The ” Citemos ”(High-Tech Cities for Sustainable mobility) Festival took place in Vicenza, from the 15^th  to the 17^th  of September 2017, to promote the smart innovations in favour of the sustainable mobility

 

The idea of the Festival arises from the awareness that the contemporary society is undergoing a phase of profound sociocultural, economic and technological transformations, which will have a major impact on the lives of citizens, on the work of institutions and on business activities.

The Festival highlighted a strong need to:

• understand the evolution of the scenario more thoroughly,
• stimulate greater awareness among stakeholders, providing them with operational tools to increase their capacity in coherence with the evolution of the European context.

Citemos Festival allowed to exploit the “Futuro elettrizzante” initiative (Electrifying future initiative) of Confartigianato di Vicenza (Vicenza Crafts Confederation), which aims to make the city of Vicenza a space for experimenting new models of sustainable mobility: a survey carried out by the Vicenza Crafts Confederation highlighted that at least 10,000 businesses of Vicenza area use vehicles for daily journeys of less than 100 km; so they are perfectly compatible with the autonomy of electric traction vehicles. To combat the levels of pollution, being Vicenza among the most polluted provinces of Italy (for particulate matter and fine dust), Vicenza Crafts Confederation has launched several actions to create an experimental network of charging columns for battery vehicles, spaced up to a maximum of 50 km, in order to ensure a complete territorial coverage. The project sees the involvement of numerous Municipalities of Veneto region, including Vicenza.

Therefore, today it is crucial to be able to spread a new culture made of “good practices” to be transferred to cities and regions of Europe. Many private companies of Veneto region have actively participated in the Citemos Festival.

During the morning of Saturday, 16th of September, Anci Lazio, the association of the municipalities of the entire Lazio Region, took part in a seminar of the Citemos Festival, bringing its multi-annual experience in European Programmes. Anci Lazio highlighted the importance of European territorial cooperation, because very often “it is just about copying good practices existing in some European regions to find new solutions for the development of sustainable mobility and improving the quality of life of our cities”. In this sense, the ongoing project of the EV Energy under Interreg Europe Programme was illustrated during this seminar: EV Energy allow Anci Lazio and its partners from several European regions and cities to exchange good practices and innovative policies that promote renewable energies, electric mobility and the use of ICT for their integration.

The project aims to pave the way for a transition from fossil driven energy towards fair priced, decarbonised, clean and integrated resources and mobility systems in urban areas.

Through interregional policy learning, the most appropriate policies will be transferred to cities, regions and partner countries and implemented subsequently.  Identified best practices and policies are further disseminated for the benefit of the widest possible impact on the European regions.

The audience of the Citemos Festival showed a great interest in EV Energy as this project offers the opportunity to share solutions and transfer best practices and policies in between cities, regions and partner countries, specifically on renewable energies, electric mobility and the use of ICT for their integration. The audience perfectly understood that EV Energy is focusing on the crucial challenges that arise with increased power demand due to electric vehicle charging, and how they can be met by coordinating with renewable power production in the electrical system. In addition, EV Energy project highlights the need for integrating the required electric vehicle charging infrastructure with the expansion of the distribution and transmission system.

The Festival of Vicenza offered to EV Energy a prime opportunity to discuss the significant future impact of E-Mobility on power system design and operation.

This is the reason why EV Energy aims to bring together experts on electric vehicles, charging infrastructure, power system operators, and stakeholders of the renewable energy industry as well as power system regulators and universities.

EV Energy is a project funded under the European Commission’s programme for interregional cooperation Interreg Europe, involving Green IT Amsterdam Region (NL) Barcelona Official Chamber of Commerce, Industry, Services and Navigation (ES) EUR S.p.A. (IT) Regional Association of Lazio Municipalities – ANCI Lazio (IT) Kaunas University of Technology (LT) Province of Flevoland (NL) Stockholm County Council, Growth and regional planning administration (SE)

The project’s total budget is € 1,049,797 out of which the European Regional Development Fund (ERDF) co-finances 85%.

 

Claudio Bordi European project expert