oPEN Lab | Objectives
The main objective of oPEN Lab is to upgrade the existing buildings and district facilities in specific neighbourhoods in the cities of Tartu, Pamplona and Genk to fully operational Positive Energy Neighbourhoods and operate them as Positive Energy Neighbourhood Living Labs.
A Positive Energy Neighbourhood is understood to be an energy-efficient and energy-flexible urban area or group of connected buildings, which produces net-zero greenhouse gas emissions and actively manages an annual local or regional surplus of renewable energy.
The oPEN Lab project will demonstrate the feasibility of promising technologies, processes and social innovations, leading towards Positive Energy Neighbourhoods and paving the way for wider replication.
The oPEN Lab objective is based on the following principles:
- To engage and involve the neighbourhoods’ communities in the creation of a vision for their oPEN Lab Positive Energy Neighbourhood, by using participatory approaches.
- To test innovation in an integrated approach combining the sustainable design tailored to the local context, the seamless industrial renovation workflow as well as the generation of renewable energy combined with storage systems.
- To accelerate the spread of oPEN Lab Positive Energy Neighbourhoods by upscaling and replicating the solutions tested within the regions and countries of the Living Labs and across Europe.
- To showcase how the innovative technologies and participatory processes applied in oPEN Lab Positive Energy Neighbourhoods can best contribute to the implementation of the Renovation Wave and its objective of doubling the renovation rate in the EU.
