Newsletter

POCITYF – Newsletter #5

lights in a city
lights in a city

13 Jan 2023 — Welcome to POCITYF fifth newsletter! Keep up with your favourite smart city project.

Dear readers,

POCITYF is already in its fourth year and what a year it has been!

In our Lighthouse cities, the work is progressing well with the solutions being installed at the pilot sites of the Lighthouse cities.

ALKMAAR

In Alkmaar, the heat/cold storage system was taken into use at De Meent sports complex and the first gas tap of the sports complex was closed by the alderman on 8 December. The Investa building, the expertise center for biomass and gasification technologies, was also taken into use in September. Various sustainable and circular solutions have been applied in this building, including recycled building materials for the facade cladding and window frames and a heat storage system in the ceiling.

ÉVORA

In Évora, 2nd life batteries, produced by Betteries, have been installed at University of Évora and flexibility control algorithms to manage energy fluxes are currently being tested. The installation of the remaining batteries at the residential houses of Valverde are expected for the coming months. At SONAE retail store, the Building Management System (Schneider), EV Chargers (INESCTEC) and the PV Car port has been installed.

Both in Alkmaar and in Évora, many apps and platforms, created to engage citizens, have been developed and will be fully integrated.

Speaking of innovative solutions, you can read more about all of them, their requirements and advantages in our factsheets below.

In these last few months our Fellow Cities have been finalising their first version of the replication strategies. Each Fellow City discussed how integrated solutions might be adapted to their own local heritage context, what are the requirements and potential barriers to their installation. This sets the foundation to establish necessary developments and knowledge-sharing activities for each City Vision 2050 Roadmap.

In The Netherlands, our partner TNO coordinated the production of a manual to help housing corporations make residents’ homes more sustainable. It is a step-by-step guide which can be useful to engage stakeholders in the process of becoming more sustainable in a social housing context.

In Portugal, University of Évora and Betteries have successfully tested, with the Portuguese Red Cross, a new 2nd life lithium-ion battery system in an emergency scenario, reenforcing the capabilities of the innovative product, which is a mobile and modular solution, robust, prepared for outdoor use and simple to use – “click and go”.

Finally, we were very happy to participate and organise some events.

POCITYF participated in the Smart City Expo World Congress 2022 (SCEWC) in Barcelona where we exchanged knowledge and established meaningful connections with other similar projects. EURADA also organised the 8th online meeting of Smart Heritage Cities Working Group which focused on explaining what the main challenges are in transforming a city into a smart city. During the EU Green Week we also discussed with another EU project (SPARCS) how smart cities can overcome potential challenges.

Thank you for reading and stay tuned!

Best regards,
Joao Bravo Dias

Read the full newsletter here.