Positive energy districts for a sustainable future

AUAS research groups (including Urban Technology and Urban Management) are participating in a Horizon 2020 project called ‘ATELIER‘, which is developing sustainable ‘positive energy districts’ in Europe.

ATELIER is a European project underway in Amsterdam and Bilbao, coordinated by the City of Amsterdam. It aims to create ‘positive energy districts’ in these 2 lighthouse cities, eventually replicating results in other metropoles across Europe.

This project is transforming industrial areas into low-carbon sustainable communities, where residents will generate more energy than they consume. Locals can store and trade the excess energy created by their household on a digital energy market platform.

Some 1.3 million euros of this Horizon 2020 grant is allocated to the AUAS as a key knowledge partner. Its role includes: organising the collaboration with other smart city projects, contributing to the project monitoring and evaluation, and helping to disseminate the results in other European cities.

• The main objective of ATELIER is to realise Positive Energy Districts in Amsterdam and Bilbao to save 1,7 kton of CO2 emissions.
• To achieve successful implementations of energy saving measures, ATELIER puts citizens at the centre of all its activities: residents (<9000), local initiatives and energy communities will be included in decision-making processes and activities throughout the project.

Amsterdam and Bilbao serve as ‘Lighthouse Cities’ for 6 other metropoles involved in the project, which stand to benefit from the innovations and technologies unearthed locally: Bratislava, Budapest, Copenhagen, Krakow, Matosinhos and Riga.