Proven Smart City Toolkit for Energy-Efficient District Renovation and Urban Mobility

Imagine three major European cities — Lyon, Munich, and Vienna — each picking a neighbourhood and giving it a complete makeover: insulating buildings so they use half the energy, installing solar panels and district heating, adding electric car-sharing stations, and putting smart sensors on lampposts to monitor everything. Then they wrote down exactly how they did it so other cities can copy the playbook. It's like a home renovation show, but for entire urban districts, and with real data proving what works and what the costs are.

What needed solving

European cities face enormous pressure to cut building emissions and modernise urban mobility, but district-scale renovation projects are notoriously hard to finance, coordinate, and replicate. Most municipalities lack a proven playbook for integrating building refurbishment, renewable energy, smart infrastructure, and e-mobility into a single bankable programme. Without real-world deployment data and tested business models, each city starts from scratch.

What was built

The project delivered refurbished buildings across 151,800 m² with renewable energy systems, deployed smart data platforms with integrated sensor networks and intelligent lampposts, launched EV car-sharing systems and mobility stations, and established urban living labs for citizen engagement in Lyon, Munich, and Vienna. A bankability protocol and replication toolkit were created for other cities to follow.

Who needs this

Who can put this to work

Quick answers

Who built it

With 54 partners across 8 countries, this is one of the larger smart city consortia in Horizon 2020. The mix is heavily operational: 21 industry partners (39%) alongside city authorities, utilities, and technology providers — with only 3 universities and 2 research organisations. This industry-heavy composition reflects the deployment focus of the project. The consortium is led by Lyon Confluence (France) and includes partners from Austria, Belgium, Bulgaria, Switzerland, Germany, Spain, and Italy, giving strong coverage of Western and Central European markets. The 5 SMEs in the consortium suggest specialised technology providers were involved alongside larger city and utility partners.

• LYON CONFLUENCECoordinator · FR
• ENEDISparticipant · FR
• AIT AUSTRIAN INSTITUTE OF TECHNOLOGY GMBHparticipant · AT
• UIV URBAN INNOVATION VIENNA GMBHthirdparty · AT
• VENEZIANA ENERGIA RISORSE IDRICHE TERRITORIO AMBIENTE SERVIZI - VERITAS SPAthirdparty · IT
• ENERGY CITIES/ENERGIE-CITES ASSOCIATIONparticipant · FR
• TECHNISCHE UNIVERSITAET MUENCHENparticipant · DE
• WAVESTONE ADVISORSparticipant · FR
• COMUNE DI VENEZIAparticipant · IT
• SIEMENS AKTIENGESELLSCHAFT OESTERREICHparticipant · AT
• DIN DEUTSCHES INSTITUT FUER NORMUNG EVparticipant · DE
• METROPOLE DE LYONparticipant · FR
• STOLICHNA OBSHTINAparticipant · BG
• SIEMENS MOBILITY AUSTRIA GMBHparticipant · AT
• UNIVERSITAET ST. GALLENparticipant · CH
• ALGOE SAparticipant · FR
• EMBIXthirdparty · FR
• SYCUBE INFORMATIONSTECHNOLOGIE GMBHparticipant · AT
• STADT WIENparticipant · AT
• STADTWERKE MUENCHEN GMBHthirdparty · DE
• WIENER LINIEN GMBH &CO KGthirdparty · AT
• UNIVERSITY OF STUTTGARTthirdparty · DE
• GOPA COM.participant · BE
• FUNDACION EMPRESA UNIVERSIDAD GALLEGAthirdparty · ES
• LANDESHAUPTSTADT MUNCHENparticipant · DE
• VMZ BERLIN BETREIBERGESELLSCHAFT MBHthirdparty · DE
• SIEMENS AKTIENGESELLSCHAFTparticipant · DE
• HESPUL ASSOCIATIONparticipant · FR