Tømmervold J. (2023). Drone over Lilleby, autumn, image/jpeg, Trondheim kommune
Author: Maiara Biscaro Uliana (TNO)
Supporting climate neutrality by encouraging stakeholder interaction and citizen involvement in PEDs' implementation
Currently, Norway has one of the largest number of PEDs in Europe. This study case highlights the social aspects of positive energy districts, which aim in improving energy efficiency, increase social renewable energy production significantly and utilise energy flexibility, in order to reduce environmental impacts of districts' energy systems.
The energy sector emissions and renewable energy production have been receiving great attention by the cities on their path to climate neutrality. By employing PED demo sites in Norway, ZEN Centre, +CityxChange and Sy.ikia aim in collaborating to achieve to this goal. Each initiative has their own ambitions, although with some overlap.
ZEN Centre aims in developing future buildings and neighbourhoods with zero greenhouse gas (GHG) emissions in their life cycle, primarily focusing on reducing embedded emissions and energy consumption, while emphasizing the offsetting of emissions through renewable energy production.
+CityxChange engages in developing Positive Energy Blocks (PEBs) and PEDs for sustainable urban ecosystems that can generate surplus of local renewable energy, integrating e-mobility and energy trading, aligning energy strategies with urban planning, involving citizens and stakeholders, enhancing quality of life, and fostering exchange of experiences with other European cities.
Syn.ikia has the goal to replicate and upscale the number of Sustainable Positive Energy Neighbourhoods (SPENs) with surplus of renewable energy, by the development of new designs, tools, methods and processes to enable their deployment, and achieve 100% of GHG emission reduction.
An innovative approach
The initiatives advocate participatory elements by bringing citizens into the innovation and urban transformation processes, stimulating PEDs development in all these contexts. They promote citizen involvement, stakeholder interaction, and capacity building, education and training in different ways.
ZEN Centre
- Demo sites offer insights into transformation processes and stakeholder involvement in different regions. Open innovation, led by the public sector, is experimental in PED implementation. Annual meetings facilitate knowledge exchange between demo site partners.
- Focus on capacity building of professional stakeholders within Norway's construction value chain, including relevant energy sectors.
- While the Centre does not prioritize citizen or end-user capacity building, Living Labs are an additional form to involve stakeholders, aiming to inform, consult, and educate end-users and other relevant parties.
+CityxChange
- Emphasizes co-creation between public and private sectors (e.g. energy providers, industry partners), together with citizen engagement. The project adopts a vision strategy, aligning PED principles and energy goals with urban development plans.
- A dedicated work package focuses on community involvement, creating frameworks and engagement tools (citizen playbooks, innovation labs) for community-driven initiatives.
- Learning activities target both elementary and higher education, fostering community competencies and educating future citizens. Regular learning sessions and storytelling workshops are held for partners and stakeholders, promoting capacity building and experience exchange.
Syn.ikia
- Citizen involvement is essential for the development of a neighbourhood-scale user engagement, aimed at facilitating the adoption of "energy plus" systems from buildings to neighbourhood-scale.
- Stakeholders are identified at consortium, local demo site, and online community levels to promote innovation and collaboration. At the local demo site level, co-creation hub fosters collaboration between demo sites to develop and test new systems, technologies, and processes for achieving sustainable energy-positive housing at the neighbourhood level.
- Capacity building targets occupants, end-users, and various stakeholders in the built environment and residential energy sectors, including experts, professionals, and policymakers.
Main positive lessons
- Multiple possibilites of combining different context and stakeholders configurations, using diverse methods from living labs, workshops and innovation playgrounds.
- The importance of citizen engagement, stakeholder involvement, and capacity building become increasingly embedded within project frameworks as PED projects advance through their adaptive cycles (from initial experimentation to learning, expansion, and market demonstration).
Main barriers found
- Expanding stakeholder engagement and fostering co-creation processes involving citizens can enhance the adaptive cycles of PEDs. However, this increases the level of complexity, as PEDs involves various sectors and stakeholders, including policy-makers, developers, and civil society, asking for changes (and adaptation) over time.
Potential for reaplication and scale-up
The multiplicity of the projects and demo sites already show the potential for replication and scaling up PED development fostered by stakeholder interaction and citizen involvement. These examples highlight the high context dependence (Nordic examples) and the need for adaptations.