Sustainable energy Positive & zero cARbon CommunitieS

Project Information

SPARCs

Grant agreement ID: 864242

DOI

10.3030/864242

Project closed

EC signature date 17 September 2019

Start date 1 October 2019

End date 30 September 2024

Funded under

• SOCIETAL CHALLENGES - Secure, clean and efficient energy

Total cost

€ 23 785 881,42

EU contribution

€ 19 701 216,00

Coordinated by

TEKNOLOGIAN TUTKIMUSKESKUS VTT OY
Finland

Periodic Reporting for period 4 - SPARCs (Sustainable energy Positive & zero cARbon CommunitieS)

Reporting period: 2023-10-01 to 2024-09-30

Summary of the context and overall objectives of the project

Cities were one of the key actors in the Paris climate summit in 2015, where 175 countries committed to limiting the global temperature increase well below 2 degrees. Specific aims for global city development were further defined in the United Nations 2030 Agenda for Sustainable Development Goals, supporting transition for low-carbon and inclusive cities. The EU has committed to these global goals by developing a Strategic Energy Technology Plan (SET plan) and introducing the Smart Cities and Communities Programme with 148 Cities at the forefront of the transition towards a low carbon future. SPARCS is one of these projects in the Scalable Cities community.

SPARCs demonstrates, and validates, the technical and socio-economic viability, and impacts, of scalable, innovative solutions for planning, deployment and roll out of smart and integrated energy systems as an efficient mean for the urban transition into a citizen centered zero carbon ecosystem, enabling a high quality of life. SPARCS promotes the replication of the urban energy transition widely in Europe for developing blocks of buildings and districts into active energy ecosystems and pioneering business models tailored on interactions between the citizen, building and the urban energy systems.

Lighthouse cities Espoo (FI) and Leipzig (DE) implement together with their local stakeholders 44 interventions to test and monitor integrated energy solutions for Positive Energy Districts. Fellow cities Reykjavik (IS), Maia (PT), Lviv (UA), Kifissia (EL) and Kladno (CZ) prepare for replication of innovative energy solutions in their local environment. SPARCs identifies bankable actions to accelerate market uptake, pioneers innovative, exploitable governance and business models boosting the transformation processes, pre-procurement procedures and citizen engaging mechanisms toward the bold City Vision 2050. After the project end, partners have continued their development journeys e.g. as a part of the EU Cities Mission.

Work performed from the beginning of the project to the end of the period covered by the report and main results achieved so far

SPARCS addresses the following 9 objectives:

1. To enable, inform and support the efficient urban transformation of cities into carbon free societies, including especially smart networks, low carbon transport solutions, a sustainable energy transition, and improved air quality. SPARCS Cities have identified and developed Use Cases toward sustainable energy transition and Positive Energy Districts, and formulated their bold City Visions for 2050.

2. To deploy 44 wide scale demonstration of innovative technologies for integrated, mixed-use, positive energy building blocks in the lighthouse cities, Espoo and Leipzig, and selected feasibility tests in 5 fellow cities.

3. To roll out an extensive monitoring and evaluation programme with associated Key Performance Indicators (KPIs), for the holistic assessment of SPARCs interventions. A holistic framework for monitoring and impact assessment is developed and implemented, and the interventions are evaluated.

4. To implement community engagement actions and promote a citizen-centric approach for enabling inclusive, integrated, and sustainable urban development, planning and management practices and governance models. SPARCS cities tested and utilised a broad range of social engagement tools and procedures (https://www.citizen-engagement.eu/)

5. To replicate smart and integrated energy solutions in fellow cities and lay the foundations for European wide adoption and upscaling. Information packages on energy and mobility solutions enable replication in different local contexts. Analysing and benchmarking SPARCS cities for replication potential, and developing replication plans for 5 fellow cities with concrete selected projects. Lighthouse cities developed upscaling plans.

6. SPARCS Cities have developed the bold city visions for 2050 with roadmaps for short, medium and long term plans addressing sustainable, low carbon urban and energy development.

7. To pro-actively cooperate with Scalable cities (SCC projects) and other relevant projects, networks and initiatives, and create joint recommendations in order to maximize impact, replication, and scale-up of smart city solutions.

8. To support the development of competitive new services, business models and financing instruments for sustainable, forerunner energy positive smart districts, and the creation of business ecosystems. Supporting cities and their stakeholders through business models, new services and funding schemes at PED scale.

9. To actively and efficiently promote the SPARCs project and its outcomes on local and European levels, raise awareness of the European smart city concept, and support wide-spread knowledge sharing across solutions. The highlights of the SPARCS results have been published in a packaged format, identified the relevant contents for different stakeholder groups in: https://sparcs.info/en/results-details/.

Progress beyond the state of the art and expected potential impact (including the socio-economic impact and the wider societal implications of the project so far)

SPARCS targets innovation in following contexts:

1. Integrated urban planning and management - Policy and regulation: SPARCS integrates and coordinates urban and energy planning, while ensuring an inclusive engagement of local governments, stakeholders and citizens. Shared city vision promotes participative and evidence-based urban planning. Reflections for the upcoming legislation on Energy Communities.

2. Positive energy building blocks and district: systemic integration of technologies for: district heating and cooling; PV integration, energy storage and heat recovery technologies, demand response, virtual power plant, virtual energy community, and energy services for citizens. EV integration through an enhanced MaaS (mobility as a service), the second life of EV batteries, optimal charging, and interoperability. Adopting citizen-centered approach: eParticipation tools, open data and services.

3. Context-Aware Energy Behavioural and Demand Flexibility Profiling, to enable personalized and human-centric self-consumption strategies.

4. ICT Platforms for PEDs to deliver open data and services, including Internet of Things and scalable real time intelligent platforms.

5. Community Demand Management Systems for Collective Urban Self-Consumption with bottom-up citizen engagement and empowerment that enables collective energy optimization and self-consumption at the city level.

6. The sustainability metrics: guidelines for ambitious monitoring programmes. Lighthouse cities continue on their sustainability path and contribute to strengthen the monitoring of the SEAP/SECAPs of cities and their Climate City Contracts in EU Cities Mission (in Espoo, Leipzig and Reykjavik).

7. Business models, procurement and funding: Identifying new business models and evaluating bankability. Flexible dynamic pricing models for citizens are configured and validated. Blockchain application will be used for peer to peer transactions in energy markets.

8. Pre-commercial market consultations to engage with the market in the early stages of procurement improves cities’ procurement processes: https://www.bable-smartcities.eu/our-tools/market-consultation.html

The impacts of SPARCS span economic growth, improved quality of life, and environmental benefits towards the EC policy framework for climate and energy, the SET plan and UN Sustainable Development goals. SPARCS co-creation brings together citizens, companies, research organizations, city planning and decision-making entities, transforming cities to carbon-free inclusive communities.

SPARCS cities on map