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State-of-the art on technical solutions to achieve climate neutrality (WP10)

On this page you can find the list of all NZC resources on technical solutions to achieve climate neutrality in cities: (1) Thematic areas for services definition; (2) Catalogue of solutions & co-benefits; (3) Expert services for deploying climate neutral city actions; and (4) Deliverables.

 

1. Thematic areas for servicies definition

To effectively combat climate change and achieve climate neutrality, it's essential to define and implement the most advanced and innovative solutions.

First of all the innovative solutions found in the literature where categorize on different thematic areas (D10.1), to be able to address emissions across various sectors, ultimately leading to a sustainable future.

For each thematic area, different solutions are found and included in the taxonomy, including information about co-benefits, impacts, and description of the technology, for each of them. The information is systematize in the form of factsheets, leading to a catalogue of factsheets, accessible through the knowledge repository (included also in D10.3). 

Image 1. WP10 thematic areas, available in the catalogue

For each thematic area, we can found: 

Stationary Energy (Buildings) including solutions for energy conservation, passive and integrated building designs, use of low-carbon materials, renewable energy sources (RES), smart technologies, and heat recovery.

--> More information about the Stationary Energy (Building) thematic area here

Stationary Energy (Buildings)

Section

Building envelope solutions

Envelope insulation

3.1.1

Green roof

3.1.2

Green walls and green façades

3.1.3

Joinery for low-energy houses or passive houses

3.1.4

Passive building solutions

Passive building design strategies: building orientation, passive heating and cooling

3.1.5

Natural ventilation (incl. wind catchers)

3.1.6

Integrated solutions

Climate-smart urban agriculture

3.1.7

Low-carbon and sustainable building materials

Reducing embedded emissions of buildings

3.1.8

RES and energy-harvesting solutions

Photovoltaics

3.1.9

Solar thermal panels

3.1.10

Solar thermal systems with Evacuated Tube Collectors (ETC)

3.1.11

Hybrid systems (PVT, PV+HP, ...)

3.1.12

Geothermal energy for H&C

3.1.13

Sustainable biomass and biogas technologies

3.1.14

Smart solutions

Building Automation and Control Systems (BACS)

3.1.15

Demand management

3.1.16

Heat recovery solutions

Freecooling opportunities (Air-to-air heat exchangers)

3.1.17

Sewage heat recovery via pump system

3.1.18

Sustainable and energy-efficient active solutions

Smart street lighting – Humble Lamppost

3.1.19

Low-GWP heat pumps

3.1.20

Energy Generation Focus on RES electricity and thermal energy, energy recovery, storage solutions, infrastructure, and smart technologies.

--> More information about the Energy Generation thematic area here

Energy Generation

Section

RES electricity and thermal energy generation

Distributed wind

3.2.1

Micro-hydropower generation in urban water networks

3.2.2

Geothermal energy

3.2.3

Co-generation systems

3.2.4

Sustainable biomass and biogas power

3.2.5

Fuel cells

3.2.6

Energy recovery

Waste heat recovery in district heating networks

3.2.7

Energy and E-fuel storage

Electricity storage: Chemical storage

3.2.8

Thermal Energy Storage

3.2.9

Seasonal storage (pits, dwells, etc.)

3.2.10

Infrastructure

From 3G to 5G District Heating and Cooling networks (generation to substations)

3.2.11

Renovation of DH&CN (1G and 2G)

3.2.12

Microgrids

3.2.13

Smart solutions

Energy management techniques

3.2.14

Mobility and Transport Encompassing vehicle innovations, infrastructure improvements, and service enhancements

--> More information about the Mobility and Transport thematic area here

Mobility and Transport

Section

Vehicle solutions

Zero emission buses

3.3.1

Zero emission electric cars

3.3.2

Hydrogen Fuel Cell Electric Vehicles (FCEVs) in urban transport

3.3.3

Cooperative, connected and automated mobility (CCAM)

3.3.4

Infrastructure solutions

Bi-directional EV charging (V2X)

3.3.5

Public charging system for EVs

3.3.6

Fostering cycling

3.3.7

Fostering walking

3.3.8

Mobility hubs

3.3.9

Service solutions

Goods delivery with Drones

3.3.10

Electrified urban freight delivery/ Last mile delivery

3.3.11

Fleet decarbonisation

3.3.12

Car sharing

3.3.13

Shared micromobility

3.3.14

Collective passenger transport

3.3.15

Mobility as a Service (MaaS)

3.3.16

Cooperative Intelligent Transport Systems and Services (C-ITS)

3.3.17

Parking policies, management and fees, smart parking

3.3.18

Smart cards

3.3.19

Multimodal ticketing and smart cards

3.3.20

Multimodality

3.3.21

Green Industry Targeting energy efficiency in industrial processes and renewable energy generation for industrial use.

--> More information about the Green Industry thematic area here

Green Industry

Section

Energy Efficiency in Industrial Processes

Heat Recovery & Valorisation

3.4.1

Energy Management Systems

3.4.2

Monitoring Systems

3.4.3

Replacement of equipment

3.4.4

Renewable Generation for Industrial Processes

Solar Thermal in industries

3.4.5

High Temperature Heat Pumps

3.4.6

Green Hydrogen Technologies in green industry

3.4.7

Circular Economy Solutions for waste, water, energy, and food management.

--> More information about the Circular Economy thematic area here

Circular Economy

Section

WASTE

Municipal solid waste (MSW)

Municipal Solid Waste separation at source: pay as you throw

3.5.1

Municipal Solid Waste treatment: Anaerobic digestion for biogas production

3.5.2

Urban biodegradable waste for compost

3.5.3

Textiles

Circular textiles: Urban recovery and processing techniques, waste to feedstock optimization

3.5.4

Electronics and ICT

Circular electronics and ICT: New processes & strategies for the recovery of Critical Raw Materials

3.5.5

Batteries and vehicles

System level circular economy approaches in batteries

3.5.6

Plastics

Plastic waste management

3.5.7

Plastics: Expanding the use of bio-based and compostable materials

3.5.8

Packaging

Circular packaging: Reducing demand for (over)packaging/ packaging waste, improved circular design and strategies that fully replace the need for packaging

3.5.9

Construction and Buildings

Construction and Buildings: Optimal management of waste at the end of building life cycle

3.5.10

Construction and Buildings: re-using local building waste

3.5.11

Construction and Buildings: urban mining model to assess circular construction opportunities and optimize resource use and exchange

3.5.12

Construction and Buildings: Residual Value Calculator

3.5.13

Construction and Buildings: online register with building and infrastructure material/parts/products for reuse/circular use

3.5.14

Construction and buildings: Circular Life Cycle Cost (C-LCC) for deep renovation

3.5.15

Other waste products

Reduction of raw materials, waste and integration of secondary materials

3.5.16

WATER

Building level

Greywater and rainwater reuse at building level

3.5.17

Efficient treatment and reuse of un-segregated water at building level

3.5.18

ENERGY

Energy Efficiency

Industrial symbiosis assessment and solution pathways for facilitating cross-sectoral energy and material exchange

3.5.19

Energy Generation – RES

Production of biofuel based on black liquor from the paper industry

3.5.20

Waste to energy in buildings

3.5.21

Guarantee the energy saving/production in buildings: "Contingent approach"

3.5.22

FOOD

Circular Food Systems

3.5.23

Encompassing the full value chain of producing food for human consumption – valorisation of low value fish species

3.5.24

Nature-based solutions and Carbon sinks Urban carbon storage, green infrastructure, and water interventions.

--> More information about the Nature based Solutions and Carbon sinks thematic area here

Nature-based Solutions

Section

Urban carbon storage and sequestration, and singular green infrastructure

Urban carbon sink

3.6.1

Smart-soils and phytoremediation

3.6.2

Pollinator and verges spaces

3.6.3

Vertical mobile gardens

3.6.4

Green shading structures

3.6.5

Floating gardens

3.6.6

Green filter area

3.6.7

Urban garden bio-filter

3.6.8

Green resting areas, parks and urban forests, parklets

3.6.9

Cooling trees

3.6.10

Green corridors for active and cooler mobility

3.6.11

Community composting

3.6.12

Water interventions

Hard drainage-flood prevention

3.6.13

Grassed swales and water retention pounds

3.6.14

Floodable park

3.6.15

Green pavements: hard drainage pavements; green parking pavements

3.6.16

Sustainable Urban Drainage Systems (SuDS)

3.6.17

Water irrigation and maintenance technologies

3.6.18

Constructed wetland

3.6.19

Rain garden

3.6.20

Digital solutions Covering analytics, urban digital platforms, infrastructure, disaster resilience management, e-governance, and digital public goods.

--> More information about the Digital solutions thematic area here

Digital Solutions

Section

Analytics modelling solutions

Predictive Modelling

3.7.1

Digital Twin (Built environment)

 3.7.2

Local Digital Twin (Planning / Decision Making, cross-cutting)

 3.7.3

Scenario-based analysis (Mobility & Energy - One Model)

3.7.4

Artificial Intelligence (AI) applications to climate neutrality

3.7.5

GHG Monitoring from Space

3.7.6

BIM and CIM (Building/City Information Model)

3.7.7

Urban Digital Platforms

Platform Architecture

3.7.8

CO2 Emission Trading Platforms

3.7.9

City Dashboards

3.7.10

Predictive Maintenance supporting tools

3.7.11

Advanced Renovation Support

3.7.12

Data and Solution Catalogues

3.7.13

Digital infrastructure

IoT Sensor & Edge Computing for Environmental Monitoring

3.7.14

Disaster and Resilience Management

Vulnerability and risk information systems

3.7.15

Satellite and Geospatial Data

3.7.16

E-governance solutions

Citizen Participation Platforms

3.7.17

Digital Public Goods

Measuring & Monitoring (green & digital transition)

3.7.18

Public Code Management

3.7.19

Documentation of ownership of data

3.7.20

Applying Open Standards

3.7.21

Open Data Models & Ontologies

3.7.22

Local Data Spaces Policy

3.7.23

Living.in-EU / MIM Plus

3.7.24

European Interoperability Framework for Smart Cities and Communities: EIF4SCC

3.7.25

United for Smart Sustainable Cities (U4SSC) Publications

3.7.26

Agile systems development (prototyping & sandboxes)

3.7.27

Enabling InstrumentsTools for increasing awareness through education, capacity building, collaboration, but also solutions for financial planning, policy, regulatory compliance, and technical support.

--> More information about the Enabling Instrumentss thematic area here

Enabling Instruments

Section

Educational, Capacity Building instruments

User Engagement for Energy Performance Improvement

3.8.1

Local energy communities

3.8.2

Cooperatives

3.8.3

Educational activities on NBS

3.8.4

Supporting municipalities to monitor resource flows in line with impact targets and measurement processes

3.8.5

Capacity building and engagement with municipalities to identify and co-create circular solutions and roadmaps

3.8.6

Capacity building for city officials to understand urban metabolisms and circular solution opportunities

3.8.7

Capacity building and training

3.8.8

Educational/ Capacity building barriers identification

3.8.9

Involving, Collaborating and Empowering instruments

Urban-scale environmental decision support system (DSS) based on EPC (Energy Performance Certificate) databases

3.8.10

Engagement, co-creation and co-design of NBS and Green Infrastructure plans and interventions

3.8.11

City coaching in NBS

3.8.12

Platform for Enhancing Multi Stakeholder Dialogue to Implement NBS across EU

3.8.13

Gender diversity considerations in urban mobility

3.8.14

Financial instruments

Loans for Energy Efficiency (EE)

3.8.15

Blended finance for Energy Efficiency (EE)

3.8.16

Road/ Congestion pricing in transport

3.8.17

Planning instruments

Integrated land use and urban planning with energy and climate

3.8.18

Integrated land use planning and urban space management with mobility planning

3.8.19

Integrated climate plans for cities (i.e. SECAPs)

3.8.20

Sustainable Urban Mobility Plan (SUMP)

3.8.21

Decarbonisation Plans for Industry

3.8.22

City water resilience assessment

3.8.23

Policy instruments

Governance EU Climate Neutrality Framework

3.8.24

Data strategy

3.8.25

Regulatory instruments

Public procurement for innovative NBS and Green Infrastructure interventions

3.8.26

Building Renovation Passport (BRP)

3.8.27

Smart Readiness Indicator (SRI)

3.8.28

Mobility Management

3.8.29

Urban Vehicle Access Regulations (UVAR)

3.8.30

Low-Emission Zones

3.8.31

NBS and Green Infrastructure regulation and ordinances

3.8.32

NBS and Green Infrastructure plans and strategy design and governance

3.8.33

Building Material Passport (BIM-based)

3.8.34

Technical instruments

Turnkey Retrofit service

3.8.35

Integrated Energy and GHGs scenario mapping tools

3.8.36

NBS and Green Infrastructure Mapping

3.8.37

Analysis of City/ (Building) circularity

3.8.38

Circular economy design principles to increase the durability, reparability, upgradability or reusability of products

3.8.39

Urban metabolism mapping

3.8.40

Circular Life Cycle Assessment/Analysis for material and products

3.8.41

One-stop-shop for building renovation

3.8.42

 

2. Catalogue of solutions & co-benefits

The whole catalogue of solutions, including co-benefits, impacts, enabling framework (policy, regulatory, technical, social enablers), and examples from cities, is included in D10.3, called ​​​​Design environment of solutions 

For instance, as associated co-benefits we find:

Image 3. NetZeroCities Co-benefits definition

 

3. Expert services for deploying climate neutral city actions

These solutions are made accessible through different services for deploying climate neutral city actions

  • Knowledge Repository from the Portal
  • Solution Bundle: The NZC Solution Bundles is a tool to inspire and show in a diagram how the technologies and levers can be combined together to implement solutions. It provides an interactive visualisation of city systems, offering users a clear overview of complex concepts. They also can be used to facilitate the co-creation process of the city's portfolio, promoting stakeholder engagement, leading to more inclusive participation.
  • Solution Outliner: The solution outliner service aims to offer cities a selection of solutions, arisen from the connection between the context of the city (specifically concerning its ambition, barriers, enablers, and expected co-benefits) and the solutions described in the technical factsheets available on the Portal within the NZC Knowledge Repository. 

 

4. Deliverables

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Climate resilienceNature based solutionsBuildingCarbon captureEnergyTechnologyTransport and mobility
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