POCACITO - Austria

Smart City Project Graz - District management

clf — Wed, 20 Apr 2016 13:31:04 +0000

To guarantee the broad participation of stakeholders and citizens in the Smart City urban area of Waagner Biro in Graz, a Smart City district management was established in 2013. It is run by StadtLABOR Graz and serves as an information hub between citizens, local companies, the City of Graz and the other twelve consortia members of the project. The development of this urban area, into a low-emission and energy-autonomous district with attractive housing and office buildings, good local supply and recreational leisure activities, is based on the implementation of some innovative energy demonstration technologies that guarantee the sustainable use of energy and resources. StadtLABOR Graz is responsible for the conception, coordination and implementation of the informal planning process and supports also the formal urban planning processes (e.g. the legally binding land-use plan). Work started in 2013 and the process is currently in the middle of the planning period. Initial activities have fostered the increased engagement of local actors, identified realisable projects in the neighbourhood, and stimulated input into the formal planning processes and competitions. For the urban planning competition, on the brownfield in middle and north of the Waagner Biro area the winning concept has been already selected. The district management has developed a very efficient and successful planning approach, which is fostering on communication processes for the implementation of sustainable and attractive energy solutions, living and working places, public and green spaces. As a consequence the same district management approach will be used in other urban development processes, and has started in the Smart City area of Reininghaus.

"Model Güssing": a vision of energy self-sufficiency

clf — Wed, 26 Aug 2015 11:58:36 +0000

In 1990 the City of Güssing decided to put the vision of becoming 100% fossil fuel free and energy self-sufficient into practice. About 15 years later the City generates twice the electricity demand of the city’s private households, public buildings and industries and also about 85% of the heating demand is covered. Both have been achieved via decentralized local energy production using renewable sources available in the region (especially wood, biomass and solar). The set-up of new renewable energy facilities (e.g. biomass plants, district heating infrastructure) in turn attracted many companies as well as national and international research initiatives working in the field of renewable energy. Thus by and by Güssing not only became an example of best practices for the sustainable energy supply of a city but also a network for research on renewable energy technologies and eco-energy tourism. Subsequently the model has also been expanded to surrounding municipalities of Güssing, the overall region called “öko-energieland”.

THEWOSAN – funding scheme for buildings

Website Administrator — Wed, 17 Jun 2015 20:26:02 +0000

THEWOSAN is Vienna´s programme and funding scheme for thermal and energy renovation of existing residential buildings. Through both thermal insulation of buildings and additional measures for their heating systems, a significant reduction of the energy consumption in residential buildings can be achieved. This has the benefits of a reduction of CO₂ as well as air pollutant emissions with linked improvement of the global and local environment. In 2000 a grant was implemented as one measure of Vienna´s Climate Protection Plan KLiP and then updated within Vienna´s Energy Efficiency Program called SEP in 2006. More than 88,300 flats have been renovated by 2011. The reduction of the heating energy demand is on average about 960 GWh per year. The linked CO₂ emission reductions over the whole period are nearly 150,000 tonnes. With THEWOSAN, Vienna has developed a well-accepted, very efficient and successful funding scheme for the renovation of existing residential buildings. Additionally, it was possible to avoid a displacement of the original, often socially less advantaged tenants of old buildings in need of renovation.