Under the coordination of TECNALIA Research & Innovation, 35 partners from six countries joined forces to make Smart Zero Carbon Cities a reality in Europe, funded by the European Commission, under Horizon 2020.
SmartEnCity’s main objective was to develop a highly adaptable and replicable systemic approach for transforming European cities into sustainable, smart and resource-efficient urban environments. This has been achieved through the integrated planning and implementation of measures aimed at improving energy efficiency in main consuming sectors in cities, while increasing their supply of renewable energy and demonstrating the benefits.
The underlying concept was the Smart Zero Carbon City concept, where city carbon footprint and energy demand were kept to a minimum by using demand-control technologies that save energy and promote raised awareness. At the same time, the energy supply was entirely renewable and clean and local energy resources are intelligently managed by aware citizens, as well as coordinated public and private stakeholders.
This approach has initially been defined in detail, planned and implemented in the three Lighthouse Cities:
- Vitoria-Gasteiz in Spain
- Tartu in Estonia and
- Sonderborg in Denmark.
