Lessons Learned from Positive Energy District (PED) Projects: Cataloguing and Analysing Technology Solutions in Different Geographical Areas in Europe

A Positive Energy District (PED) is a portion of urban area with defined boundaries that can produce energy in excess of its own consumption. The aim of this study is to analyse design variations among the six projects (12 case studies) of PED belonging to the European Smart Cities and Communities programme. Thus, it will be possible to identify the reasons behind the energy choices related to generation, storage and distribution that appear in the different geographical areas. To achieve this, different data were collected by consulting official documents and creating questionnaires that were communicated with the project representatives. Thus, the result of this study is a catalogue of the energy system solutions adopted in the studied PEDs with a critical analysis of the different motivations behind them in order to outline general trends in the geographical areas with similar characteristics. In conclusion, this study defined which technological choices are the most common in territories with similar profiles and how divergent those with different profiles are. Furthermore, applied to a large catalogue of PED, the methodology identified would make it possible to create different operating models for different territorial types and urban settlements.