The members of the Stardust consortium have gathered together in the city of Tampere (Finland) on the 24th and 25th of April for the project’s 2nd Executive Board Meeting. It was a fruitful occasion to discuss the current status of the project and its next steps. Stardust’s Lighthouse cities shared an update on what they have been working on. Examples include implementing planned urban smart interventions and the communication activities at a local level.
The meeting also offered the project’s Follower cities the chance to present the challenges they dealt with to the other constituents. They mentioned the lack of political direction and the development of effective strategies for public and private charging infrastructures as a couple of them. Moreover, they highlighted the the importance of a smooth and continuous knowledge transfer with Lighthouse cities in order to overcome such barriers.
On the 25thof April, the Stardust team had an opportunity to see first-hand the interventions taking place in Tampere. A study tour was organised at the district cooling plant close by Lake Näsijärvi, one of Tampere’s demo sites for the project itself. The Stardust consortium was joined by colleagues from the EU-GUGLE Smart City Initiative.
Other than the visit, two Finnish members from the Stardust consortium in-charge of developing some of the project’s smart solutions in Tampere presented what they have been up to these past months. Enermix Oy reported on the temperature- and humidity-based sensors which will be installed in Stardust’s apartment buildings in Tampere. By using them on other apartments, these sensors have led to an overall reduced energy consumption of roughly 10% and a fiscal saving of €10 000 per building. On the other hand, Sähkölaitos described the mode of operation and benefits of exploiting the local cooling plant.
In retrospect, the 2nd Executive Board Meeting definitely offered an avenue for the entire Stardust consortium to meet face-to-face and to re-align themselves to the project’s mission in the hopes of lighting up cities across Europe.
