IRIS is a HORIZON 2020 EU funded project beginning October 2017 for a duration of five years.
The project has been developed around three lighthouse cities - Utrecht (The Netherlands, coordinator), Nice (France), and Gothenburg (Sweden) - who will work as collaborators and test-beds for follower cities Vaasa (Finland), Alexandroupolis (Greece), Santa Cruz de Tenerife (Spain) and Focsani (Romania).
Each city will draw upon a mix of universities and research organisations, local authorities, innovation agencies and private expertise to accelerate entire communities to adopt ambitious energy, mobility and ICT initiatives.
Looking back over our first full year, IRIS Smart Cities is proving to be a dynamic collective, confident in its ability to deliver on a promise: to ‘make urban environments better places for citizens and the planet’. Project manager Roel Massink shares a few highlights…
In Riksbyggen's Housing Association (Brf) Viva in Gothenburg a unique system is being tested, where energy from solar cells on the rooftops of the buildings is stored in used electric bus batteries from Line 55. The energy storage creates flexibility in energy consumption and the power peaks of the buildings are cut. The energy storage also helps to streamline the surrounding power grid in the city. The project is a cooperation between Riksbyggen, Volvo, Göteborg Energi and Johanneberg Science Park.
Things are moving fast for the island’s capital, with announcements in November 2018 of 50 new electric vehicle recharging points, seven new electric buses and a bioclimatic building. Beyond announcements though, Santa Cruz is diligently working ensure these projects are taken up widely by citizens and create the ambitious economic and environmental sustainability desired.