Tampere, Centre of Finnish Industry

Tampere is the second largest, attractive and growing metropolitan area in Finland. It aims to be an internationally known, attractive and smart city for companies and citizens to invest on. As of the moment, the city of Tampere plays a lead role both at a European level and at a national level. These include The Open and Agile Smart Cities (OASC) initiative, and the Innovative Cities Programme (INKA). The projects formulated are based on developing smart cities solutions, renewable industry and future health care programmes. Moreover, it envisions the city to be carbon-neutral by 2030, 20 years earlier than it was initially planned.

To meet these ambitious goals, digital solutions, new business innovations and smart infrastructure have been incorporated to the lives of its citizens and to the city as a whole.

Tammerkosken rantaa

523

square km of land

228.2K

inhabitants

1

of the three most rapidly developing regions in Finland

200

lakes and ponds in the city itself

All the actions in Tampere

Buildings have been refurbished using smart energy-efficient systems like heat recovery, building energy modelling and other advanced ICT schemes. In addition, combined heating and cooling energy systems have been introduced to reduce and recycle heat waste.

Aside from the electric vehicles and charging stations, which have been introduced to the local community, advanced ICT solutions like the Green Light Optimised Speed Advisory (GLOSA) have been set up to advise the drivers the correct speed needed to pass through the traffic lights, which are all signaled in green. They promote better mobility within the city while reducing the carbon emissions generated by fuel-based cars and traffic.

Check out these videos for an overview of the interventions in Tampere.

Here is an overview of the intervention areas:

  • Ilokkaanpuisto: A new concept has been tested, where the residents in the area own a photovoltaic plant located in a rural part of Tampere.
  • Härmälänranta: The energy efficiency of the buildings has been improved through the use of smart technical building systems, as well as by utilizing renewable energy sources.
  • Smart District Heating and Cooling: A demand response service has been developed together with the electric utility’s customers. The energy efficiency of the district cooling network has been maximized, and the possibility to produce cooling from district heat has been researched.
  • Smart Mobility: Energy data has been collected from e-buses of the city and e-cars of voluntary citizens. Also, robot buses have been piloted as a feeder service for the tram line, a mobile application for green light optimisation (GLOSA) has been tested, and the possibilities of city units to change their diesel vehicles to electrical ones have been defined.
  • Smart Lighting: A smart lighting control system, which takes additional factors to dimness and time of day into account when adjusting the lights, has been purchased for the city. Also, the ways for the lighting network to function as a platform for new smart services have been pioneered.
  • An open and common IoT platform, where all the data for example from different pilots and experiments has been set up for the city.