Consortium Meeting gathered partners in Turku

A RESPONSE consortium meeting gathered horizontal project partners, Lighthouse Cities and Fellow Cities in the city of Turku from 6th to 8th of June. For three days, project partners collaborated and exchanged views on project implementation, citizen engagement and replication of the project measures.  

The first day of the consortium meeting was dedicated to talks on the implementation progress of the project. The meeting kicked off with a presentation on the project progress so far, after which partners discussed monitoring of implemented solutions, future project communication, and continued citizen engagement measures until the project ends in 2025. In the afternoon, a site visit to the Kakolanmäki wastewater treatment plant was organized. At the plant, partners learned more about the heat pump and the water treatment processes at Kakolanmäki.

A visit to the Kakola wastewater treatment plant was organized on the first day of the meeting.

On the second day, focus shifted to replication in Fellow and Lighthouse Cities, and to the technical energy and ICT solutions implemented in RESPONSE. Partners, such as VTT, FMI and SunAmp, presented the solutions that have been implemented in the Positive Energy District (PED) area in Turku. The presentations were then followed by a guided tour in the PED area.

During the site visit, partners learned more about the energy renovations completed in the 5th Block of the PED, the operation of the heat pump installed in Tyyssija building, and the novel LVDC microgrid, which minimizes energy loss in the local energy system. In combination with increased local renewable energy production, these smart solutions will reduce the carbon footprint of the PED and optimize energy consumption in the buildings.

Participants also took part in a guided tour to test the journey planner AirQu, developed during RESPONSE. The journey planner utilizes air quality data from the sensors in the PED and helps pedestrians and cyclists choose paths that are healthier, greener, and flatter.

Participants tested the Air Quality Journey Planner AirQu, developed in the RESPONSE project.

Finally, during the last day of the meeting, partners discussed future collaboration and considered different climate adaptation measures that could be implemented in Turku. During the adaptation workshop, local stakeholders were invited to exchange views with partners from Fellow Cities and to learn more about different adaptation strategies and challenges posed by a changing climate.

Text by Helmi Andersson (City of Turku)

European Energy Transition Conference 2023

European Energy Transition Conference: Energy and energy transition event for local authorities. The forum brought together 3,000-4,000 participants in Bordeaux from 23 to 25 May 2023.  

A special focus was given to the nine French cities among the 113 Mission Cities. 

Dijon metropole presented a workshop on the afternoon of May 23, 2023: Draw your Positive Energy District! A workshop designed by Dijon metropole and EDF since November 2022 to introduce the RESPONSE project in Dijon using a board game suitable for adults and children. With the help of an animator, players are immersed in the experience of designing the project to convert the Fontaine d’Ouche district into a positive energy district.  

Using RESPONSE as an example, players work on the district’s energy sources and consumption, identifying areas for improvement and selecting solutions to prioritize. With the board game, players learn about the orders of magnitude of energy production and consumption. They then choose potential solutions to be implemented, and discover the associated impacts. The aim of the exercise is to relive the intellectual journey of designing the Dijon PEBs, which led to a program that achieves the objective: a district that produces more energy that it consumes.