Project description
Solving the evolutionary puzzle of urban energy districts
In urban energy transitions, positive energy districts (PEDs) are constantly evolving due to environmental changes. This presents a significant challenge as PEDs must adapt to evolving social contexts, legislation, energy markets, technologies and energy prices, among others. Despite PEDs’ potential, their effectiveness is hindered by this ever-changing landscape. In this context, the EU-funded PEDvolution project will integrate PEDs with social, technological, interoperability and market factors. Through seven interoperable solutions, including planning tools and social innovation strategies, PEDvolution aims to enhance PED readiness and adaptability. Real-life PEDs across Europe will serve as testing grounds, fostering replication and mainstreaming.
Objective
The pinnacle of community driven urban energy transition are Positive Energy Districts (PED). They improve energy efficiency, integrate local renewables and excess heat more effectively and enable interaction with the energy and non-energy sectors like mobility, ICT and industry.
A crucial, and often neglected complication is that PEDs are in constant evolution. This is due to ever-evolving changes in their environment: social context, legislation, energy market, increased electric vehicles, etc. As such, there is a strong analogy with the theory of evolution. Although the DNA between PEDs varies, the implementation and evolution of different PEDs is not a process of chance: the environment determines the probability of success in the urban energy transition.
The PEDvolution project paves the way for cross-sectoral integration of ever-evolving PEDs. This over a duration of three years, consisting of three consecutive phases: analyse, co-develop and demonstrate. European pioneers in PED conceptualisation, implementation and tool development will co-develop and implement seven interoperable solutions accommodating the constant evolution of PEDs: 1) PED Design and Planning Toolset, 2) PED Readiness Assessment, 3) Dynamic Decision Support Guideline for PED Development, 4) PED Energy Manager, 5) Data Exchange, Integration and Interoperability Platform, 6) PED Business Models, 7) Social Innovation tool.
These PEDvolution solutions will evaluate and improve the ‘PED Readiness Level’ according to the four genes of the PED genotype: social, technology, interoperability, and market. These are influenced by their interaction within the PED and its environment (PED phenotype).
At least six real-life PEDs across Europe, will provide a demonstration and validation environment for the solutions, paving the way for replication, upscaling and mainstreaming.
Fields of science (EuroSciVoc)
CORDIS classifies projects with EuroSciVoc, a multilingual taxonomy of fields of science, through a semi-automatic process based on NLP techniques. This project's classification has been validated by the project's team.
CORDIS classifies projects with EuroSciVoc, a multilingual taxonomy of fields of science, through a semi-automatic process based on NLP techniques. This project's classification has been validated by the project's team.
Keywords
Programme(s)
Funding Scheme
HORIZON-IA - HORIZON Innovation ActionsCoordinator
145 61 Athina
Greece
The organization defined itself as SME (small and medium-sized enterprise) at the time the Grant Agreement was signed.