European cooperation for improved energy planning

Integrative energy planning of urban development areas: joint learning for improved governance.

URBAN LEARNING unites capital cities and other major European cities with the shared challenges of substantial population growth and ambitious targets for reducing fossil fuel consumption and CO₂emissions.

Vienna, Berlin, Paris, Stockholm, Amsterdam/Zaanstad, Warsaw and Zagreb are seeking to improve their local authorities’ competence in integrative urban energy planning, as a reaction to the new challenges arising from the EU Buildings and Renewable Energy Directives and to changes in technologies and market conditions, as well as the pressure to create an adequate supply of affordable housing.

The focus is on governance in connection with specific urban development areas. While some cities have already begun ambitious urban development projects, there is a lack of institutionalisation of their experiences.

The main emphasis is on multidisciplinary learning about innovative technological solutions, instruments and tools, and about innovative governance elements – and on using what has been learned to institutionalise integrative urban energy planning. In all cities, the work is centred around working groups that span departments and institutions.

An improvement to governance processes is expected to have a considerable impact on the energy consumption of the homes to be built or renovated, and the jobs to be created, for more than three million people who will arrive in the participating cities over the next twenty years: more than 1,700 GWh per annum in energy savings and over 2,000 GWh per annum of renewable energies used.

The project is considered to represent direct support for and consolidation of the area of energy planning in Vienna’s STEP 2025 urban development plan, enabling a wide range of international experience to be drawn on. This project is being led by the Energy Center, and the department responsible within the local authority is the municipal department for energy planning (MA20). The consortium is made up of cities and supporting energy agencies.

Contact

UIV Urban Innovation Vienna GmbH

E-Mail: office@urbaninnovation.at

Website: Urban Learning

running time: 03/2015 – 08/2017

Project partners: Magistrat der Stadt Wien (AT), Berliner Energieagentur GmbH (DE), Ville de Paris (FR), Agence Parisienne du Climat (FR), Stockholm Stad (SE), Grad Zagreb (HR), Energetski Institut Hrvoje Pozar (HR), Miasto Stołeczne Warszawa (PL), Gemeente Amsterdam (NL) and Gemeente Zaanstad (NL)

financed by: EU, Horizon 2020 Energy