CARTIF hosts the kick-off meeting of the NEUTRALPATH project, a pioneer European initiative to prove the deployment of Positive and Clean Energy Districts (PCED) in cities is fundamental to way towards to the climate-neutrality in time horizon 2030. The proposal, EU-funded in the framework of the European Climate Neutral and Smart Cities Mission, has met the partners in the centre’s facilities located in the Boecillo Technology Park (Valladolid, Spain), as coordinator of the project.
The project integrates five European cities, with Zaragoza (Spain) and Dresden Germany) as Lighthouse Cities, and Estambul (Turkey), Gante (Belgium) and Vantaa (Finland) in its role as Partner Cities. During the project, it will create in each city an Urban laboratory of Climate-Neutrality (CN-labs) designed to catalyse the co-creation processes with the collaboration of all the stakeholders involved in urban transformation processes.
Through this collaborative project, the 25 partners of NEUTRALPATH project consortium, coordinated by CARTIF, will work over the next 5 years to transfer the concept, strategies and technologies necessaries for the achievement of Positive and Clean Energy Districts to more cities, also working together to improve governance processes, and assessing the conditions to ensure scalability and replicability for future scenarios.
To achieve this aim, Zaragoza and Dresden, as Lighthouse Cities, co-design, implement and evaluate the transformation of two urban areas in Positive and Clean Energy Districts. To this end, comprehensive actions will be deployed to reduce building demand, improve system efficiency, integrate on-site renewable energy systems, manage demand and grid flexibility and incorporate electric vehicle charging solutions into the systems. The aim to generate two districts that, in their annual balance, produce more energy than they consume.
In addition, the project will establish a direct connection and a close collaboration framework with the other European initiatives working in this area and, in particular, with the NetZeroCities Cities Mission platform, contributing to one of its main initiatives such as the creation of the City Climate Contracts. These contracts are convinced as instruments to catalyse urban plans for climate neutrality in all sectors such as energy, buildings, waste management and transport and the corresponding investment plans.