2022-2025

ARV is a Horizon 2020 EU-funded project part of the EU Green Deal goal to build and renovate in an energy and resource efficient way. The project aims to demonstrate and validate attractive, resilient, and affordable solutions for of Climate Positive Circular Communities (CPCC) that will significantly speed up the deep energy renovations and the deployment of energy and climate measures in the construction and energy industries.

2013-2017

The main objective is to support urban planners, authorities and architects to achieve architectural integration of solar energy solutions (active and passive) in urban areas, and eventually whole cities, thus creating cities with a large renewable energy supply. The types of support being developed in this Task include processes, methods and tools capable of assisting cities in developing a long term urban energy strategy, including heritage and aesthetic issues and solar integration in sensitive landscapes. As part of this work, participants will work to strengthen solar energy in urban planning education at universities by testing and developing teaching material for programs in architecture, architectural engineering and urban planning. The material will also be appropriate for post graduate courses and continuing professional development.

2018-2022

HOUSEFUL proposes an innovative paradigm shift towards a circular economy for the housing sector. The main goal is to develop and demonstrate an integrated systemic service (HOUSEFUL Service) composed of 11 circular solutions co-created by stakeholders in current housing value chain. The HOUSEFUL Service will aim at the circular management and efficient use of water, waste, energy and material resources for all stages of European building’s life-cycle.

2017-2022

HEART is a multifunctional retrofit toolkit within which different subcomponents – ICT, BEMS, HVAC, BIPV and Envelope Technologies – cooperate synergistically to transform an existing building into a Smart Building. Based on a whole-building performance approach, the toolkit is conceived to achieve extremely high levels of energy efficiency in the existing residential building stock, with particular reference to Central and Southern Europe, where climate change and energy transition have boosted electricity consumption peaks both during summer and winter seasons. However, it may be extended equally well to new residential and commercial buildings.

2018-2021

TripleA-reno will focus on following market barriers for deep renovation: 1The renovation market is top-down and supply-driven, with a mismatch between the offered products and packages and the end-users’ requirements 2 There is no view on the total performances in practice (energy, indoor environmental quality, health and well-being), as well as a solid quality control of the renovation process 3 After the renovation process there is a lack of data on the real building performance in practice, on energy, IEQ and health. Many European projects have addressed these barriers. The overall aim is to make acceptation and decision making on deep and nZE renovation attractive for consumers and end-users

2016-2024

CINELDI enables a cost-efficient realisation of the future flexible and robust electricity distribution system by developing new concepts, technologies and solutions. By providing new visionary smart grid-solutions and testing them in laboratory and real-life environments, the knowledge and experience gained helps grid companies, the system operator, manufacturers and ICT companies to develop and integrate new technologies and work processes, stimulating innovations. These innovations will in turn contribute to a more sustainable energy system by increasing influx of renewables, electrification of transport and more efficient energy use. To achieve this, the digitalisation of the distribution system is needed. Long-term research is needed in order to digitalise the electricity grid and make the necessary transformation of the grid for the future. This will pave the ground for increased distributed generation from renewable resources, electrification of transport, and more efficient energy use.

2011 – 2019

CenSES was a national research centre for environmentally friendly energy (FME Community). CenSES was established in 2011 and lastet until 2019. All research at the centre was conducted in close cooperation between international and national researchers, and public and private decision-makers. CenSES’ research objective was to conduct research that supported public and private decision makers in strategic decisions and policies that could promote environment-friendly energy technologies and lead to a sustainable energy system. The main objective was to strengthen the understanding of the economic, political, social and cultural aspects of the development and introduction of renewable energy and environmental technology.

2019-2023

The overall goal of the TRI-HP project is the development and demonstration of flexible energy-efficient and affordable trigeneration systems. The systems will be based on electrically driven natural refrigerant heat pumps coupled with renewable electricity generators (PV), using cold (ice slurry), heat and electricity storages to provide heating, cooling and electricity to multi-family residential buildings with a self-consumed renewable share of 80%. TRI-HP systems will include advanced controls, managing electricity, heat and cold in a way that optimizes the performance of the system and increases its reliability via failure self-detection. The flexibility will be achieved by allowing for three heat sources: solar (with ice/water as storage medium), ground and ambient air. The innovations proposed will reduce the system cost by at least 10-15% compared to current heat pump technologies with equivalent energetic performances.

2015-2018

The project aimed at closing the identified gaps by five central research innovations: 1) data gathering on energy savings and technology costs per EU country for the most relevant 20 to 30 energy efficiency measures in the residential, commercial, industrial and transport sectors, 2) developing adequate methodologies for benefit quantification, monetisation and aggregation, 3) quantifying the most important multiple benefits and where adequate, monetising, 4) developing an openly available calculation tool that greatly simplifies the evaluation of co-impacts for specific energy efficiency measures to enable decision-making and 5) developing a simple online visualisation tool for customisable graphical analysis and assessment of multiple benefits and data exportation.

2016 – 2019

SET-Nav supported strategic decision making in Europe’s energy sector, enhancing innovation towards a clean, secure and efficient energy system. The research enabled the European Commission, national governments and regulators to facilitate the development of optimal technology portfolios by market actors. SET-Nav comprehensively addressed critical uncertainties and derive appropriate policy and market responses. The findings supported the further development of the SET-Plan and its implementation by continuous stakeholder involvement.

2017-2019

Our current electrical infrastructure face several challenges in the coming years, one being a greater share of renewable energies, another is aging infrastructure. These challenges should be resolved in a cost-efficient manner.Renewable energies set higher demands to system resilience and flexibility, as we deal with intermittent energy resources, and it is oftentimes produced locally in the distribution grid. New system infrastructure is very expensive, urging for better use of existing infrastructure in conjunction with new inexpensive technologies. INVADE seeked to solve these issues by combining already existing technologies into a new framework. At the core is a cloud-based flexibility management system integrated with electric vehicles (EVs) and batteries empowering energy storage to increase the share of renewables in the smart grid. Additionally, smart control of domestic appliances will aid in load-balancing over the course of a day.

2016 – 2019

ECHOES was a multi-disciplinary research project providing policy makers with comprehensive information, data, and policy-ready recommendations about the successful implementation of the Energy Union and SET plan. Individual and collective energy choices and social acceptance of energy transitions were analysed in a multi-disciplinary process including key stakeholders as co-constructors of the knowledge. To account for the rich contexts in which individuals and collectives administer their energy choices, ECHOES utilizsed three complementary perspectives: 1) individual decision-making as part of collectives, 2) collectives constituting energy cultures and life-styles, and (3) formal social units such as municipalities and states.

2017-2021

FLEXCoop equiped energy cooperatives with innovative tools to exploit consumers' flexibility as dynamic Virtual Power Plants (VPPs) providing balancing and ancillary resources toward grid stability and alleviation of network constraints. FLEXCoop brought together a range of baseline technologies to build an open and interoperable Demand Response optimisation framework includes a fully-fledged tool suite for energy cooperatives (aggregators) and prosumers involved in the Demand Response value chain.

2017-2021

M-BENEFITS aims at including the multiple benefits of energy efficiency in investment decisions of companies and thereby substantially increasing the deployment of cost-effective energy saving potentials. It contributes to the work programme by delivering best-practice examples, tools and trainings on the importance of MBs for investment decisions in companies, thereby addressing all relevant decision-makers.

2017-2020

iBROAD explored, designed, developed and demonstrated the concept of individual building renovation roadmaps (iBROAD), as a tool outlining deep step-by-step renovation plans with customised recommendations for individual buildings (iBROAD-Plan), combined with a repository of building-related information (logbook, iBROAD- Log). The iBROAD approach is an evolution of EPC and energy audit systems, aiming to become a real driver for renovation. The project analysed and built upon relevant examples in Germany, France and Flanders, to identify the elements, develop an integrated concept, and produce modular tools, suitable for differing national conditions. The iBROAD innovative concept and tools were tested in Bulgaria, Poland, Portugal and Germany.

2016 – 2019

MEDNICE was an umbrella project on energy efficiency of public buildings in the Mediterranean area, covering 13 countries from Portugal to Cyprus. MEDNICE bundled the experience of 10 projects that were funded in the framework of the same Interreg Mediterranean programme. They all tackled the same challenge: In the Mediterranean area cooling (and heating) as well as low building standards induce high consumption and expenses. And this, even though a wealth of natural resources and a conducive climate do provide excellent conditions for greening residential and public buildings.

2015-2019

INCITE (Innovative controls for renewable source integration into smart energy systems) is Marie Sklodowska-Curie European Training Network (ITN-ETN) funded by the HORIZON 2020 Programme that brought together experts on control and power systems, from academia and industry with the aim of training fourteen young researchers capable of providing innovative control solutions for the future electrical networks.

2016-2019

The SmartNet project aimed to provide optimised instruments and modalities to improve the coordination between the grid operators at national and local level (respectively the TSOs and DSOs) and the exchange of information for monitoring and for the acquisition of ancillary services (reserve and balancing, voltage balancing control, congestion management) from subjects located in the distribution segment (flexible load and distributed generation).

2017-2020

NEWCOM was a European-wide project developing on the one hand training schemes to enable construction workers and building professionals to build the nearly zero-energy building (nZEB) standard and on the other hand a basis for the mutual recognition of the developed training schemes.

2015-2019

BRESAER developed a cost-effective, adaptable and industrialized “envelope system” for buildings refurbishment. The BRESAER’s envelope (for façades and roofs) included a combination of active and passive pre-fabricated solutions that were integrated in a versatile lightweight structural mesh. This new technology was expected to significantly reduce the building’s primary energy consumption and the Greenhouse emissions while improving indoor environment quality through thermal, acoustic, lighting comfort and air quality at the same time.

2019-2022

ENTRAIN wants to encourage the adoption of a systematic and efficient energy planning able to reduce the local carbon footprint, intensifying the use of RES. The two main goals: CO2 emissions reduction and the resulting improvement of the local air quality, alongside socio-economic benefits for local communities of the 5 key regions in Italy, Germany, Croatia, Slovenia, Poland.

2020-2023

The ebalance-plus project aims to increase and predict the available energy flexibility of distribution grids and increase grid resilience. This is done by developing and deploying an energy-balancing platform that integrates technologies from various electricity domains, enhances grid observability and predictability, and at the same time supports electric operators and energy end-users with tailored user interfaces.

2018-2021

SMARTEES is a transdisciplinary research project which aims to support the energy transition and improve policy design by developing alternative and robust policy pathways that foster citizen inclusion and take local peculiarities into account.

2019-2023

The StepUP project is developing new technologies and solutions to make building renovation more attractive and affordable. To achieve this, StepUP uses continuous feedback loops and promotes an iterative deep energy renovation approach, based on data insights, which minimises performance gaps, reduces investment risks, minimises disruption and positively impacts on energy costs, Indoor Environmental Quality (IEQ) and comfort. StepUP will offer a real opportunity to reach NZEBs, by developing a non-intrusive, quick and reliable deep renovation intervention solution that will minimise the duration of onsite works and the risk of installation errors.

2017-2021

RenoZEB aims to unlock the nearly Zero Energy Building (nZEB) renovation market by increasing property value through a new systemic approach to retrofitting. This will include innovative components, and processes and decision making methodologies to guide all value-chain actors in the nZEB building renovation action. RenoZEB will provide cost-effective 'plug and play' solutions for a large-scale deep nZEB rehabilitation schemes, ensuring the integrate-ability of all its components, methodologies, training, guidelines, and demonstration cases. The real and virtual demonstration cases will show and ensure the replicability of the schemes and technical tools to appropriately address the valorisation of the building stock before and after nZEB renovation schemes are applied.

2014-2017

The SmartReFlex project aims at increasing the diffusion of smart and flexible district heating and cooling (DHC) systems, basing on high shares of renewable energy sources (RES), in European cities.In order to reach this aim, a mixed project consortium was created, including regional authorities, DHC utilities and consultancy partners, which specific high-level skills on RES DHC and on energy planning at local level.

2017-2020

SABINA aims to develop new technology and financial models to connect, control and actively manage generation and storage assets to exploit synergies between electrical flexibility and the thermal inertia of buildings.

2017-2021

AREA 21 and the follow-up project AREA 21 + action aim to provide local authorities, energy agencies and other institutions responsible for energy planning with the know-how and strategic tools on how to plan and implement new solutions for energy efficiency in urban districts. In AREA 21, the project partners developed the so-called Energy Improvement District (EID) concept as a new format of cooperation between public authorities, energy providers, public property owners and citizens. Such EIDs were conceptualised in seven locations across the Baltic Sea Region. In the follow-up project AREA 21 + action, these EIDs are now put into practice by implementing EID-specific Action Plans.

2015-2020

In ZERO-PLUS, a comprehensive, cost-effective system for Net Zero Energy (NZE) settlements will be developed and implemented. The system will be composed of innovative solutions for the building envelope, for building energy generation and management, and for energy management at the settlement level. A reduction of operational energy usage to an average of 0-20 kWh/m2 per year (compared with the current average of 70-230 kWh/m2) will be achieved through a transition from single NZE buildings to NZE settlements, in which the energy loads and resources are optimally managed.

2020-2024

The aim of Annex 83 is developing an in-depth definition of PED and the technologies, planning tools and planning and the decision-making process related to positive energy districts. Experience and data to be used in the Annex will be gained from demonstration cases.

2012-2015

Back in 2012, Member States were working on new definitions and a framework to promote nearly-Zero Energy Buildings, with the EPBD and EED implementation already underway. Within this context, Housing Europe, with the support of the Intelligent Energy-Europe programme, kicked off the ‘POWER HOUSE nearly-Zero Energy Challenge!' initiative, to provide a structure for a pan-EU knowledge exchange between housing practitioners to learn from each other about the practical implications and costs of ambitious energy performance codes and to inform Policy Makers of the outcomes of this exchange.

2019-2024

ATELIER is a smart city project that demonstrates Positive Energy Districts (PEDs) within 8 European cities with sustainability and carbon neutrality as guiding ambitions. Amsterdam and Bilbao are the Lighthouse cities that will generate an energy surplus of 1340 MWh of primary energy, prevent 1,7 kt of CO2- and 23 t of NOx-emissions, and invest 156 mln Euros to realise their PEDs. Together with district users, ATELIER will showcase innovative solutions that integrate buildings with smart mobility and energy technologies to create a surplus of energy and balance the local energy system. Bratislava, Budapest, Copenhagen, Krakow, Matosinhos, and Riga are the Fellow cities that will replicate and adapt successful solutions.

2019-2023

The project will train 15 students using an innovative doctoral training programme that incorporates deep training in their individual subjects, with the ability to understand and engage with the needs of citizens and communities, the needs and opportunities available from scientists in different disciplines. In addition, they will have the opportunity to work through a collaborative research programme with those who produce the technologies necessary for PEDs, and work with the policymakers who can facilitate these new and exciting opportunities to generate new knowledge, influence and promote the development of PEDs.

2017-2020

RESPOND aims at deploying and demonstrating an interoperable, cost effective, user centred solution, entailing energy automation, control and monitoring tools, for a seamless integration of cooperative DR programs into the legacy energy management systems. In this endeavour, RESPOND will be leveraged upon an integrated approach for real-time optimal energy dispatching, taking into account both supply and demand side, while exploiting all energy assets available at the site.

2018-2021

RECO2ST addresses the challenges of nZEB refurbishment through a systemic 3 step approach: Initially a Refurbishment Assessment Tool (RAT) will be deployed to create refurbishment scenarios, empowering the decision making of the building owner, public or private. Second, Action Plans for the renovation will be formed through Integrated Project Delivery (IPD) and finally a refurbishment package of innovative and customizable technologies will be installed (Retrofit-Kit) for personalized renovation.

2019-2023

The overall objective of WEDISTRICT is to demonstrate DHC as an integrated solution that exploits the combination of RES, thermal storage and waste heat recycling technologies to satisfy 100% of the heating and cooling energy demand in new DHC and up to 60-100% in retrofitted DHC. For this purpose, WEDISTRICT will create innovative solutions, which will integrate multiple sources of renewable energy and excess heat available locally, advanced thermal storage based on molten salts as well as smart technologies to increase the operational efficiency of the systems. There are many examples of technologies that were not adopted by the market due to social resistance, therefore to ensure a successful deployment of innovative technologies based on the renewables, the needs of the end-users directly affected by the technologies, their awareness about different aspects of energy efficiency and their possible bias will be taken into account and addressed in an awareness campaign.

2018-2023

MAKING CITY aims to address and demonstrate the urban energy system transformation towards smart and low-carbon cities, based on the Positive Energy District (PED) concept.Today cities have an essential role to play in tackling climate change by significantly reducing their carbon emissions. The PED operational models developed in MAKING-CITY will help European and other cities around the world to adopt a long-term City Vision 2050 for energy transition and sustainable urbanisation whilst turning citizens into actors of this transformation.

2019-2024

POCITYF is a smart city project that will help historical cities to become greener, smarter and more livable while respecting their cultural heritage. By implementing and testing Positive Energy District in its cities, POCITYF will support Europe in the race to become the first Carbon Neutral Continent by 2050.

2019-2024

SPARCS is a smart city project working to create a network of Sustainable energy Positive & zero cARbon CommunitieS in two lighthouse and five fellow cities. The overall goal of SPARCS is to demonstrate and validate innovative solutions for planning, deploying and rolling out smart and integrated energy systems that will transform cities into sustainable, citizen-centred, zero carbon ecosystems that offer a high quality of life for all urban dwellers.

2017-2021

The main objective of the REZBUILD project is to develop one refurbishment ecosystem based on the integration of cost-effective technologies, business models and life cycle interaction for deep NZEB renovation to diverse residential renovation typologies and interconnecting both, building renovation stages and stakeholders.

2016-2025

In EERA JP Smart Cities, universities and research institutes from across Europe cooperate with industry, cities and citizens to support innovation and demonstration projects with knowledge-based experimentation, applied and fundamental research, to deliver quality and impact, and to ensure scalability and replicability of locally developed and tested solutions/processes. Building on the experiences from H2020 smart city lighthouse projects, and corresponding national/regional initiatives, EERA JP Smart Cities plays a defining role in the European research and innovation landscape on smart cities, as key drivers towards a climate-neutral Europe and world. From 2016 to 2018, EERA JPSC contributed to the development of the SET-Plan Action 3.2 Implementation Plan (see Annex 1), as part of the Temporary Working Group. In addition to being part of the core group for writing the document, EERA JPSC contributed with 2 commitments (pages 28-29). In line with the development of an Implementation Working Group led by BMVIT, and management responsibility delegated to JPI UE, EERA JPSC further proposed to develop a R&I Agenda in support of SET-Plan Action 3.2’s aim to develop 100 Positive Energy Districts by 2025.

2017-2020

NERO develops and demonstrates technical solutions, which significantly reduce the costs of new nearly Zero-Energy Wooden Buildings and districts compared to the current situation. On site and nearby renewable energy system solutions are studied in order to provide real addition of renewable energy production and to provide solutions, which are optimal on local grid and energy system level.

2015-2019

GrowSmarter aimed to improve the quality of life for European citizens by better mobility, housing and the quality of urban infrastructure while improving the citizens economy by lower energy costs and creating as much as 1500 new jobs (on the demonstration level); reduce the environmental impact by lower energy needs by 60 % and increased use of renewable energy thus reducing GHG emissions even more; create sustainable economic development by demonstrating and preparing a wider rollout of smart solutions. Developing low energy districts was the first of 3 action areas on which the GrowSmarter project focused.

2017-2024

The ZEN Research Centre conducts research on zero emission neighbourhoods (ZEN) in smart cities. Their goal is to develop solutions for future buildings and neighbourhoods with no greenhouse gas emissions, and thereby contribute to a low carbon society. The centre consists of a consortium of 33 partners covering the entire value chain: research institutes, local and regional governments, property owners, developers, consultants and architects, ICT companies, contractors, energy companies, manufacturers of materials and products and governmental organisations. Together, we develop nine pilot projects where we test new solutions and technologies for reducing carbon emissions in neighbourhoods.

2020 - 2024

EXCESS merges technical concepts for Positive Energy Buildings with new opportunities for the production of renewable energy and self-consumption, as provided by the EU Clean Energy Package. In addition to driving forward the development of building materials to enable PEBs in diverse climatic conditions, a key focus of EXCESS lies on facilitating the integration of building technologies. In this context project partners explore [1] challenges and opportunities associated with upgrading single technologies within existing building systems; [2] enabling factors for local energy trading and [3] new services to grid operators or utilities. By facilitating technological integration, lifetime costs of PEBs can be effectively reduced, making them affordable to larger portions of the society. The project’s ambitions are reflected in the demonstration cases in Europe’s four main climate zones

2018 - 2023

+CityxChange will introduce strategies that will foster the uptake of Positive Energy Blocks (PEBs) at urban level. In particular, the project will work on the definition of systemic solutions for implementing positive energy neighbourhoods, called building blocks in the project, and analysing the impact at urban scale within several European cities. The project will also work on the definition of recommendations for new policy interventions, market regulation and business models to foster the positive energy targets at building at neighbourhood scale. In particular, the project involves cities in Norway, Ireland, Romania, Czech Republic, Spain, Bulgaria, and Estonia that will implement the innovative technical and policy recommendations developed.

2020 - 2024

The Cultural-E goal is going a step beyond Nearly Zero Energy Buildings (nZEBs) towards the future of Plus Energy Buildings (PEBs). The team is approaching this topic by looking at climate and cultural differences in the use of residential buildings around Europe. By the end of the five years the project will have built four new Plus Energy Buildings in France, Germany, Italy and Norway. Cultural-E will also produce design tools, smart technologies, methodologies and policy recommendations, freely available for all stakeholders along the value chain.