Starting a mission to become climate neutral? Collect inspirational insights, do's - and don'ts - at an EU Regions ‘participatory lab’ dedicated to positive energy districts and innovation ecosystems this 12 October at 16:30 CET.
Project News
How do you make an urban district more sustainable and safer? The Municipality of Utrecht starts a new pilot project, Smart Street Lighting Utrecht, Kanaleneiland-Zuid district. From June 2021, pedestrians can use a new crossing that lights up when you want to cross the road and a car approaches.
Nearly 20 intelligent electric vehicle charging terminals set to integrate into the building’s energy system management at IRIS demo site IMREDD - Université Côte d'Azur.
Three students from the Utrecht University, together with Prof. Mark Sanders, have developed an algorithm that can measure the extent to which a startup, project or existing organization is developing solutions to make a city 'smart'. The method developed by Maaike Hermse, Imke Nijland and Martina Picari was published last week in a Working Paper via the website of the Utrecht University School of Economics and will be submitted for publication in the professional journal "Smart Cities". The Smart City Index will provide cities and municipalities with a tool to quickly recognize and help develop innovation that is useful to them.
In the presence of State Secretary Stientje van Veldhoven, Alderman Eelco Eerenberg and Representative Huib van Essen, Hyundai signed an agreement this morning with strategic partners to make Utrecht the first region in the world with a bidirectional ecosystem. In this ecosystem, the batteries of electric shared cars are used for storage of sustainable energy on a large scale. With the arrival of a commercially available bidirectional car, innovation projects Smart Solar Charging, FLEET and IRIS take an important step towards realization.
We are currently facing many societal challenges, being energy transition a pressing one. We are part of a large H2020 EU project called a Lighthouse project, in which cities in seven countries in Europe bite the bullet to effectuate innovative solutions for energy transition in demo areas in each city. A prime focus in projects like these is solving problems in implementing emerging technologies.
During a 16-day Hackathon, sixty-five students of Utrecht University came up with innovative and sustainable solutions to improve living in the Utrecht neighborhood of Kanaleneiland.
Q&A with study author and project lead Kateřina Válková
Projects should have a sound business plan and be self-sustaining, says analyst Julian Bammer
“Knowledge-intensive business services can power urban transformation,” says analyst David Mooij.