Fondazione ICONS leads the communication and exploitation activities of the project POCITYF
Press Release -
The new EU-funded smart city project, POCITYF, is set to transform our historical and cultural cities into more efficient, healthy, sustainable living environments with "positive energy districts". The project kicks off on 9 October in Évora, Portugal, with 46 partners from 13 countries. Fondazione ICONS will lead the communication and exploitation activities of POCITYF, our fourth Lighthouse project.
At the heart of this new project lie “Positive Energy Blocks/Districts”, which are groups of buildings that actively managetheir energy consumption and the energy flow between them and the wider energy system. Positive energy districts have an annual positive energy balance.
POCITYF (A Positive Energy CITY Transformation Framework) will combine these positive energy blocks with grid flexibility, e-mobility, innovative ICT technologies and citizen engagement strategies. The overall aim is to help cities deliver positive energy districts while respecting their mixed urban settings that often include listed buildings of historical interest and other cultural heritage features.
Activities will be carried out in two lead cities or “Lighthouse” cities: Évora (Portugal) and Alkmaar (Netherlands). Six other cities, known as fellow cities, will seek to replicate the works: Granada (Spain), Bari (Italy), Celje (Slovenia), Ujpest (Hungary), Ioannina (Greece) and Hvidovre (Denmark). Beyond this project group, other cities are invited to join the POCITYF network to share experience and learn from the project’s findings.
The two Lighthouse cities will benefit from solutions divided into four “Energy Transition Tracks”:
1. Innovative solutions for positive buildings and districts
2. Peer to peer energy management and storage solutions for grid flexibility
3. e-mobility integration into smart grid and city planning
4. Citizen-driven innovation in co-creating smart city solutions
Overall, POCITYF will therefore add layers of “smartness” to key city infrastructures, technologies and services, creating new possibilities to make cities safer, greener and more responsive to the needs of their citizens, businesses and other organisations.
POCITYF is a five-year Smart City project funded under the European Union’s Horizon 2020 research and innovation programme with an EU contribution of 20 million Euro.
