More than 80% of today’s European population lives in urban centres. In this situation, cities have a crucial role to play in the transition towards a more efficient and sustainable, low-carbon economy, in line with the competitiveness and environmental targets of the EU. Ensuring the quality of life of its inhabitants and developing clean and efficient energy systems integrated into urban strategies, are some of the main challenges that cities of today and tomorrow must addresss so that they can become smart cities. And this is precisely the objective of the SINFONIA project.
With a budget of €43m, the SINFONIA project is funded by the EU’s 7th Framework Programme which aims to implement integrated energy efficiency and saving solutions that can be applied on a large-scale to medium-sized European cities. The initiative, that started in June 2014, continuing until the end of May 2019, is focused on the cities of Bolzano (Italy) and Innsbruck (Austria), along with a further five European cities that, within the framework of this project, will set an example of sustainability with the energy efficient retrofitting of one thousand apartments.
In round numbers, the project will support the refurbishment of over 100,000 m2 over all seven participating cities; achieve an energy saving of between 40% and 50%; and increase the use of renewables by 20%. Read more…
Article published in: FuturENERGY October 2016