Positive Energy Eco-Districts

Urban areas in Luleå and Boden will be part of a new study in Architecture in how smaller neighbourhoods or communities in cold climate can become Positive Energy Districts (PED).

"Our idea is to investigate whether from the inhabitants of a suburbs or smaller neighbourhoods, we can create a greener society with smart new technologies for power generation and reuse of waste heat, says Agatino Rizzo, professor in architecture at Luleå University of Technology. "We also want to premiere the choice of building materials with low life cycle energy".

Positive Energy Districts combined with new smart technology for heating is a major trend in the world's big cities. The challenge in this project is to investigate whether it is possible to implement the same on a smaller scale and in our cold climate.

"We will work with co-design andliving lab where ordinary people, companies, etc. are part of the study," says Agatino Rizzo, Professor in Architecture at Luleå University of Technology.

Climate issues are becoming increasingly important. Most people in Sweden live in small and medium-sized municipalities that lack the resources of the largest municipalities and therefore have a big challenge in meeting the overall objectives formulated in the Paris agreement. Cities account for a large part of the climate impact, however, the municipal government only controls a small part of this because the bulk comes from industries

The Sustainable Development Goals or Agenda 2030 call for transformative steps “to shift the world onto a sustainable and resilient path”. The translation of, among others, SDG 11 and the 2015 Paris agreement into national polices poses a number of challenges for medium-size to small Swedish cities, which account roughly for 95% of the total number of municipalities and 65% of the total population according to the Swedish statistics bureau.

Ecodistricts

The project Ecodistricts is funded by Formas and has a budget of SEK 3 million. The project can provide methods and tools to create opportunities for residents, companies, energy companies and other stakeholders to jointly create more climate-friendly solutions that integrate buildings, energy supply and food production.