Collaborating to support the urban energy transition
On the 6th and 7th of November, the ACCESS project partners came together at Johanneberg Science Park to discuss the project's progress and outlining the next steps.
After a presentation on the Fossil-free Energy Districts (FED), the consortium was given a tour of Chalmer University's power facilities and the FED testbed.
In addition to partners being able to share their updates, the meeting also included workshops with the set purpose of bringing knowledge partners and cities together to define sustainable energy plans. It was an insightful exercise that highlighted the benefits of collaboration. The ideas and suggestions gathered in these sessions will be used to optimise the ACCESS pilots.
Highlights of the meeting include:
- Partners' ambitions were clearly defined. One of the local authorities involved in the project is planning to use its role as an ACCESS pilot site to set the city's agenda on smart grids.
- In keeping with the spirit of celebrating collaboration, external experts will be brought in to advise on specific challenges and an invitation to future meetings will be extended to relevant existing initiatives and projects. Policymakers will be invited to attend the meetings that are hosted by their city.
- The challenges were clearly outlined to make sure the pilots deliver realistically useful solutions. The workshop raised questions and potential obstacles, such as how to assess a pilot's contribution to a city's sustainability targets. Mentioning them now makes it much easier to avoid falling foul of them once the pilots are already up and running.
For more information, you can always reach out to the project partners. For regular updates, don't forget to subscribe to our newsletter!