Decarbonisation of the industrial sector is currently is at the heart of the European agenda, as it seeks to reduce greenhouse gas emissions and achieve agreed climate targets. The European Union aims to be climate neutral by 2050; that is to say, it has set itself...

"Pumps, pumps..." So goes one of the best-known songs by a Spanish artist from the early and mid-90s Spanish music scene. Although too much has happened since then, we can relate the theme to the current energy crisis we are suffering, caused by the war between...

The closing process of a successful project, executed for 7 years continuously (60 months of implementation and almost a year of preparation), always carries a bittersweet feeling. On the one hand, there is the satisfaction of having achieved the objective, which is...

From November 6 to 20, the 27th Conference of the Parties took place in Sharm el Sheikh, where state leaders met in search of agreements against climate change and the definition of an action plan to deal with the challenges current. In this blog we reveal the...

A few weeks ago, SmartEn1 association published an estimate of the benefits that could be achieved through flexible demand management. Recall that flexible demand management is the set of actions that stimulate consumers to change their usual pattern of electricity...

Figure 1. Tracing Valladolid heat networks. Source: SOMACYL The COVID-19 hangover has left us with a supply crisis with long queues (not only at the supermarket) that has increased the prices of equipment and all kinds of components. In addition, the armed conflict...

Interrelationship between maps and data When we talk about the word map, the image of a drawing representing countries and oceans comes to mind. For the most veteran of us, maps can bring back memories of the times when we used to have those folded maps in our cars...

We have already spoken on numerous occasions about the impact of cities on energy consumption and emissions generated to the environment. And consequently, also of the important role that they have to play in the necessary transition towards climate neutrality, the...

Last June the European Commission (from the Energy Poverty Advisory Hub: EPAH) published a handbook as a guide to understand and addressing energy poverty, which has become a reality in Europe, and particularly in Spain. Although there is no agreement on a common...

For many science fiction fans, quantum computers are those gadgets than can make everything and that they are installed as on-board computers in spacecrafts or they appear as laptops of reduced size and sophisticated aesthetics. For many of those that aren´t fans of...

In 2020, the European Commission launched a Research proposal (or "topic") with a budget of 10 million Euros that aimed at the development of innovative and sustainable mini-hydropower solutions in Central Asia. What makes this remote part of the world special for the...

"Houston, we`ve had a problem" This phrase, which is now part of history and sounds familiar to most of us, even if we belong to a different generation, was used by the astronauts on board the Apollo 13 spacecraft after an oxygen tank on board explosion. This happened...

As already mentioned in other posts, climate change and the degradation of the environment is an existential threat and one of the main challenges Europe and the rest of the world are facing nowadays. Acting in a pretentiously ambitious way, the European Commission...

You thought it would never happen, but you´re watching it happen. Your world upsidedown at an unexpected speed. Ecologists announced a different world according to their believes, but it turns out that in the end it will be the cold sceptics of the Excel sheet who...

It is common knowledge that the moon goes through phases depending on its relative position between the earth and the sun. Thanks to that nights can be a showcase for looking to the starry skies or the perfect environment so that lycanthropes can take on vampires. In...

Caves were our first home but, have we stopped to think about how our ancestors felt in the cold mornings of winter? And in hot summer days? We may be surprised... Humanity had had multiple and different homes. From the tipis of the american indians to the skyscrapers...

It is undeniable that the coming decades will be crucial for both the society and the Earth´ s environmental health, so it will be determined if our Planet is able or not to support all the world population. Nowadays, it seems that the situation is more than...

Climate change is an increasingly visible reality on our planet, affecting millions of people around the world. These changes in climate are clearly recognizable by the increase in temperatures, the decrease in water resources, the sea level rise or the increasingly...

The energy sector is undergoing a deep transformation to respond to the need to combat climate change and thus contribute to the sustainability of life onour planet. This is being articulated through the so-called "Energy Transition", which involves two big...

Do you know what cogeneration is? Cogeneration refers to the simultaneous production of electricity and heat, our two main basic energetic needs. The benefits of these technologies are multiple: It´ s 40% more efficient than producing electricity and heat...

The road transport is the main source of particles emissions in the urban environment and one of the most importantat at a global level. Consciouss of the gravity of the problem , the European Union established limits, each time more restrictive, for the scape...

What does it mean the tears of Alon Sharma during the closure of the COP26 of Glasgow? Only one week separate us from the celebration of the last Conference of the United Nations about the Climate Change (COP26), and in my mind has been recorded the downcast image of...

As a Technology Centre devoted to R&D&I and at the head of projects whose main goal is the innovation, in CARTIF we have been active in the clear evolution of the challenges or objectives that the European Commission has set to our cities and urban...

It is well know that more than a third of the total final energy consumed in the European Union is consumed in residential and tertiary sector buildings. For this reason, in recent years, various directives and calls for proposals have tried to promote the renovation...

There are two things that have nothing to do with each other but that in real, they have to: the perplexity of a roe deer in the foothills of the Torozos hills when she founds a fence surrounding a photovoltaic park and that the 64%1 of the Spanish people do not know...

When we hear energy efficiency, we always think in improving productive process in facories where we work, in the means of transport we use to move... but never in daily chores in our home. Actions as common as choosing an appliance or the cooking way, establish the...

It is a reality that the building stock, not only in Spain, but in Europe in general is outdated. Although this can be a positive indication that cities have years and history, and buildings can be heritage with high historical value, the reality is also that a large...

Water is a source of life... and energy. In this post, we are addressing the water-energy nexus in the urban context, where both resources are essential and at the same time critical with an unexorable increase in the demand due to demographic movements and economic...

In recent years, it has been heard more and more frequently talking about such an abstract concept as mathematical models in an abstract appearance. With the COVID-19 epidemic, news bulletins were filled with news with "predictions" about what could happen in the...

Both biomethane and biohydrogen are two gases that have been going strong in our current energy landscape. Both have a renewable origin and their formation can be associated with CO2 capture and storage processes, another of the great objectives of our society to...

Blockchain technology has been explained in a previous entry of this Blog, and another entry about Blockchain and the electric market customers is also available. This new entry is again focused on this technology but, in this case, it will be focused on all the...

Most users have been consuming electricity in the same way our entire lives. We simply know that we can plug in the electrical device wqe want at any time, and that, in return, at the end of the month, we get a bill (for many, more difficult to understand than an...

In the arduous path towards sustainable development, research to obtain alternative fuels to fossils is presented as a key point. In this framework, two interesting actors have emerged to stay: biogas and biomethane. Before going into the subject, let's dig a bit into...

Undoubtedly, the electric sector in Spain has evolved during the past years, especially with regard to self-supply aspects. Time has elapsed since 2004, when the premium regime for the renewable energies was established. Gone are the first regulations about...

R2CITIES, the Smart City project with which our city began the road towards efficiency and sustainability, has come to an end. Five years of project, and some more until it materialized, have been necessary to design, implement and evaluate the energy rehabilitation...

In a village of La Mancha, the name of which I have no desire to call to mind... an ingenious knight glimpses on the horizon old windmills. Believing that they were giants, he tries to defeat them with the help of his squire and the available weapons of the time. Do...

It is weekend. Dinner with friends at home and the dishwasher is damaged. After washing the dishes by hand, I set out a question: ‘what do you value most when buying a dishwasher? This is one of the situations where it is clear that the dishwasher exists because there...

For some years, we have been listening to talking about smart cities, more sustainable environments… but, in some cases we do not know what kind of strategies could do our city to turn into one of them. When we refer to Smart City, we talk about cities concerned with...

I try to go there every time I can, to the FASA-Delicias district, and it still amazes me that, at the end, we have been able to make a small part of Valladolid a better neighbourhood for the people living there. Most times I don’t stop there, due to lack of time. But...

Oceans have become plastic soups and garbage patch, where 8 millions of tonnes of plastic are discharged every year and consequently remains floating in the seas, moreover tonnes of this material are accumulated in dumps. Plastic gets to forests, rivers and are found...

Retrofitting actions at Torrelago (Spain) district are coming to an end and a new time for reflection, analysis and assessment is about to start. CITyFiED is at the heart of Laguna de Duero (Valladolid, Spain) and has established the foundations towards a more...

Anti-pollution measures, speed limits, parking restrictions, even the grey sky colour, and very, very alarming data. These are the consequences of the circulation of our cars in big cities. According to the European Environment Agency (EEA), more than 13% of the...

According to the United Nations, in 2014 more than half of the world’s population was living in urban areas and two third of the world’s population will be living in an urban area by 2050 being Europe the most urbanized continent (URBACT, 2015). The forecast for 2050...

Even though the term Geographic Information System (GIS) is well-known, it is possible that many of you don’t know what applications it might have or its relevance in the energy field. Put in short, GIS (or SIG, in Spanish) are all software in charge of the treatment...

That the self-consumption is a real option and that is going to grow little by little is evident. But are we really prepared? The next few lines describe some steps to establish it in our homes. In the subject of self-consumption there is a concept that we must never...

Urban mobility is paramount to address cities’ sustainable regeneration due to the number of issues that derive from a non-sustainable and non-efficient urban transport strategy. Urban transport represents almost a quarter of all the EU transport CO2 emissions....