Riga, 16 June 2023:
On June 13-16. 2023, more than 50 partner representatives from 11 European countries of the EU-funded Smart City project ATELIER met in its partner city Riga. The meeting focused on aligning the work of researchers, municipalities and industry partners involved, as well as on getting to know Riga’s local stakeholders and ecosystem.
ATELIER develops Positive Energy Districts in the two Lighthouse Cities Amsterdam and Bilbao. The Fellow Cites Copenhagen, Bratislava, Budapest, Krakow, Matosinhos and Riga closely follow the process and prepare the replication of successful measures in their cities. Positive Energy Districts are an impactful tool to achieve climate-neutrality in cities by increasing clean energy production in the district, lowering the energy consumption and managing the system in a smart way. The project started in 2019 and is now producing its first key results. Every year, the partners meet in one of the project cities. The Riga meeting was originally planned to take place in June 2022. Following the uncertain situation after the start of the Russian aggression towards Ukraine, the meeting was moved to June 2023.
The meeting was hosted by the Riga Municipal Agency “Riga Energy Agency”. It took place at Riga City Hall in the heart of Riga’s historical city centre. Half of the meeting consisted of many internal workshops in which the progress of the last months was reviewed and plans for the coming months were made. The other half was about getting to know Riga’s local stakeholders and ecosystem. This included a visit of Riga’s neighbourhood Skanste – the area that is intended to be transformed into a Positive Energy District. Since energy production is a key topic in the project, the consortium visited the municipal district heating company “Rīgas siltums” and discussed challenges and opportunities with the company’s board of management. On day 3 and 4 of the meeting, local Riga stakeholders were invited to Riga City Hall to meet the consortium members, learn more about the ATELIER project and key developments connected to it, such as Riga’s commitment to become climate-neutral by 2030 together with 100 European cities and the next steps to be undertaken by the municipality together with local stakeholders to reach the set climate goals. The meetings were chaired by ATELIER’s project coordinator for Riga Nika Kotoviča from Riga Energy Agency and Selīna Vancāne, Elected Councillor and Head of the Climate-Neutrality Commission.
ATELIER’s meeting in Riga was a successful gathering of energy transition experts from all over Europe. It strengthened the bonds between the partners, provided thorough insights into Riga’s potential, challenges and plans for the future.
The ATELIER consortium consists of the following members:
City of Amsterdam (NL)
City of Bilbao (SP)
Tecnalia (SP)
TNO (NL)
Cartif (SP)
De Waag Society (NL)
Amsterdam University of Applied Sciences (NL)
Paul Scherrer Institute (CH)
Steinbeis Europa Zentrum (DE)
City of Budapest (HU)
City of Matosinhos (PO)
City of Riga (LT)
City of Copenhagen (DK)
City of Bratislava (SK)
City of Krakow (PL)
DEUSTOTECH (SP)
Cluster de Energía (SP)
IBERDROLA (SP)
TELUR (SP)
EVE (SP)
SPECTRAL (NL)
Republica Development VOF (NL)
Developer Poppies Location (NL)
Amsterdam Institute for Metropolitan Solutions (NL)
Waternet (NL)
DNV-GL (NL)
Greenchoice (NL)
Zabala Innovation Consulting (SP)
Fraunhofer ITWM (GE)
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Project Coordinator
City of Amsterdam
Main Press Contact
Regine Wehner, Steinbeis Europa Zentrum
Regine.Wehner@steinbeis-europa.eu
Further information:
Twitter: @AtelierH2020
Website: www.smartcity-atelier.eu