Nottingham University and the City Council are taking part in a European Union funded programme INSMART to build on the city’s Energy Strategy.
Already a leading city in the UK when it comes to sustainable energy creation, this project will further support Nottingham’s push to meet its 2020 targets to reduce carbon dioxide emissions by 26% and have 20% of the city’s energy generated from renewable and low carbon sources.
The project involves four European Cities working in partnership with six academic and technical organisations to develop a better understanding of each city’s energy generating potential and demand to plan a sustainable energy future for each city.
The energy used across Nottingham by transport, households and businesses and for public services such as street lighting and waste collections will be analysed so more sustainable energy processes can be developed. This will enable the council to reduce the impact of fuel price increases and create a more robust and sustainable energy generation and distribution system to meet the 2020 targets and beyond.
The project will develop a tool for better forecasting of the costs and benefits of new low carbon initiatives in the city so more city specific information is available at the time of commissioning new projects. In early 2016 the project team will run a series of workshops to gather feedback from residents and organisations as to what low carbon initiatives they would like to see developed in the city. Feedback gathered and the results of the project will inform the next Energy Strategy for the city.
The project is part the EU’s family of Smart City projects and this is the second of such projects that Nottingham is currently involved with. The city has also secured REMOURBAN funding of £5m to improve energy performance of homes, establish new low-carbon transport and implement smart technologies which will be the subject of international research.
Councillor Alan Clark, Nottingham City Council’s Portfolio Holder for Energy and Sustainability, said: “A key aim of the Council is to reduce the cost of energy for our citizens and public buildings. To be able to meet this pledge it is vital that we have a clear understanding of how we currently use energy as a city and what we need to do to be more energy efficient. This project has not only brought in funding to the city so we can embark on this research but also brought expertise to the city from industry experts across Europe. Our involvement in Smart City projects ensures that Nottingham has a leading part to play as Europe plans for a more sustainable energy future.”
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For further information please contact Ruth Stallwood, Nottingham City Council Communications Team, on 0115 876 2900 or by email at ruth.stallwood@nottinghamcity.gov.uk
A smart city uses digital technologies or information and communication technologies (ICT) to enhance quality and performance of urban services, to reduce costs and resource consumption, and to engage more effectively and actively with its citizens. Sectors that have been developing smart city technology include Government services, transport and traffic management, energy, health care, water and waste. Smart city applications are developed with the goal of improving the management of urban flows and allowing for real time responses to challenges. A smart city may therefore be more prepared to respond to challenges than one with a simple ‘transactional’ relationship with its citizens.
INSMART is a three year, European funded project which involves four European Cities working in partnership towards a sustainable energy future. The project started in December 2013 and will last for three years.
The InSMART project brings together cities, scientific and industrial organisations to implement a comprehensive model for enhancing sustainable planning, addressing the current and future city energy needs through an integrative and multidisciplinary planning approach. This approach will identify the optimum mix of short, medium and long term measures for a sustainable energy future, addressing the efficiency of energy flows across various city sectors with regards to economic, environmental and social criteria and paving the way towards actual implementation of priority actions.
This project has received funding from the European Union’s Seventh Framework Programme for research, technological development and demonstration under grant agreement no 314164 (ENER/FP7/314164).
https://www.insmartenergy.com/
REMOURBAN consortium is composed of 22 partners across seven different countries: five cities, three research institutions, five large industries and nine SMEs, with a funding of 25m Euros. As well as the three core cities of Nottingham, Valladolid and Tepebassi, there are two follower cities Seraing (Belgium) and Miskolc (Hungary) which will demonstrate how to replicate and learn from the findings.
The main objective of Remourban is to develop a model that leverages the convergence of: (i) sustainable districts and built environment, (ii) sustainable urban mobility and (iii) integration of city infrastructures and processes to achieve carbon reductions, improve the quality of life for the citizens and regenerate the economy. This will be facilitated through: management and governance systems; financial models and evaluation frameworks to achieve this convergence.
The project will run for five years (2015-20) starting by obtaining city audits, to ascertain the current situation and understand the level of achievements at the end of the project. It then designs innovative solutions, and implements them. It finally assesses the results and fine tunes the interventions.