Pol4PED
Crafting Policies for Positive Energy Districts: A multi-domain perspective and model-based exploration
- Category
- Project
- Call
- DUT Call 2023
- Duration
- –
- Project coordinator
- Swiss Federal Laboratories for Materials Science and Technology (Empa)
Positive Energy Districts (PEDs) are central to Europe’s vision of climate-neutral cities, but their implementation and scaling remain limited. PEDs are inherently complex socio-technical systems: technically, existing building stocks require difficult trade-offs between retrofitting and renewable integration; economically, high upfront costs and financing structures act as barriers; socially, questions of affordability, acceptance, and vulnerability to climate impacts arise; and institutionally, fragmented policies and governance hinder coordination across actors. While research has explored technical feasibility or social aspects in isolation, an integrated, model-supported approach to policy design is still missing.
The specific gap that the Pol4PED project addresses is the absence of robust tools that connect techno-economic and socio-economic insights to guide effective policy mixes for PEDs. Its central research question is therefore: under which technical, economic, and social conditions can PEDs be realized in practice, and what targeted policies are required to accelerate their adoption across diverse urban contexts?
The Pol4PED project will develop a policy design toolbox that enables decision-makers to craft targeted and effective policy mixes for Positive Energy Districts. This toolbox will integrate techno-economic and socio-economic models through a platform-based design (PBD) approach, allowing different disciplinary perspectives to interact and exchange information.
Concretely, Pol4PED will
(i) identify drivers and barriers for PEDs across technical, social, economic, and legal domains;
(ii) represent these aspects in dedicated models, including optimization tools and agent-based simulations;
and (iii) integrate them into a modular, participatory framework.
The approach will be applied in case studies in Zurich, Vienna, and Groningen, representing diverse European contexts of urban regeneration. By combining model-based analysis with stakeholder engagement, the project will generate actionable policy insights, ensure real-world relevance, and provide a replicable methodology that supports cities across Europe in accelerating the rollout of PEDs.
The Pol4PED project will deliver an integrated policy toolbox for Positive Energy Districts that combines technical, economic, social, and legal dimensions into a single decision-support framework. Applied in Zurich, Vienna, and Groningen, this toolbox will generate actionable policy insights tailored to diverse local contexts while also providing transferable lessons for other European cities. The project’s outcomes will directly benefit municipalities and utilities by clarifying trade-offs, highlighting effective policy mixes, and supporting investment and planning. Citizens and communities will benefit from more inclusive and affordable PED pathways, designed with attention to acceptance and equity. For research and policy communities, Pol4PED will demonstrate a new, multi-domain modelling approach that bridges the gap between system design and policymaking. In the long term, these contributions will accelerate the uptake of PEDs, foster innovation, and support Europe’s transition toward climate-neutral, resilient, and socially just cities.
Austria
France
The Netherlands
Switzerland
Hanze University of Applied Sciences, Technische Universität Wien, World Sufficiency Lab
Elektrizitätswerk Der Stadt Zürich, Gemeente Groningen, Stadt Zürich, UIV Urban Innovation Vienna GmbH
Contact
Georgios Mavromatidis
georgios.mavromatidis@empa.ch