Author: ISOCARP Institute

D9.9: Report on Intra-Project Collaboration Including Study Visits and Peer-to-Peer Workshops 4

Posted on January 7, 2021 by -

The deliverable 9.9, Report on Intra-Project Collaboration Including Study Visits and Peer-to-Peer Workshops 4, was submitted by NTNU in December 2020. Following, the executive summary of the deliverable:

‘This report provides an overview of the study visits, peer-to-peer workshops, and other intra-project learning activities performed by the Lighthouse and Follower Cities and the other partners in +CityxChange, between 1 May 2020 and 31 October 2020 (M19-24). These activities form part of Work Package 9 “Inter-Project Collaboration and Clustering”, Task 9.1 “Intra-Project Lighthouse and Follower City Cooperation”. They are designed to address the needs of the participating cities and solution providers in an effective manner, to better align goals and priorities, to promote cross-cultural communication, understanding and collaboration between the partners, and to speed up the learning process and iteration of results across the entire value chain.

As support to deliver better study visits and peer-to-peer workshops, the deliverable also describes ex-ante/ex-post evaluation of cross-cutting issues within clean energy, open innovation, gender, socio-economic science and humanities to increase impact and deliver practical recommendations to partners and beyond. This report (D9.9) is complemented by D9.10: Report on attendance at events held by other SCC-01 co-ordinators 4. Some general content is repeated from the previous D9.7: Report on Intra-Project Collaboration, including study visits and peer-to-peer workshops 3.‘

D9.10: Report on attendance at events held by other SCC-01 co-ordinators 4

Posted on January 7, 2021 by -

The deliverable 10.9, Report on attendance at events held by other SCC-01 co-ordinators 4, was submitted by NTNU in December 2020. Following, the executive summary of the deliverable:

‘+CityxChange actively pursues synergies with other relevant EU platforms and projects, facilitating collaboration and exchanging good practices. This report describes the participation and lessons learned by +CityxChange partners in events organised by other SCC01 projects, SCALE, SET-Plan Action 3.2, the Smart Cities Marketplace (SCM), EERA Joint Programme Smart Cities, and other European networks during the fourth six-month period of the project M19-24. The report is Deliverable 9.10 of the +CityxChange Task 9.2 on Extra-Project Cooperation through other SCC01 projects and EU platforms, in Work Package 9 “Inter-Project Collaboration and Clustering”. Some general content is repeated from the previous D9.8 and complements Deliverable D9.9 “Report on Intra-Project Collaboration Including Study Visits and Peer to Peer Workshops 4”.‘

+Limerick – Innovation and infrastructure in the positive energy city

Posted on December 21, 2020 by -

Abstract

If you walk through Limerick’s Georgian streets and cast your eyes downward, you might notice a square object punctuating the surface of the path – a cast iron plate in a limestone frame, cut from a single block. When the plate is removed, the opening leads to a brick vault running beneath the street. These openings were used for the delivery of fuel, coal mainly, but also turf to the basements of Georgian buildings. From there, the fuel was distributed to fireplaces beautifully and elegantly articulated in the Georgian style. The coal holes, brick vaults, fireplaces, and chimneys all describe the energy infrastructure of the late eighteenth century when Limerick’s Georgian city, Newtown Pery, was built. Though coal has been replaced by electricity and gas, our present-day energy infrastructure is still reliant on carbon-based fuels and we now know that this must change.

Year: 2020

Authors: Helena Fitzgerald

Publisher: RIAI

Serendipity in the times of a pandemic: experiences from the +CityxChange and Climathon 2020 Sharing Session

Posted on December 16, 2020 by - News

Five +CityxChange cities (Limerick, Písek, Sestao, Trondheim, and Võru) worked together with Climate-Kic to develop coordinated Climathon events (WP10), four of them running parallel from October to December (unfortunately, Võru had to postpone their event until January 2021 because of a lockdown). On Wednesday 16th of December all the organizers gathered together in an online meeting to hear not only the results, but also the thoughts and ideas that had emerged during the process.

A common shared theme of all the individual Climathons was ‘Building resilience: new ideas for climate change’. This theme was localized according to the needs and interests of each participant city: for example, Limerick was focusing on school access, Trondheim in increasing community engagement, while Sestao was working on participatory ways to reduce carbon emissions.

The circumstances forced organizers to re-think of the nature of the Climathon. A shift from the classic “hackaton” style format of an intense 24-hour workshop had already started to better accommodate participants with different life- and family situations, so the Climathon was a perfect chance to test how taking things online and spreading the events throughout a longer time period would affect the nature of the event. When asked to describe the Climathon, participants in Trondheim mentioned words like challenging, educational and collaborative.

On top of positive participant experiences, also the organizers from the participating cities were positively surprised by the outcomes. For many of the cities, the Climathon was perceived as an informal event to start a collaboration with nearby municipalities or professional/academic entities, and for the citizens as a “safe space” for everyone to express their opinions and discuss outside of the rigid municipal public meetings. The Climathons also resulted in multiple ideas for tackling local issues, and several of them are already in further development:

  • Limerick: An embedded sensor system for monitoring traffic, traffic speed and air quality around school zones. The project has been presented to the city council and has received support for further development.
  • Písek: Climathon inspired the officials to start arranging more informal meetings with the citizens. The event also resulted in two water system-related ideas, one of which was the development of a cascading water basin system for both water management and harvesting power. The event also inspired some calculations on the subject that had not been conducted before. The +CityxChange team in Pisek is also undertaking the work of developing this idea further within the project.
  • Sestao: The session resulted in 4 different ideas, and an app for citizens to monitor and reduce their CO2 production is already in further development.
  • Trondheim: Several ideas developed during the workshop. A re-use concept to enable citizens to sell their used items in the specialty shops in the city centre was selected as a winner by a jury panel.

The +CityxChange project offered a community for hosts and was playing a key part in introducing a more systematic thinking in the process. All participating cities saw the Climathon first and foremost as a platform for serendipitous discovery.

Smart Meter

Posted on December 15, 2020 by -

A Smart Meter sends readings to your energy supplier automatically at regular intervals, resulting in more accurate billing and fewer required manual meter readings, and is a requirement for local energy community members to understand and react to energy use. In a local energy market, the meter must include a smartness that makes it possible to meter and account precisely the traded product (see: SLU).

Smart Grid

Posted on December 15, 2020 by -

A Smart Grid is an electricity network based on digital technology that is used to supply electricity to consumers via two-way digital communication.

Smart City

Posted on December 15, 2020 by -

A Smart City is a place where traditional networks and services are made more efficient with the use of digital and telecommunication technologies for the benefit of its inhabitants and business. (Source: https://ec.europa.eu)

REScoop

Posted on December 15, 2020 by -

REScoop is short for renewable energy cooperative, and refers to a business model where citizens jointly own and participate in renewable energy or energy efficiency projects. The term ‘REScoops’ can also refer to community power or community energy initiatives. (Source: https://www.rescoop.eu/the-rescoop-model )