The project aims to develop a portfolio of innovative solutions to be integrated into the built infrastructure, with the final goal of further enabling positive energy buildings (PEB) and districts (PED) within the future energy landscape. The solutions’ set developed within UPCHANGE will include the integration of renewable energy generation systems in the built environment, digitalization solutions for building energy management and in district energy networks; the proposal will also include a toolkit of solutions for building (and district) performance assessment.

The scientific aim of the project is to enable PEB and PED through innovative technologies, digitalization, sustainability and energy resilience. This will be achieved through diverse solutions encompassing demand-side management analyses, multi functional active facade design and testing, development of a building energy flexibility tool, and digital approaches for data collection and energy profiling and forecasting.

The UPCHANGE solutions relate within both challenge 1 and challenge 2 of the call to: 

achieving climate-neutral buildings and urban blocks through an increased reliance on local renewables, designing, testing, and developing innovative solutions for active façades, and developing interoperable data management tools and Artificial Intelligence support toolkit for PEBs and PEDs. Additionally, the project also aims to develop demand response strategies for district-scale applications, investigate synergies with energy communities, neutral and PED, and climate neutral cities policies, and demonstrate the feasibility and scalability of the UPCHANGE toolkit through diverse pilot projects in the urban environment.