On 6 July, the +CityxChange proposal was formally invited by the European Commission to become a new smart city lighthouse project, under the “Smart Cities and Communities” call of the EU research and innovation programme Horizon 2020. For the next five years, the cities of Trondheim, Limerick, Alba Iulia, Písek, Sestao, Smolyan and Võru will experiment on how to become smart positive energy cities, that use digital services to improve quality of life for and together with all of their citizens, generate more energy than they consume, and exchange experiences with cities across Europe to learn faster, together. Under the leadership of the Norwegian University of Science and Technology, these seven cities will develop and test new solutions together with an impressive list of 11 large enterprises, 9 SMEs, 3 non-for-profit organisations and 2 universities, covering the entire value chain: IES R&D, Powel AS, University of Limerick, Energy Agency of Plovdiv, Future Analytics Consulting, Research2Market Solutions, ISOCARP, TrønderEnergi AS, ABB Norway, AtB, AVIS Budget Group, Statkraft Varme AS, ESB Innovation RoI Ltd, ESB Networks, Ove Arup & Partners SAU, FourC AS, R.Kjeldsberg, Smart MPower, Space Engagers, Colaborativa, Officinae Verdi, IOTA Foundation, NHP Eiendom, and GKinetic Energy Ltd. The independent experts evaluating the proposal commend +CityxChange for demonstrating and substantiating actions that will contribute to the wide-scale roll-out of Positive Energy Districts across Europe, with a convincing approach to make local governments an active and integral part of the energy solution, engaging citizens in the city transformation, and involving the entire district energy value chain, extending to high level policy makers and cities, universities, large enterprises, distributed network operators, SMEs, and non-profit organisations.

R2M Solution is responsible for effectively scaling-up the solutions identified through the projects within the cities involved, replicate the proposed approach to other European cities and exploit the solutions into the diverse markets. We will support the developments by providing a clear picture of needs, requirements and legislative framework which will allot to refine the technical development and the definition of the real business cases for the demonstration cases.