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Story 07 October 2020
Public

Green O’Clock: Cities and the sustainable urban future

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Joana Moreira

More than half of the world’s population is living in cities. The urban growth shows no sign of slowing and it’s becoming a big source of greenhouse gas emissions. Larger cities are consuming ⅔ of the world's energy and generating er 70% of global CO2 emissions. But, in the heart of every city lies an opportunity to drive a greener revolution. The cities can play a key role in meeting the targets outlined in the European Green Deal on climate change and some have made already important steps to become more sustainable. Spanish cities Alcoy and Logroño join the Greenathon initiative and bring two new sustainability challenges for EIC innovators to take the right green action.  

 

Logroño and its digital transformation 

Logroño is located in northern Spain, on the Ebro River, and is the capital of La Rioja province. The city is currently immersed in its digital transformation, both at infrastructure and service levels and is committed to environmental sustainability, aiming to become carbon-neutral by 2030. In this context and to achieve this goal, Logroño developed a smart city platform and is currently integrating services and tools for various city departments.

 

The Challenge

Deploy a city-wide Internet of Things (IoT) network to obtain data about the city and the use of public space. In particular:

  • In terms of traffic and parking monitoring;
  • Flows of people;
  • Street lighting;
  • Air quality;

Logroño also wants to deploy a city-wide harvest energy network to power the IoT network and other municipal infrastructure and consequently connect them.

 

Alcoy at the frontline of the energy transition 

Alcoy is located in the province of Alicante in eastern Spain. The city has already curated a thriving and innovative eco-system, bringing the private and public sectors together with its citizens, but now is seeking to attract new markets, businesses and entrepreneurs. With the Alcoidemà strategic plan and Alcoy's Smart City strategy in mind, Alcoy aims to incorporate renewable technologies into the basic energy supply of buildings, but the city is currently facing different issues that make this incorporation difficult.

 

The Challenge 

Create systems that allow energy to be generated 24 hours per day. These systems need to be: 

  • Aesthetically and structurally integrated into the municipal buildings (more significant in the historic center);
  • Combine various sources of renewable energy;
  • Incorporate a design that is integrated with its surroundings.

 

How the EIC Greenathon will work 

The EIC Greenathon will be a fully virtual event, taking place over four mornings from Tuesday, 27 October to Friday 30 October 2020, 9.00 to 13:00 CET. The event will start with an introduction by the European Innovation Council, providing an insight into the new opportunities created by the European Green Deal. Following the in-depth challenge briefings, participants will work together in teams. They will identify collaborative solutions that will leverage the combined creativity and resources of enterprises, SMEs and researchers. The Greenathon will close with a round of pitches in front of a jury and the final prize ceremony.  

 

The challenges proposed by the EIC business partners require specific expertise. The EIC beneficiaries will apply to the overall event, not only to a particular challenge. After the introduction session, on 27 October 2020, the attendees will have the chance to participate in ideation workshops to have a more detailed idea on which challenges they would like to work on in teams. After that, participants will be able to register for the challenge they are most interested in/suitable for. 

 

Should you have any questions regarding the event, please refer to our helpdesk: https://community-smei.easme-web.eu/contact (please choose “EIC Greenathon” as the subject).

 

 

DISCLAIMER: This information is provided in the interest of knowledge sharing and should not be interpreted as the official view of the European Commission, or any other organisation.

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