Copenhagen

COPENHAGEN. City of Copenhagen – Technical and Environmental Administration -Department of Mobility, Climate Adaptation and Urban Maintenance is Partner of the KINETIC project making available for PED study and deployment the Folehaven area of the city. Copenhagen wants a holistic approach that targets the transformation of the city’s energy system through the insertion of renewable energy infrastructures (both wind turbines and photovoltaic panels) that will have an impact both at the level of individual housing (renovation of buildings) but also at the level of neighbourhoods. The main focus of the city is the creation of an efficient, sustainable and healthy environment for the inhabitants that preserves the architectural and landscape assets of the buildings and the area, all while ensuring the green transition of the private residential properties.

Co-create Copenhagen is the vision for 2025 and it has three aims; To create ‘A Liveable City’, ‘A City with an edge’ and ‘A Responsible City’. In the responsible city, the City of Copenhagen aims at becoming the first carbon neutral capital, climate-proof by establishing new green urban spaces, and resource efficient by wasting no resources and being a leader in the circular economy. The Architecture Policy Copenhagen 2017-2025 is called Architecture for people to illustrate that we strive to put people first in a city with buildings and open spaces. The policy includes transformation and flexible design, using LCA of building materials and exploiting existing building capacity by making rooftop flats. City of Copenhagen has worked to become the world’s first CO2-neutral capital by 2025.

Establishing Demo Sites Transformation Pathways

Empowering Energy Communities and Overcoming Regulatory Hurdles

The first 3 co-creation workshops for Copenhagen’s KINETIC DEMO city yielded key insights for the Energy Transformation Roadmap, focusing on the Bavnehøj neighbourhood. The land-use mix in the Banehoj area provides various input areas for the strategy, including multifamily housing/social housing (building 1945 – in need of rehabilitation) and public buildings such as schools, firefighter centre, and swimming pool, all of which require significant energy for heating.

The Copenhagen Municipality and Aalborg University are collaborating to explore the potential for LEC (Local Energy Communities) as a core component of the PED concept for the city’s green transition. The L37 Act, which enables energy communities to create “direct lines” and potentially made it possible to develop new (virtual) measuring points for energy, has been a barrier to creating energy communities in many cases. Through the co-creation process, there have been identified 2 potential directions for the PED Transformation. 

For the PED Transformation strategy two scenarios have been identified. 

In Scenario 1, challenges arising from changes in Danish energy community laws hinder potential positive returns for energy communities, compelling housing associations to develop mobilisation capacities for reducing consumption and selecting electricity suppliers in a competitive green energy market. Consequently, housing associations may seek RES-based shared infrastructures for heating, though upgrading heating systems presents challenges such as increased rent, extensive installation, and transparency issues. 

In Scenario 2, addressing legal barriers to energy communities is crucial, particularly the inability to exchange energy between plots due to regulations and energy tariff laws. Short-term solutions prioritise making buildings self-sufficient and oriented towards renewable energy sources (RES), while long-term strategies involve updating legislative barriers and ensuring combined energy balances to establish energy communities where public buildings play a significant role in neighbourhood energy balances.

Existing regulatory monopolies pose challenges for local energy sharing, impeding investments like solar panels. KINETIC is preparing a technical assessment for the PED potential, considering both transformation scenarios, aiming for a flexible strategy guiding the neighbourhood’s energy transformation for the next 15-20 years.