TY - JOUR
T1 - Positive energy districts
T2 - Identifying challenges and interdependencies
AU - Krangsås, Savis Gohari
AU - Steemers, Koen
AU - Konstantinou, Thaleia
AU - Soutullo, Silvia
AU - Liu, Mingming
AU - Giancola, Emanuela
AU - Prebreza, Bahri
AU - Ashrafian, Touraj
AU - Murauskaitė, Lina
AU - Maas, Nienke
PY - 2021
Y1 - 2021
N2 - Positive Energy Districts (PED) are areas within cities that generate more renewable energy than they consume, contributing to cities’ energy system transformation toward carbon neutrality. Since PED is a novel concept, the implementation is very challenging. Within the European Cooperation in Science and Technology (COST) Action, which offers an open space for collaboration among scientists across Europe (and beyond), this paper asks what the needs for supporting the implementation of PEDs are. To answer this, it draws on Delphi process (expert reviews) as the main method alongside the literature review and also uses surveys as supplementary methods to identify the main challenges for developing PEDs. Initial findings reveal seven interacting topics that later were ranked as highest to the lowest as the following: governance, incentive, social, process, market, technology and context. These are interrelated and interdependent, implying that none can be considered in isolation of the others and cannot be left out in order to ensure the successful development of PEDs. The resources that are needed to address these challenges are a common need for systematic understanding of the processes behind them, as well as cross-disciplinary models and protocols to manage the complexity of developing PEDs. The results can be the basis for devising the conceptual framework on the development of new PED guides and tools.
AB - Positive Energy Districts (PED) are areas within cities that generate more renewable energy than they consume, contributing to cities’ energy system transformation toward carbon neutrality. Since PED is a novel concept, the implementation is very challenging. Within the European Cooperation in Science and Technology (COST) Action, which offers an open space for collaboration among scientists across Europe (and beyond), this paper asks what the needs for supporting the implementation of PEDs are. To answer this, it draws on Delphi process (expert reviews) as the main method alongside the literature review and also uses surveys as supplementary methods to identify the main challenges for developing PEDs. Initial findings reveal seven interacting topics that later were ranked as highest to the lowest as the following: governance, incentive, social, process, market, technology and context. These are interrelated and interdependent, implying that none can be considered in isolation of the others and cannot be left out in order to ensure the successful development of PEDs. The resources that are needed to address these challenges are a common need for systematic understanding of the processes behind them, as well as cross-disciplinary models and protocols to manage the complexity of developing PEDs. The results can be the basis for devising the conceptual framework on the development of new PED guides and tools.
KW - Challenges
KW - Collaboration
KW - Cost action
KW - Governance
KW - Market
KW - Needs
KW - Participation
KW - Positive energy district
KW - Tools
UR - http://www.scopus.com/inward/record.url?scp=85115755060&partnerID=8YFLogxK
U2 - 10.3390/su131910551
DO - 10.3390/su131910551
M3 - Article
AN - SCOPUS:85115755060
SN - 2071-1050
VL - 13
JO - Sustainability
JF - Sustainability
IS - 19
M1 - 10551
ER -