Ceramics thanks to its magnificent ceramic heritage built in the coal extraction and steel manufacturing. Moreover, key sectors include advanced manufacturing, building technologies, business and professional services, ceramics innovation, medical and healthcare as well as retails and tourism. More than 30.000 students study in the two local universities of Keele and Staffordshire in the field of medicine and healthcare, science and engineering and computing.

 
Being one of the six PLEEC partner cities, Stoke-on-Trent is on the right track to become an energy –efficient smart city – by increasing the use of renewable energy, reducing energy demand and raising energy efficiency. 

Fits just perfect in the way of thinking the PLEEC project!