Scalable Cities Café: Enabling and Upscaling Positive Clean Energy Districts

Can Positive Clean Energy Districts (PCEDs) drive the transition to climate-neutral cities? In this Scalable Cities Café, experts Paolo Civiero (RomaTre University), Cristiana Croitoru (Technical University of Civil Engineering, Bucharest), Savis Gohari (NTNU), and Laura Aelenei (LNEG) explored the transformative potential of PCEDs and the strategies needed to scale them across Europe.
This session dived into how PCEDs integrate energy efficiency, renewable energy, and community engagement to create holistic, sustainable urban solutions while addressing key challenges and opportunities for replication.
Session Highlights:
Defining PCEDs: Holistic urban districts focusing on energy efficiency, renewable energy production, and energy storage while integrating environmental, economic, and social sustainability.
Importance of PCEDs: Essential for reducing CO2 emissions, fostering citizen engagement, and achieving climate neutrality in cities.
Barriers to Implementation: Governance challenges, misaligned policies, financing gaps, and community engagement hurdles require collaborative approaches to overcome.
Global Case Studies: Insights from cities like Trondheim, Valencia, and Amsterdam demonstrate how PCEDs can succeed through local adaptation and stakeholder alignment.
Key Takeaways:
Stakeholder Collaboration: Early and continuous engagement with local communities, energy companies, and public-private partnerships is crucial for success.
Incremental Development: Start with urban labs or small-scale pilot projects to test and refine solutions before scaling city-wide.
Policy Alignment: Harmonize local, regional, and national policies to support long-term PCED implementation.
Scalable Technology: Adopt modular designs, microgrids, and integrated systems to enable flexible and replicable solutions.
Data and Governance: Use shared data platforms and foster multi-level governance to ensure alignment across sectors and stakeholders.
Who Should Watch?
City planners, policymakers, researchers, energy providers, and anyone interested in creating sustainable, carbon-neutral urban districts.
Have questions or examples of PCEDs in your city? Share your insights below or connect with us to continue the conversation in DM or at smart-cities-m...!