Creating Comparability among European Neighbourhoods to Enable the Transition of District Energy Infrastructures towards Positive Energy Districts

• Main Authors: Akhatova, A. (Author), Bruck, A. (Author), Casamassima, L. (Author), Galanakis, K. (Author), Kranzl, L. (Author)
• Format: Article
• Language: English
• Published: MDPI 2022
• Subjects: Decarbonisation; decarbonisation of neighbourhoods; Decarbonization of neighborhood; district energy infrastructure; District energy infrastructure; Energy infrastructures; Energy planning; energy transition; Energy transitions; Floor space; GIS; Neighbourhood; Positive energies; positive energy district; Positive energy district; Zoning
• Online Access: View Fulltext in Publisher

 Planning the required energy infrastructure for the energy transition is a crucial task for various neighbourhood concepts, such as positive energy districts. However, energy planning often comes with the challenges of data shortages and a lack of comparability among solutions for different districts. This work aims to enable this comparability by introducing an approach for categorising districts according to parameters that are relevant for the planning of neighbourhood energy infrastructures. Four parameters (climate, floor space index, heating demand and share of residential buildings) and their respective ranges (bands) were derived from the literature. Additionally, this work visualised the combination of all parameter bands across Europe to conveniently showcase districts that are comparable according to the selected parameters. This approach and its visualisation could be used in urban planning to share knowledge from existing energy district projects with those planned in comparable districts. © 2022 by the authors. Licensee MDPI, Basel, Switzerland.