BILBAO LAUNCHES ENERGY TRANSITION INITIATIVE TO FIND INNOVATIVE SOLUTIONS IN ZORROTZAURRE AS PART OF ATELIER
- ATELIER was officially presented this morning at a working session chaired by Asier Abaunza, Councillor for Works, Urban Planning and Strategic Projects of Bilbao City Council, Alfonso Gil, Councillor for Mobility and Sustainability of Bilbao City Council, Javier Marqués, Technical Director of EVE, Iñaki San Sebastián, Director General of Tecnalia and the Overall Project Coordinator at European level, Frans Verspeek.
- The purpose of this initiative is to create and replicate districts which generate more energy than they consume and to create an energy vision of the city with a view to 2050.
- Under the ATELIER framework, Bilbao and Amsterdam are the two cities selected to create and propose innovative solutions for the generation of energy which will then be replicated in another six European cities.
(Bilbao, 15 April 2021). The presentation of the ATELIER project was held in Bilbao this morning. As part of this initiative, Bilbao and Amsterdam have been chosen as lighthouse cities, to provide innovative solutions for energy transition which will then be replicated in another six European cities. In the case of Bilbao, Zorrotzaurre is to be the experimental space for the project. Taking these experiences as the starting point, the cities will develop the Energy Vision of their city for 2050.
The presentation of ATELIER took place at Bilbao City Council, at a working session chaired by Asier Abaunza, Councillor for Works, Urban Planning and Strategic Projects of Bilbao City Council, in which Alfonso Gil, Councillor for Mobility and Sustainability of Bilbao City Council, Javier Marqués, Technical Director of EVE, Iñaki San Sebastián, Director General of Tecnalia, and the Overall Project Coordinator at European level, Frans Verspeek also participated.
Following the initial presentation, a diagnostics workshop for energy transition in Bilbao was developed. Other social entities from the project and different stakeholders also took part in this session. The DAFO Bilbao diagnostics workshop is defined as a collaborative process in which the different stakeholders involved in the city’s energy transition can contribute their knowledge or express their concerns.
ATELIER (which stands for AmsTErdam BiLbao cItizen drivEn smaRt cities) is a project which forms part of the European Smart Cities and Communities Lighthouse programme, aiming to create and replicate districts which generate more energy than they consume in eight European cities. The project also includes the development of an Energy Vision for 2050 for all the participating cities. The key components of the City Vision will define the medium- and long-term objectives of the cities, and the transition scenarios for effective decarbonisation and to complete the city’s energy system.
ATELIER will search for innovative solutions in these two cities, Amsterdam and Bilbao, while the other six members of the project, Bratislava, Budapest, Copenhagen, Krakow, Matosinhos and Riga will replicate the experiences.
ATELIER is a European project with 30 partners working together on the development of smart cities, in which decarbonisation and energy transition will be the vectors of change for the eight European participating cities. ATELIER aims to try out new technologies, new financial and business models which help to promote innovative projects in energy.
Budget and experimental centres in Bilbao
ATELIER will last 5 years and has a total budget of almost 22 million Euros, of which the European Commission is to provide €20M. Of this figure, 8 million will be allocated to Bilbao with a team formed by Bilbao City Council, which will also coordinate all of the local consortium, Zorrotzaurre Management Commission, Tecnalia, Iberdrola, EVE, TELUR, University of Deusto, Zabala Innovation Consulting, Cartif and the Energy Cluster. Of these, 1.8 million Euros will be directly managed by the City Council.
Credits: Municipality of Bilbao