The Smart Cities Marketplace team joined the mySMARTLife Final Conference in Hamburg (14 & 15 September).
Figure 1: The Smart Cities Marketplace rollup was placed in the exhibition area of the mySMARTLife Final Conference [1]
The first day of the Final Conference commenced with a festive opening ceremony by Almut Moeller (State Secretary and Plenipotentiary of the Free and Hanseatic City of Hamburg to the Federation, the European Union, and foreign affairs) and Georg Houben (Project Officer, Local Initiatives team, DG ENER, European Commission) stressing the importance of joined learning and cooperation in Europe.
Figure 2: Opening speeches by Almut Moeller (State Secretary and Plenipotentiary of the Free and Hanseatic City of Hamburg to the Federation, the European Union, and foreign affairs) and Georg Houben (Project Officer Local Initiatives Team, DG ENER, European Commission [2]
These two opening speeches were followed by a keynote speech from Thomas Osdoba (EIT Climate-KIC, NetZeroCities) “What to do to achieve a Climate-Neutral city in 2030: Barriers and –Drivers” and a short presentation by Baptiste Mougeot, SPL Lyon Confluence, Scalable Cities on The Smart Cities and Communities after the end of mySMARTLife.
Figure 3: Keynote speeches Thomas Osdoba (EIT Climate-KIC, NetZeroCities) and
by Baptiste Mougeot, SPL Lyon Confluence, Scalable Cities [3]
Furthermore, consortium members presented the successful interventions of mySMARTLife and the activities in the Lighthouse Cities of Nantes and Helsinki. A special focus of the first day was on knowledge transfer to engage with the representatives of the mySMARTLife Cities Network (please see more on the knowledge transfer session here) .
The second day was hands-on and on-site in the Hamburg demo site of Bergedorf, starting with a welcome by Cornelia Schmidt-Hofmann, Bezirksamtleitung in Bergedorf, and a keynote speech by Prof. Dr Jörg Knieling (HafenCity University, Hamburg) – “Towards Smart Cities: How should the transformation look like?” A round table discussion with German Lighthouse and carbon-neutral cities rounded up the morning and led to a study tour in Bergedorf.
Figure 4: Welcoming speech by Cornelia Schmidt-Hoffmann, Head of District Office Bergedorf & Keynote Speech by Prof. Dr. Jörg Knieling, HafenCity University, Hamburg [4]
The aim of the study tour was to showcase innovative technologies delivered as part of mySMARTLife in Hamburg. All participants of the Final Conference were transferred to the demo site with an e-bus.
On site a comprehensive presentation explained the the construction of a climate-friendly heating network in the development area "Am Schilfpark" in Hamburg-Bergedorf. The network supplies 273 flats with heating energy and hot water. The heat is supplied by two combined heat and power units (CHP) and two peak load boilers. The heating centre, which is supplied with natural gas, already operates with low CO2 emissions. But as part of the mySMARTLife project, emissions were further reduced: Hydrogen (H2) contributes to this.
Figure 5: District heat network including H2 contribution [5]
As shown on-site the fuel comes via the gas distribution network and a hydrogen feed-in plant. A feed-in plant adds an H2 admixture of up to 30% to the natural gas. This is the first time such a high proportion of H2 has been used in daily operations. Since mid-2020, the mixed gas has replaced the conventional natural gas heat supply in the project period until the end of November 2021. In this way, the project has gained valuable experience in the hydrogen-mixed operation of a heat supply built as a natural gas infrastructure. The focus is on operations with fluctuating proportions of hydrogen in the gas.
Figure 12: H2 contribution to the District Heating Network at the site in Hamburg Bergedorf [6]
[1] Photo credits: Steinbeis-Europa-Zentrum
[2] Photo credits: Steinbeis-Europa-Zentrum
[3] Photo credits: Steinbeis-Europa-Zentrum
[4] Photo credits: Steinbeis-Europa-Zentrum
[5] Photo credits: Hamburg Consortium
[6] Photo credits: Steinbeis-Europa-Zentrum