Last 23rd of May, MAKING-CITY project partners met in Follower City Bassano del Grappa, Italy for the project’s 10th plenary meeting. The partners were so thrilled to meet again, for lovely and productive time.
Held at the Civic Museum of Bassano del Grappa, the meeting began with a warm welcome from representatives from the city, an overview of the project status and work package presentations of the actions achieved in the past six months.
The afternoon was filled with workshops focused on building PED business models, techno-economic analysis of the interventions in Groningen and on factsheets content on PED development, needs and messages.
The busy afternoon ended with a technical visit to BAXI headquarters, a guided factory and R&D lab tour. Afterwards, partners walked around the city and met once for dinner to celebrate the end of the 10th project meeting.
Partners had lovely, productive time in Bassano del Grappa and look forward to meeting again at the first Innovation Camp in Oulu next fall in October as you will discover thereafter !
BREAKING NEWS
Innovation Camp in Oulu 16th-17th November 2023
Introducing POWER UP YOUR CITY: A summit on policy guidelines for Positive Energy Districts
Join us for the POWER UP YOUR CITY summit in Oulu, Finland on 16-17 November 2023. This exclusive Making City event is dedicated to policy guidelines for Positive Energy Districts (PEDs) and is aimed at professionals implementing carbon-free energy solutions. Learn from Oulu, our lighthouse city, and gain valuable insights into PEDs implementation, best practices and lessons learned. Our goal is to equip participants with the knowledge and tools they need to lead their cities into a new, more sustainable energy era. Save the date and more details on the venue and agenda will be published soon.
On Friday 24 March, the first Dutch solar footpath at the Europapark district (PED South) was opened by Alderman for Energy Transition, Philip Broeksma. The path was implemented and funded as part of the MAKING-CITY project, with an area of 400 m2 and an estimated capacity of 53,000 kWh per year. This action looks differently at open areas in the city and contributes to the city’s ambition to be CO2 neutral by 2035. Currently, the path is connected to the monitoring and the data will be investigated and compared with other similar technologies.
MAKING-CITY as the chair of board of coordinators until April, participated and co lead the Scalable Cities and MAtchUP Valencia Joint Event on March 29 – 30. The event served to identify and promote energy solutions and business models that can be scaled up and replicated across Europe and generate measurable results.
Project partners participated in a number of panels and discussions around how to scale up technologies and solutions, the recently opened solar footpath in Groningen, and energy refurbishment business models.
MAKING-CITY took part of the SUSTAINABLE PLACES 2023 in Madrid
MAKING-CITY was involved in the "Urban Transition" workshop that was conducted on Thursday 15.06.2023, at 11.00 - 12.30 titled "Energy Transition in the Northern Netherlands : Seeking a balance between top-down and and bottom-up initiatives" and presented by Dr. Ir. Ifigenia Psarra, Msc Bas Oldenbroek, Dr. Tineke van der Schoor and Dr. Cyril Tjahja from Hanze University of Applied Sciences, Groningen - Research Centre for Built Environment NooderRuimte.
International Conference New Pathways for a Just and Inclusive Energy Transition
The Conferencewasorganizedby the University of Groningen and Hanze University of Applied Sciences in the Energy Academy Building, one of the buildings that is part of PED North. Central idea of the conference was to explore new pathways for connecting actors, levels of governance, institutions, and technical domains, to achieve energy transition. The MAKING-CITY project was part of a special session on Integrated Urban and Regional Energy Planning. In a special session on Positive Energy Districts, Ifigenia Psarra (HUAS) presented on the experiences of co-creating a PED with citizens using the integrated energy landscape approach in Hoogkerk, one of Groningen’s neighbourhoods.
Other sessions zoomed in on other aspects of MAKING-CITY such as ongoing work on energy poverty in relation to the urban financial metabolism, based on the results of a study done by UG, NEC and TNO.
In addition to these academic sessions an excursion to PED North and PED South was organized.
Association of Dutch municipalities held in Groningen on June 13.
On Tuesday, June 13th, the yearly congress of the Association of Dutch municipalities (Vereniging van Nederlandse Gemeenten, VNG) was held in Groningen. At this event mayors, aldermen and councilors from around the Netherlands come together to discuss all kind of developments within the municipal policy areas. In the afternoon, various workshops were organized, including a Workshop on MAKING-CITY organized by Elisabeth Koops (Groningen municipality) and Jannes Kalfsbeek (New Energy Coalition).
The New Energy Forum in Groningen, gathering a panel on Energy Poverty in the Netherlands, was organized as an initiative of the MAKING-CITY project, by Jannes Kalfsbeek from New Energy Coalition. The speakers were Christian Zuidema (University of Groningen), Karin Hoogterp (Grunneger Power), Bert Horst (Municipality of Groningen), Wiebo Lamain (Hanzehogeschool), Martijn de Vries (New Energy Coalition). During the discussion, the speakers addressed the topic of energy poverty, presented the current situation in the Netherlands, its impact on the energy transition and ways to address it. The panel concluded with an introduction to the soon-to-be-published Magazine on Energy transition as a social process.
EU Commission visited the MAKING-CITY demo house in Groningen
On July 5, a delegation from the European Commission led by Patrick Child (Deputy Director General, DG Environment & Mission manager for the Climate-Neutral and Smart Cities Mission) visited Groningen. The theme of the trip was a social matter - communication with residents and the citizens' engagement. The program included visits to several districts of the city. One of them was a visit to the 4th demonstration house of the MAKING-CITY project in the Paddepoel district (PED North). The project part and the demohouse experience were presented by Katerina Radosteva (Municipality of Groningen), Richard Hesling (Grunneger Power), and Lisetthe (a resident of the IV demohouse).
3rd to 5th October in Trondheim for a series of insightful sessions on the future of Positive Energy Districts and communities.
As a combined event with Scalable Cities, there will also be opportunities to learn from other Smart Cities and Communities projects. Discover innovative approaches, exchange knowledge, and be part of a vibrant community committed to shaping the cities of tomorrow.
Over the course of three days, dozens of representatives of Central European cities and municipalities and leaders in innovation will meet to share solutions on how to properly develop the concept of Smart City in cities for citizens to live better in them.
Held in Barcelona, Smart City Expo World Congress is the international leading event for cities. Its mission is to empower cities and collectivize urban innovation across the globe. Through promoting social innovation and identifying collaboration opportunities, the event is dedicated to creating a better future for cities and their citizens.
The MAKING-CITY consortium brings together expertise from 34 partners: 9 city councils, 5 universities, 4 research centres, 4 clusters and foundations, 4 rental housing administrators, 4 SMEs, 3 energy companies, and one construction firm.
