Designing energy models for smart cities

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Barbara Ricco

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1393 Last modified by the author on 10/03/2020 - 15:35
Designing energy models for smart cities

Engineers in Spain are working to produce urban models based on data from cities that have introduced innovative solutions in the energy field. The aim is to enable other towns to replicate the technologies adopted and boost smart cooperation

Some European cities lack ideas about innovative solutions for the production, use and distribution of energy. However, help may come from other urban centres that have already developed such solutions.

To enable cities to share knowledge, energy models are needed.

Estefanía Vallejo works for the Cartif Technology Centre, located in Valladolid, Spain. She is collaborating with MAtchUP, a EU project that is testing smart city technologies in Valencia (Spain), Dresden (Germany) and Antalya (Turkey). Four “follower” cities, Ostend (Belgium), Herzliya (Israel), Skopje (North Macedonia) and Kerava (Finland), will also benefit from the lessons learnt.

 

Vallejo explains: “One of the main objectives is to ensure the replicability potential of the actions being implemented by the “lighthouse” cities of the project. We are developing energy models, where we can identify the cities’ sources and how they cover different energy uses. We are thus able to estimate their current energy demand and consumption, from which we can generate future scenarios.”

 

Engineers started with a diagnosis phase and carried out studies on the past trends of the cities: energy data together with macroeconomic and socioeconomic data were taken into account. Researchers then evaluate the results, analysing the possible introduction of technologies aimed at reducing greenhouse gas emissions, energy consumption and integrating renewable energies.

Watch the video interview with Estefanía Vallejo here.

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