The objective of the project is to develop products and solutions for building neighborhoods that will lead to wide scale implementation of building neighborhoods with zero emissions of greenhouse gases.
A zero emission neighborhood is a neighborhood where GHG emissions from construction and operation of buildings, energy infrastructure, and transportation of inhabitants are balanced by local production of renewable energy.
The ZEN Centre will shift the focus from individual buildings to a group of buildings. This will result in the need for new research activities not yet studied in the current ZEB Centre. Examples are:
- Efficient local renewable energy systems interacting with smart grids
- Efficient exchange of energy between buildings, between buildings and local and district energy systems and storage systems, between buildings and transportation
- Life cycle analysis of buildings and energy infrastructure including forecasting
- New and improved ICT solutions for enhanced user/energy technology integration
- New business and management models for all stakeholders
- Demonstration and testing projects: upgrading of existing neighborhoods, new neighborhood developments, infill projects, and living labs