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Operational Insights and Future Potential of the Database for Positive Energy Districts

Author

Listed:
  • Paolo Civiero

    (Department of Architecture, Roma Tre University, 00154 Rome, Italy)

  • Giulia Turci

    (Environmental Department, Cesena Municipality, 47521 Cesena, Italy)

  • Beril Alpagut

    (Smart and Sustainable Cities, Demir Enerji, 34718 Istanbul, Turkey)

  • Michal Kuzmic

    (University Centre for Energy Efficient Buildings, Czech Technical University in Prague, 27343 Bustehrad, Czech Republic)

  • Silvia Soutullo

    (Energy Department, CIEMAT—Spanish Centre for Energy, Environmental and Technological Research, 28040 Madrid, Spain)

  • María Nuria Sánchez

    (Energy Department, CIEMAT—Spanish Centre for Energy, Environmental and Technological Research, 28040 Madrid, Spain)

  • Oscar Seco

    (Energy Department, CIEMAT—Spanish Centre for Energy, Environmental and Technological Research, 28040 Madrid, Spain)

  • Silvia Bossi

    (Smart Energy, ENEA—Italian National Agency for New Technologies, Energy and Sustainable Economic Development, 00123 Rome, Italy)

  • Matthias Haase

    (Department of Life Sciences and Facility Management, Zurich University of Applied Sciences, 8820 Waedenswil, Switzerland)

  • Gilda Massa

    (Smart Energy, ENEA—Italian National Agency for New Technologies, Energy and Sustainable Economic Development, 00123 Rome, Italy)

  • Christoph Gollner

    (Austrian Research Promotion Agency FFG, 1090 Vienna, Austria)

Abstract

This paper presents the Positive Energy District Database (PED DB), a pivotal web tool developed collaboratively by the COST Action ‘PED-EU-NET’, in alignment with international initiatives such as JPI Urban Europe and IEA EBC Annex 83. The PED DB represents a crucial step towards sharing knowledge, promoting collaboration, reinforcing decision-making, and advancing the understanding of Positive Energy Districts (PEDs) in the pursuit of sustainable urban environments. The PED DB aims to comprehensively map and disseminate information on PEDs across Europe, serving as a dynamic resource for sustainable urban development according to the objective of making the EU climate-neutral by 2050. Indeed, PEDs imply an integrated approach for designing urban areas—the districts—where a cluster of interconnected buildings and energy communities produce net zero greenhouse gas emissions, managing an annual local/regional overflow production of renewable energy. The paper describes the collaborative step-by-step process leading to the PED DB implementation, the current results and potentials of the online platform, and introduces its future developments towards a more user-friendly and stakeholders-tailored tool. The interactive web map offers a customizable visualizations and filters on multiple information related to PED case studies, PED-relevant cases, and PED Labs. Users can access detailed information through a table view, facilitating comparisons across different PED projects and their implementation phase. The paper offers insights and detailed analysis from the initial dataset that includes 23 PED cases and 7 PED-related projects from 13 European countries, highlighting the key characteristics of surveyed PEDs.

Suggested Citation

  • Paolo Civiero & Giulia Turci & Beril Alpagut & Michal Kuzmic & Silvia Soutullo & María Nuria Sánchez & Oscar Seco & Silvia Bossi & Matthias Haase & Gilda Massa & Christoph Gollner, 2024. "Operational Insights and Future Potential of the Database for Positive Energy Districts," Energies, MDPI, vol. 17(4), pages 1-58, February.
    • Handle: RePEc:gam:jeners:v:17:y:2024:i:4:p:899-:d:1339163
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    References listed on IDEAS

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    1. Natalia VESELITSKAYA & Oleg KARASEV & Alexey BELOSHITSKIY, 2019. "Drivers And Barriers For Smart Cities Development," Theoretical and Empirical Researches in Urban Management, Research Centre in Public Administration and Public Services, Bucharest, Romania, vol. 14(1), pages 85-110, February.
    2. Hearn, Adam X., 2022. "Positive energy district stakeholder perceptions and measures for energy vulnerability mitigation," Applied Energy, Elsevier, vol. 322(C).
    3. Wierling, August & Schwanitz, Valeria Jana & Zeiss, Jan Pedro & von Beck, Constantin & Paudler, Heather Arghandeh & Koren, Ingrid Knutsdotter & Kraudzun, Tobias & Marcroft, Timothy & Müller, Lukas & A, 2023. "A Europe-wide inventory of citizen-led energy action with data from 29 countries and over 10,000 initiatives," Publications of Darmstadt Technical University, Institute for Business Studies (BWL) 139028, Darmstadt Technical University, Department of Business Administration, Economics and Law, Institute for Business Studies (BWL).
    4. Koldo Urrutia-Azcona & Merit Tatar & Patricia Molina-Costa & Iván Flores-Abascal, 2020. "Cities4ZERO: Overcoming Carbon Lock-in in Municipalities through Smart Urban Transformation Processes," Sustainability, MDPI, vol. 12(9), pages 1-30, April.
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    Cited by:

    1. Martina Massari, 2025. "Powering Change: The Urban Scale of Energy, an Italian Overview," Sustainability, MDPI, vol. 17(17), pages 1-23, September.

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