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The #eCitySevilla project is a pioneering initiative in Spain that proposes to transform the Cartuja Science and Technology Park in Seville into a decarbonised island with a totally renewable and digital energy supply by 2025 that will serve as a model for the cities of the future.
Cities have become the preferred places for the human population, so much so that more than 50% of people live in them. Over the years, people have been sharing their knowledge and experiences in cities. This makes them a scenario where major global trends like the increase in energy demand, the effects of climate change and the scarcity of resources are developed.
The lifestyle that has been promoted in recent decades has put our planet in a state of environmental and social alarm. And to progress towards a better future it is necessary to begin to change not only how, but also where we live.
eCitySevilla is a pioneering public-private collaboration initiative in Spain, led by the Andalusian Regional Government, the Seville City Council, the Cartuja Science and Technology Park and Endesa, and they have already been joined by a number of companies, institutions, universities and research centres.
The aim of this project is for the Isla de la Cartuja (Seville) to lead the way towards the sustainable cities of the future, making it a benchmark for urban energy transition that can be copied internationally. With this in mind, a city model is proposed for an open, digital, decarbonised and sustainable ecosystem by 2025, thus anticipating by twenty-five years the Sustainable Development Goals for energy and climate established for 2050.
The Isla de la Cartuja consists of 200 hectares where 523 companies live together and about 23,000 people work and it aims to become a smart city, 100% self-sufficient in terms of energy and free of emissions. With this in mind, the project will pay special attention to sustainable mobility, digitalisation and the energy supply.
The proposal is to create a process for energy rehabilitation in the park's main buildings (the 50 with the highest energy consumption) and to invite the rest of the buildings to join in this challenge to reduce their current consumption by 35% and for the resulting final demand (heating, air-conditioning and lighting) to be supplied through renewable energy sources, mostly of photovoltaic origin produced within the island's own enclosure, which will be able to show a high degree of energy self-sufficiency, in a quasi-isolated system.
Once the energy rehabilitation of the main buildings and facilities has been completed, reducing their electricity consumption (35% of energy efficiency for the buildings) the project envisages the installation of up to 30 MWp of photovoltaic energy with an annual production of 59 GWh, enough to supply 100% of the current needs for the island (85 GWh per year).
This will involve a commitment to 100% renewable energy sources, by implementing self-consumption installations. This energy will mostly be of photovoltaic origin generated within the area itself.
Self-consumption installations would be complemented by large photovoltaic installations, in car parks and other private locations.
From the point of view of mobility, eCitySevilla will encourage sustainable models. This will be achieved by creating a sustainable mobile fleet of vehicles which will not only involve making the area more suitable for pedestrians and cyclists, but also promoting the use of electric vehicles. 200 charging stations will be installed in order to replace the 2,000 vehicles that circulate daily through the PCT Cartuja with electric vehicles before 2025.
What is more, to develop the mobility aspect of the project, the strategic position of this technology park has been taken into account, which, although it is located just a few minutes from the city centre, has a degree of independence that will enable it to develop an emission-free model.
All the infrastructures contemplated in the project require the development of a smart electricity grid. These networks not only enable new shared uses of energy, they also enable a greater degree of automation and control and are able to integrate local generation of renewable and distributed energy and implement new business models associated with this energy model.
Together with a commitment to digitalisation throughout the environment, all this will make it possible to have an open data system to gather information, exchange it and to analyse it using advanced technologies, and in this way create a model that can be used at an international level via a platform enabled for this purpose.