IREEN – ICT Roadmap for Energy Efficient Neighbourhoods
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IREEN is a strategy project which examines the ways that ICT for energy efficient and performance can be extended beyond individual homes and buildings to the wider context of neighbourhoods and communities. The key aim is to extend the notion of energy positive buildings and by extension, districts and neighbourhoods. “Energy positive” are buildings/areas being those that have the capacity to generate more energy than they use. This can be achieved in three ways:
- Low energy consumption – less than the energy than they have produced over a given time;
- Facilitating eco-responsible behaviours;
- Consuming low energy over their “life cycle” requiring less energy for their construction and less for the use by users/occupants.
Taking the context of current industry social and economic trends and challenges currently facing Europe, the project will engage with a wide range of stakeholders including those from technology, energy, construction, local authorities, building managers and owners. IREEN aims to engage European and other international experts and stakeholders in discussions and workshops to gather their input in to a strategy and the final output from the project a roadmap. The expertise will be drawn from the energy sector (both providers and distributors); the technology industry including appliance manufacturers, infrastructure and software technologists; the construction sector; stakeholders from the demand side including local and regional authorities. IREEN will also connect to smart cities partnerships across Europe.