Eco-cities save tonnes of CO2, COWI
Release Date: 2009-03-11
Four cities have saved the atmosphere many thousands of tonnes of CO2 as a result of the ECO-City EU Programme
The Norwegian city of Trondheim now has a facility for seasonal storage of commercial and industrial waste, a new district heating network is being constructed, and the city has the most energy-efficient school in Norway. In Helsingborg, Sweden, some 500 new energy-efficient homes have been built, a large number of houses have been given an energy overhaul, and the city’s urban buses and refuse carts have begun driving on biogas.
These are just some of the results of the EU-subsidised urban development project ECO-City, which was ushered in in 2005 and will save the atmosphere 26,500 tonnes CO2 a year once completed in 2011.
ECO-City includes a number of widely divergent energy projects in the three urban areas of Trondheim, Helsingør/Helsingborg and Tudela in Spain. Two-thirds of the planned subprojects have now been carried out.
"ECO-City has become something of a manifestation with many widely varying and innovative solutions, and in a number of cases we have gone on further still to achieve greater energy improvements than those planned from the outset," says Reto M. Hummelshøj, COWI’s project coordinator on the large-scale EU-supported project.
Going one better than the original goals
At the core of the project, according to Reto M. Hummelshøj, is the success with which the many different public and private players have been gathered into one group, keeping one another on track until the energy overhauls have been implemented.
The ECO-City project has largely been carried by local movers and shakers. In each city a project group of 8-12 people has been formed, and their personal commitment to the project has been crucial to its success.
"It has happened that someone has left the groups on a couple of occasions, and each time it has taken a while for the level of activity to regain momentum. So the local ’powerhouses’ are very important to the completion and success of the projects," Reto M. Hummelshøj says.
Waste management and low-energy housing
One of the ECO-City subprojects of great importance to CO2 reduction is a project in Trondheim involving seasonal storage of waste, so that it can be turned to better use in meeting the fluctuating requirement for district heating during the year. The project also includes a boiler powered by biogas. The ECO-City project provides the city with a facility for storing both waste and heat, so that the energy is available when it needs to be used.
In Helsingborg, as part of the project, not only have new homes been built but energy overhauls have also been carried out on existing housing. There will be a grand total of 800 low-energy homes in buildings of a highly disparate nature, from two-storey row houses to multistorey construction in 5, 7 and 14 floors. Here a whole catalogue of solutions will be tried for cutting energy consumption.
In Helsingør (Elsinore), Denmark, the district heating supply has been expanded and a biomass-fuelled production plant set up. The project includes renovating the old shipyard, which will be an energy-wise "Culture Yard" in the future.
In the Spanish part of the project, too, the bar has been set high, but they have been hit by the country’s serious construction crisis, delaying the large-scale renovation of an urban area with low-energy housing and large solar energy plants in the northern Spanish town of Tudela.
| Type: | NORMAL |
| Company: | COWI |
| Country: | Denmark |
| Url: | http://www.cowi.com/menu/news/newsarchive/generalnews/Pages/EcocitiessavetonnesofCO2.aspx |