After a
relaxed Christmas beak we are now starting refreshed and motivated into the New
Year 2015!
The last PLEEC project year was full of interesting events and great
initiatives. Let´s have a short review of what has happened...
In
springtime we spent several days in Turku, Finland, where our second project
workshop took place. As the preliminary results of Work Package 2 (“Smart City
Profiles”) were already available, the main objective of the meeting was to
reach a common understanding of the further actions and objectives of Work
Packages 3-5 and a common base for the work plans and activities within these
Work Packages. Accompanied by several study visits, we gained a deeper insight into
how energy efficiency is being realized in Turku.
During early
summer time, Work Package 2 was officially finalized. The focus of this Work
Package - led by Vienna University of Technology - was on generating “Smart
City Profiles” of our six partner cities Eskilstuna, Santiago de Compostela,
Jyväskylä, Turku, Stoke-on-Trent and Tartu. All reports can now be downloaded
from the PLEEC website.
Based on this foundation, Work Packages 3, 4 and 5 are currently working
actively on benchmarking energy efficiency measures and issuing recommendations
for improving energy efficiency from the technology (WP3), planning (WP4) and
behavioral (WP5) side.
Furthermore
and apart from our joint project meetings all city partners organized their
first Local Dialogue Forum - dialogue creating meetings with industry, public
bodies, citizens and the local partners involved - in the run of 2014.
Topics ranged from savings and energy efficiency measures in buildings
(Santiago de Compostela), technology innovations (Eskilstuna), needs and
opportunities for improving energy efficiency in cities (Jyväskylä), project
alliances in extensive public real estate and construction projects and service
procurement (Turku), the local energy efficiency study (Stoke-on-Trent) and status
and trends of energy efficiency in Tartu (Tartu).
The
Executive Board Meeting, consisting of all Work Package leaders and the project
coordinator, met physically (apart from their monthly Skype Meetings) in Vienna
in October 2014. The project´s half-time reporting was one of the main issues
to discuss among the project members.
And last
but not least, the 2nd Energy Efficiency Forum took place - this time
in Copenhagen, Europe´s green capital of the year 2014! On 29 october 2014 - in
the framework of “Building Green” fair - we welcomed representatives from the
academic sector, industry, authorities, practitioners and the general public to
learn about and discuss with us possible solutions on how to successfully
transfer Best Available Practices to other cities.
It was a
very enriching year full of good ideas and discussions… The energy smart city
is coming closer!
Now we are looking forward to our next project meeting in February in Santiago
de Compostela!
With its high investments in transport and energy
efficiency, the city, located in the south west of England, could consistently
reduce the carbon emissions since 2005, also with 4.7 % growth in the green
economy. Besides the green economy, Bristol is the UK’s greenest city with very
good air quality. The number of cyclists doubled during the recent years and
the ambitious goals are to double them again until 2020. With regeneration
projects Bristol was able to clean and open areas for habitation which were
formerly polluted by the industry. 
