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Energy
Sustainable Mobility Plans, a key element for the decarbonisation of our cities
When we think of decarbonisation, the type of activity that comes to mind first and foremost is the implementation of large wind farms or solar farms that generate large amounts of clean energy. Or the much-needed refurbishment of buildings, which would drastically...
The demographic challenge, a challenge of contrasts. The case of Spain
You have probably heard or read in the news that many villages in the so-called “Empty Spain” are offering housing and work for those seeking new opportunities away from the big cities. Perhaps it may seem a desperate measure by these areas to cope with the the...
PLADEMI: access to energy services for development in Ibero-America
Universal acces to sustainable energy is an indisputable objective for the human development and the fight against poverty. Electrical energy services are vital "satisfiers" of human needs such as cooking and refrigeration, lighting, heating, trasnport, communication,...
BIM for renovation?
New European directives on energy efficiency, targeting a 55% reduction in greenhouse gas (GHG) emissions to be achieved by 2023, are triggering deep renovation building projects, which are largely responsible for these emissions. This high demand for the...
Energy Communities as key actors in the energy transition. Constitution process
We are currently witnessing a profound transformation of the global energy model, driven by the need to curb the steady increase in the Earth's temperature caused by climate change. The EU´s commitment to achieve climate neutrality by 2050 and to reduce GHG emissions...
Climate and sustainability policies, how are they related and why are they essential for the future of the planet?
Climate change is a phenomenon which has been scientifically observed for several decades, but it was not until the 1980´s that the term became widely popular and it has been growing ever since. Nowadays, not a week goes by without a new alarming headline appears,...
High temperature heat-pumps: a sustainable and efficient solution through industrial decarbonisation
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...
Is all that glitters gold? (When talking about heat pumps)
"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...
We say goodbye to mySMARTLife
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...
COP27: why decisions on climate change made at this summit affect you?
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...
Overview of flexible demand management
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...
Heating: alternatives to gas that are easy on the wallet
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...
Maps, a window to knowledge
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...
SmartEnCity, main character of the Europe Congress Palace
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...
Energy poverty makes its way in Europe between heatwaves and energy prices
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...
Quantum Computing is not science fiction
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...
Why Central Asia has become a hotspot for Europe?
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...
From Apollo 13 to the Digital Building Twins
"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...
The spanish position at the Climate-Neutral and Smart Cities Mission
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 may end up owning a power generation company.
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...
House and moon
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...
Will we gave out of the cave?
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...
Sustainable mobility plans: It´s now or never
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, a reality we have to face
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 future electricity grids would be more strong and efficient
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...
Industrial technology within reach of citizens: residential cogeneration
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...
“NON-EXHAUST PARTICLES”: The huge unknown of the road transport
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...
SOS Planet eart: challenges and solutions through the decarbonization of the construction sector
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...
The next step of our cities: the climate neutrality
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...
The challenge of the characterisation of the building stock
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...
Consumer energy flexibility
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...
How can we improve energy efficiency at home?
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...
What role does the building sector play in the post-COVID era on the path to climate neutrality?
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...
What if urban water networks could become a resource of renewable energy?
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...
Can mathematical models help us to take care our planet?
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...
Biomethane and biohydrogen: the future of energy is here
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 for a better planet
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...
From consumer to prosumer
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...
Going green on your car (in a good way)
As you may already know, the increase in greenhouse gas emissions (mainly carbon dioxide and methane) as a consequence of human activity is one of the main reasons behind the faster pace of the climate change in the last decades. And among the wide range of causes,...
From natural gas to biogas and biomethane
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...
Welcome, self-supply!
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...
The beginning of Valladolid as Smart City
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...
What do we make with the large wind farms when they become waste?
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...
What to think to invest in infrastructures?
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...
How do we achieve a smart and sustainable city?
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...
Yes, you should put the blame on REMOURBAN
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...
Plastic planet
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...
CITyFiED Project: four years of energy efficiency actions
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...