Urban Energy Web. A transnational and common Energy City Platform for sustainability in the built environment

Knowledge on the energy related status of urban areas is an important basis for measures to improve sustainability and energy efficiency of the built environment. The “Urban Energy Web” project (UEb) developed an IT solution to share knowledge about energy consumption/energy behaviours of buildings and/or cities. The main output is the “UEb City Platform”, a transnational web based platform to be used both as “Information Portal” and “Decision Support System”. The platform was implemented and tested in two pilot areas: the city of Feltre, in the Veneto Region (Italy) and the region of Pinzgau Pongau, with a focus on the city of Zell Am See (Austria). The transnational level of the project and cooperation helped to compare policy disparities/differences. The application of the UEb methodology with different premises to the pilots triggered different results. In Feltre the UEb City Platform has been used for developing and integrating the Sustainable Energy Action Plan and to select some critic buildings to be included in a list of retrofitting intervention. In addition, the system triggered a network between experts, public administration and citizens. In Austria is used as an information portal for citizens, politicians and energy consultants. The platform includes indicators on refurbishment rates, average energy savings due to refurbishment, solar insolation on roofs, distances to district heating or gas infrastructure.