STARDUST Newsletter #5

Dear Reader,

It’s now the year 2021 and I wish you and your loved ones well as we continue to face tough times ahead. While some of our activities in STARDUST have been slowed down by the pandemic, we are still striving to finish some activities while also coming up with creative ways to ensure that we stay on the right track towards enlightening European cities.

Last fall, we celebrated with the rest of the EU SCC01 community during the European Mobility Week using the hashtag #WeMoveSmart. This social media campaign was done to invite everyone to share their pictures, videos and stories on the many ways in which we can move around in a smart and sustainable way.

Then of course, our Lighthouse cities have been working hard in wrapping up some solutions they will be monitoring for their efficiency and replicability.

Let’s first start with Pamplona. We are concluding the deployment of the Navarra Social Plan: this will offer 524 dwellings for public renting in Passivhaus standard. The initiative aims at fighting the energy poverty and providing a healthy environment for the neediest. In addition, an innovative smart grid is now up and running last month at a municipal building, which hosts the local police and the city’s data centre. We have also installed a solar-powered fast e-charging station, which will be made available for taxis parked in the bus station. This marks as a clear example on how to reduce the peak power demand of this kind of facilities. Then of course, we now have a new LORA network that will cover the remote connection of smart lighting systems and air quality measurement devices. Aside from these interventions, we recently announced the projects they have chosen to test-run with for their second edition of the “Smart Pamplona Lab”. The solutions these projects will be covering are linked to energy efficiency, renewable energies, and sustainable mobility.

Moving on to Tampere, we are pleased to tell you that the city has just concluded its virtual smart city week, in which they showcased STARDUST’s results. Among the solutions that were mentioned in one of the sessions was on procuring a service that will expand the local IoT platform by integrating with the city’s smart outdoor city lighting. Moreover, residents have moved in one of the newly constructed pilot PEB in Härmälänranta last December. We are now monitoring the performance of the building and planning its replicability. We have also recently installed a smart district heating system, which is being used in over 30 public buildings. Furthermore, we’re elated to discover that a mobility app, which came out because of a local STARDUST hackathon event, has gone viral. Also known as “Tampere.Finland”, it will include later on a calculator that computes for you the carbon dioxide you emit as you travel around the city.

As for Trento, we have done a great deal of things within the Madonna Bianca area. We have finalized the design of a prefabricated all-in-one timber based structure, which will quicken and increase the efficient renovation of the buildings. Likewise, we have made progress in understanding how much thermal energy supply for these towers based on a report we have on the available waste heat being emitted in the Madonna Bianca area. We are now ready to deploy the local network for our e-chargers. Lastly, we’re happy to say that we have finalized the design for the data integration within the existing city platform in Trento. This will enable us to interact with different data sources and types being recorded in the city.

Aside from the wrapping up some on-site activities in our Lighthouse cities, we have also organised a series of online capacity building workshops with our Follower cities. It first started out during the summer with the city of Derry (U.K.), and right before Christmas the rest of the Follower cities - Cluj-Napoca (Romania), Litomerice (Czech Republic) and Kozani (Greece) – discussed with our Lighthouse cities on solutions related to sustainable mobility, energy and building retrofitting.

Lastly, we have also recently published an article on whether or not Brexit may influence the decarbonisation goals in the UK featuring our Follower city, Derry. As well, we have updated the Resources sections on the STARDUST website, where we insert our public deliverables and scientific publications.

And so, I will now leave you to it! Indulge yourself with our rich collection of online materials and stories we have published as of late in STARDUST.

Enjoy your stellar reading!