• Energy Research

This paper gives insight about EU project URBAN LEARNING (H2020 energy call) which began in March 2015 and will be concluded in August 2017. The article carries out the idea and structure, first results and expected outcomes. The project includes seven capital cities across Europe (Vienna, Berlin, Paris, Stockholm, Amsterdam, Warsaw and Zagreb) and the city of Zaanstad (NL) which all face the challenge of considerable population growth while being committed to significantly reduce fossil energy consumption and CO2 emissions. E.g. Stockholm grew by more than 12.000 people/a (1.5%) ; in the next 10 years Vienna has to build for 200.000 new people. Efficient and effective planning processes will be crucial for addressing this challenge. The project cities aim to enhance the capacity of their local authorities on integrative urban energy planning in response to new challenges from EU EPBD (Directive 2002/91/EC and 2010/31/EC), EED (Directive 2012/27/EU) and RES (Directive 2009/28/EC) directives as well as to changes of technologies and market conditions and the pressure to provide sufficient, affordable housing. The project emphasizes governance processes related to the (re-)development of urban areas. While some cities already started ambitious urban development projects, the institutionalisation of these experiences is missing. The cities are aware and willing, but lack of knowledge, lack of time and sometimes less collaboration across city departments impair this development. External stimulus is needed to overcome these barriers. Project partners address these issues collectively with key stakeholders, such as network operators and energy suppliers and share their findings amongst all cities. Focus is on multi-disciplinary learning - the project concentrates on innovative technological solutions, instruments and tools and most importantly focuses on innovative governance elements. This will provide potential approaches toward integrative urban energy planning. Developed tools and process improvements will also be implemented in the inner circle of smaller cities under the guidance of each national partner. In each city a local working group, comprised of experts of various city departments and stakeholders involved in the planning processes, was installed. These groups will help to ensure the implementation of results and outcomes.

This paper gives insight about EU project URBAN LEARNING (H2020 energy call) which began in March 2015 and will be concluded in August 2017. The article carries out the idea and structure, first results and expected outcomes. The project includes seven capital cities across Europe (Vienna, Berlin, Paris, Stockholm, Amsterdam, Warsaw and Zagreb) and the city of Zaanstad (NL) which all face the challenge of considerable population growth while being committed to significantly reduce fossil energy consumption and CO2 emissions. E.g. Stockholm grew by more than 12.000 people/a (1.5%) ; in the next 10 years Vienna has to build for 200.000 new people. Efficient and effective planning processes will be crucial for addressing this challenge. The project cities aim to enhance the capacity of their local authorities on integrative urban energy planning in response to new challenges from EU EPBD (Directive 2002/91/EC and 2010/31/EC), EED (Directive 2012/27/EU) and RES (Directive 2009/28/EC) directives as well as to changes of technologies and market conditions and the pressure to provide sufficient, affordable housing. The project emphasizes governance processes related to the (re-)development of urban areas. While some cities already started ambitious urban development projects, the institutionalisation of these experiences is missing. The cities are aware and willing, but lack of knowledge, lack of time and sometimes less collaboration across city departments impair this development. External stimulus is needed to overcome these barriers. Project partners address these issues collectively with key stakeholders, such as network operators and energy suppliers and share their findings amongst all cities. Focus is on multi-disciplinary learning - the project concentrates on innovative technological solutions, instruments and tools and most importantly focuses on innovative governance elements. This will provide potential approaches toward integrative urban energy planning. Developed tools and process improvements will also be implemented in the inner circle of smaller cities under the guidance of each national partner. In each city a local working group, comprised of experts of various city departments and stakeholders involved in the planning processes, was installed. These groups will help to ensure the implementation of results and outcomes.

This Master’s report analyzes CEPs in two Ontario communities through the lens of a planner, to investigate the role of professional planners in developing these plans. This study will identify the key elements of CEPs, as related to the planner’s role, with the following specific objectives: • Identifying the role of the planner in creating the CEP • Recognizing how land use planning terms and concepts, such as land use, neighbourhoods, transportation and buildings, are incorporated into the documents • Highlighting how planners are contributing to plan implementation • Exploring opportunities and limitations to integrate energy considerations into the practice of professional planners Using a comparative case study approach, this report consists of a literature review, CEP document analysis and interviews with municipal planners and project leads associated with the case study’s CEPs. The case studies include two large cities with CEPs in place that emphasize land use as a determinate of energy usage, London and Windsor, Ontario. CEPs provide an opportunity to incorporate energy planning into the municipal decision-making process to build more efficient, and more sustainable communities. This study is meant to inspire the planning profession to expand its role further into energy planning and to better understand how planners are to work with an increasingly popular, comprehensive form of energy planning.

This Master’s report analyzes CEPs in two Ontario communities through the lens of a planner, to investigate the role of professional planners in developing these plans. This study will identify the key elements of CEPs, as related to the planner’s role, with the following specific objectives: • Identifying the role of the planner in creating the CEP • Recognizing how land use planning terms and concepts, such as land use, neighbourhoods, transportation and buildings, are incorporated into the documents • Highlighting how planners are contributing to plan implementation • Exploring opportunities and limitations to integrate energy considerations into the practice of professional planners Using a comparative case study approach, this report consists of a literature review, CEP document analysis and interviews with municipal planners and project leads associated with the case study’s CEPs. The case studies include two large cities with CEPs in place that emphasize land use as a determinate of energy usage, London and Windsor, Ontario. CEPs provide an opportunity to incorporate energy planning into the municipal decision-making process to build more efficient, and more sustainable communities. This study is meant to inspire the planning profession to expand its role further into energy planning and to better understand how planners are to work with an increasingly popular, comprehensive form of energy planning.

Following the example of national pledges and strategies to tackle climate change, cities are mobilising themselves towards decarbonisation, playing a key role in the achievement of those commitments due to their relevance within national energy systems. However, despite cities ambitions, there is a need for coordinating the efforts from national and local scales in order to ensure the effective fulfilment of energy and climate goals at both levels. In this paper a method for the transposition of national energy planning to the local level is proposed based on the downscaling, adaptation, and allocation of specific targets and energy measures from the national plan to the city scale. The further modelling of downscaled national energy measures allows to quantify the reach of their impacts, thus supporting the establishment of realistic goals aligned with national ones and achieving the effective contribution of urban areas towards higher climate targets. The methodology is demonstrated through the downscaling and comparison of the measures from the Spanish national energy strategy with the ones included in the energy plan of the Spanish city of Valencia. A mismatch between the two is evidenced with some local measures outperforming the national plan, while others proving themselves insufficient. These results show that urban energy planners should consider the real capacities and competences of the city when setting energy measures and goals in accordance with national ones. A correct downscaling and modelling of the former are key in this work. The work supporting this paper was funded by the EU project MAtchUP, that received funding from the European Union's Horizon 2020 research and innovation programmes under grant agreement No. 774477.

Following the example of national pledges and strategies to tackle climate change, cities are mobilising themselves towards decarbonisation, playing a key role in the achievement of those commitments due to their relevance within national energy systems. However, despite cities ambitions, there is a need for coordinating the efforts from national and local scales in order to ensure the effective fulfilment of energy and climate goals at both levels. In this paper a method for the transposition of national energy planning to the local level is proposed based on the downscaling, adaptation, and allocation of specific targets and energy measures from the national plan to the city scale. The further modelling of downscaled national energy measures allows to quantify the reach of their impacts, thus supporting the establishment of realistic goals aligned with national ones and achieving the effective contribution of urban areas towards higher climate targets. The methodology is demonstrated through the downscaling and comparison of the measures from the Spanish national energy strategy with the ones included in the energy plan of the Spanish city of Valencia. A mismatch between the two is evidenced with some local measures outperforming the national plan, while others proving themselves insufficient. These results show that urban energy planners should consider the real capacities and competences of the city when setting energy measures and goals in accordance with national ones. A correct downscaling and modelling of the former are key in this work. The work supporting this paper was funded by the EU project MAtchUP, that received funding from the European Union's Horizon 2020 research and innovation programmes under grant agreement No. 774477.

Cities play a key role in driving the transition to sustainable energy. Urban areas represent between 60% and 80% of global energy consumption and are a significant source of CO2 emissions, making energy management at the urban scale an important area of research. Urban energy systems have a strong influence on the environment, economy, social dimensions and urban spatial planning. Energy consumption affects the urban microclimate, urban comfort, human health, and conversely, urban physical, economic and social characteristics affect the energy urban profile. In order to improve the quality of energy strategies, policies, and plans, local authorities need decision support tools, like energy potential mapping, which have risen significance in the last decades. Energy data are crucial for those tools. They can increase the quality and effectiveness of energy planning but also support the integration between energy and spatial planning. Energy data can also stimulate citizen engagement as well as encourage sustainable behaviours and CO2 emission reduction. This paper aims to increase the practice of data-aware planning, through the study of problems in energy data acquisition and processing observed in European projects focused on developing energy mapping tools. The problems observed attend to two main areas: technical and socio-economic issues. Those were derived from a comparison of energy mapping tools, and the work conducted for the PLANHEAT development. The scope of the research is to understand the main recurring issues in energy data acquisition and processing, in order to overcome the barriers in data availability. Increasing awareness of the relevance of energy data can foster the use of energy mapping tools, increasing the quality of energy policies and planning.