Press Corner

The +CityxChange vision is to co-create the future we want to live in. To achieve this, the following framework will be adopted:

(i) Prototype the Future – Integrated Planning and Design
(ii) Enable the Future – Creation of a Common Energy Market
(iii) Accelerate the Future – CommunityxChange

This framework will incorporate 11 Demonstration Projects, which will be carried out in the Lighthouse Cities and replicated in the Follower Cities. These projects encompass the environmental, spatial, social, technical, economic, regulatory and legal aspects, required to deliver Positive Energy Blocks/Districts (PEB/D). They will lead to recommendations for new policy intervention, community engagement, market regulation and business models that will enable scale-up and replication of PEB/Ds across the city and across the EU.

(i) informing citizens of the potential and opportunities that could result from a DPEB (MODEL, ENGAGE);

(ii) enabling citizens to take ownership of their buildings and their communities, through: 

• behaviour change, which improves the efficiency of their buildings (ENGAGE)

• enabling investment to create prosumers instead of consumers of energy (INVEST)

(iii) enabling innovation and new disruptive technologies to emerge at a local level, through

• new regulatory mechanisms to test disruptive technologies (REGULATORY ZONE)

• innovation playgrounds fostering new and emerging technologies and services, enabling local stakeholders to accelerate their solutions to the wider market (PLAYGROUND)

• testing of new solutions for seamless e-mobility integrated with the energy system (eMaaS)

(iv) enabling a fair price for energy for all consumers in a community, through

• a more flexible energy system (MICROGRIDS)

• peer-to-peer trading across the microgrid, within the DPEB (LOCAL TRADING)

• trading between all consumers, not just large industrial consumers (FLEXIBILITY MARKET)

(v) co-creating the future of the city with its citizens through a Bold City Vision for 2050 (VISION)

The proposed +CityxChange solution has led to the creation of 11 Demonstration Projects (DPs), which will be implemented in the two Lighthouse Cities (Limerick, Ireland and Trondheim, Norway). A replication profile and framework for each DP will then be created so that the Follower Cities (FCs: Alba Iulia, Romania; Písek, Czech Republic; Sestao, Spain; Smolyan, Bulgaria and Võru, Estonia) and other EU cities can exploit the solutions of the +CityxChange project. 

+CityxChange will create solutions for Positive Energy Blocks leading to Positive Energy Districts and Cities through:

(1) decision support tools which enable informed decisions to be made by all stakeholders in the community; 

(2) an approach to creating a Positive Energy Block through energy reduction and efficiency measures, local renewables, local storage, flexibility and peer-to-peer energy trading; 

(3) top down community engagement driven by the local authority and bottom up citizen engagement to inform, educate and drive behavioural change.