New energy for growing communities The crrescendo sustainable building project

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1 Almere Milton Keynes Ajaccio Viladecans Read how leading EU municipalities made a significant step towards zero-carbon urban communities in turbulent economic times. New energy for growing communities The crrescendo sustainable building project Emil ter Horst, Caspar Noach, Leendert Verhoef and Vera Haaksma

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3 New energy for growing communities The crrescendo sustainable building project Emil ter Horst, Caspar Noach, Leendert Verhoef and Vera Haaksma Almere Milton Keynes Ajaccio Viladecans

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5 New energy for growing communities The crrescendo sustainable building project Emil ter Horst, Caspar Noach, Leendert Verhoef and Vera Haaksma Almere Milton Keynes Ajaccio Viladecans ISBN Horisun, Utrecht Download: or

6 EC CONCERTO programme crrescendo is the largest sustainable building project, that has been supported by the CONCERTO programme of the European Union. In a fast moving and developing modern world, energy is a core factor of our daily life. We have become dependent on the availability of energy, which has to be produced in a sustainable and efficient manner. The CONCERTO programme has supported local communities in demonstrating actions that are both sustainable and energy efficient. Increasing the use of renewable energy sources and promoting energy efficiency is not an easy task. The CONCERTO projects aim to demonstrate the breakthroughs that can be achieved by a fully integrated approach in high performing communities. The goals of CONCERTO (2005, 2007, 2010) were to inspire an innovative energy policy on a European level and to contribute towards creating an energy independent Europe based on a vision of environmental, social and economic sustainability. Now (2014) the Smart Cities & Communities calls within Europe s new HORIZON2020 programme succeed the successful CONCERTO programme. Having a closer look though at the crrescendo projects especially in Almere and Milton Keynes, we see that CONCERTO has indeed inspired these cities to compose the prelude to such a smart city. The municipalities Almere, Milton Keynes, Ajaccio and Viladecans together with their partners and observers completed these large, new, complex projects. These municipalities reached new milestones and fulfilled their ambitions in fantastic new or refurbished urban environments. The results and lessons learned are available to be shared with you. You are welcome to visit our CONCERTO communities. Disclaimer: The European Commission support for the production of this publication does not constitute endorsement of the contents which reflects the views only of the authors, and the Commission cannot be held responsible for any use which may be made of the information contained therein. Emil ter Horst, Horisun Coordinator crrescendo 4 crrescendo

7 Annemarie Jorritsma, Mayor of the city of Almere. President of the association of Netherlands municipalities (VNG). President of the Council of European Municipalities and Regions (CEMR) Recommendation It is a pleasure for me to recommend this book to you. The European crrescendo project and the lessons learnt described in this book are close to my heart. I came to Almere 10 years ago. Before that time I lived for a long time in Friesland, where I fell in love with the typical Dutch panoramic flat and wet pastures. Here in the province of Flevoland I experience the same feeling for this polder landscape. With views reaching to the horizon. Here in Almere my family and I built our own sustainable dream house. Almere is a new-town handmade by pioneers in the new polder of Flevoland just decades ago. As a spin-off we saw Europe s youngest nature reserve emerge just in the shadow of Almere: the Oostvaardersplassen, sometimes nicknamed as the Serengeti behind the dikes. In Almere en Flevoland one can have the best of two worlds. You can live in the countryside near the city or you can live in the city near the countryside. crrescendo has shown us now clearly that a smart sustainable city needs this countryside (that my city is blessed with) in order to achieve the future goal of a zero-energy community. As president of the Council of European Municipalities and Regions I am proud that in the crrescendo project Almere and her twin city Milton Keynes, the Catalan new-town Viladecans and the beautiful capital of Corsica, Ajaccio, were the founding fathers of this important project. But I am even more pleased by the dissemination that is taken so serious in the project. During the project already to the observer cities Misterbianco, Sofia and San de Senart, but now the results are shared with all European cities. Just as in my own sustainable building experience I was happy to learn so much from others who did the same job before us, in the same way I am sure the lessons learnt in crrescendo will pave the way for other European cities, north, south, east or west. As Mayor I can tell you that though the crrescendo project formally has ended, it lives on in our cities. The ideas have been embedded in our local policies, while new projects in all four cities are on the way exceeding the high ambitions of crrescendo, sometimes even by far. The concept of a smart sustainable city is unstoppable. In Almere the crrescendo icon demonstrations showed our citizens the road towards a zero-energy city in Under the heading Growing Green Cities, this green road may now be even accelerated by the Floriade, hosted by Almere in And finally, if you enjoyed the book, feel free to visit us: the surprising near-carbon-free socially sustainable Almere Columbuskwartier, the pleasant low-carbon Vizion building in Milton Keynes, the sturdy energypositive community center in Ajaccio or the inspiring smart school in Viladecans. They have been visited by many people and delegations already but are still waiting for you. Left: Dissemination is taken serious in crrescendo Right: Icon projects such as the future Floriade will pave the way for a zero-energy smart Almere in 2022 new energy for growing communities 5

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9 Preface The crrescendo project is about the sustainable building of 3,290 houses, 75,093 square meters of public and commercial buildings, 1,099 kwp solar PV panels, 8,337 square meters of solar hot water collectors in four European cities and last-but-not-least carbon-saving district-heating systems installed in two cities. There was an overall carbon saving by crrescendo of almost 30%, while this percentage more than doubles when the effect of the district-heating in Almere is included. The project shows how the Municipalities Almere (NL), Milton Keynes (UK), Ajaccio (Corsica, FR) and Viladecans (ES) have made a significant step towards zero-carbon communities in turbulent economic times. These cities overcame the bureaucratic hurdles, introduced modern low carbon energy production technologies and set new energy-saving standards for the built environment. They worked with vision, ambition, perseverance, know-how, and bravery. They woke up the building industry. The crrescendo project also demonstrates how best to meet the citizens wishes of living in comfortable, energy efficient homes in a healthy and clean environment. Despite concessions to the original ambition (due to the recession) the project kept its promise to pave the way towards a complete sustainable city after mountain of information and a sea of deliverables. This book will guide you through all aspects of the development and the results of Europe s largest urban sustainable building project. You can experience the content on three levels. The first level and main structure concerns the chapters on the 4 cities: the design, implementation and users experience of eco-buildings and low-carbon power plants. The second level on spread pages in-between the chapters will guide you through overlapping themes such as the research, training and dissemination. The third level addresses general lessons or specific quotes and tips of key staff in doing their job. You will find these echoes of 10 years co-operation often in the margin or indicated with an exclamation mark. [!] We believe, to remain in the imagery of the CONCERTO programme, that the achievements by crrescendo form a nice symphony. We invite you to play along with the song lines in the book. Absorb the useful lessons and the tools you deem fit, combine them with your own tunes, and become even more sustainable than the crrescendo project. Emil ter Horst, Caspar Noach, Leendert Verhoef and Vera Haaksma (clock wise) Developing new and innovative neighbourhoods at this scale is a local challenge of international importance, and therefore supported by the European CONCERTO programme. The results are both visible and embedded in the local community: in paradigm changing iconic urban developments and game changing new ways of producing energy; in lasting changes among stakeholders in the building sector and integral sustainable policies in our cities. But above all inspiring urban environments have been built, while new projects underway have surpassed even our ambitions. It was an adventure for us to unravel impacts and success factors. It was hard work to filter through the project management system, with all the changes in contracts, objectives, and people. And then there was a new energy for growing communities 7

10 Prelude EC CONCERTO Program 04 Recommendation 05 Preface 07 Bridging the recession - crrescendo summary 10 1 Towards zero carbon city Almere 3 Sustainable renovation Ajaccio 3.1 Ajaccio the scene A suite of projects Performance occupant behaviour Moving forward 55 Frame: Economics needs Replication Almere a New Town Opportunity for sustainability 15 Sustainability: a matter of Principles Mobilising civil servants, stakeholders and inhabitants Almere Solar Island for a low-carbon district heating A solar PV power plant dispersed over Columbuskwartier 22 The certification scheme Solar House Ecohouses and private commissioning in Noorderplassen West Research on sustainability Towards smart energy-neutral in Frame: From observer to doer 30 2The power of heat Milton Keynes 2.1 Milton Keynes the scene A suite of sustainable projects Vizion iconic building as an urban landscape Office of tomorrow - The Pinnacle Combined heat and power generation PV power plant on former bus station Moving forward 44 Frame: Sharing local learnings 46

11 4 Paving the way Viladecans 4.1 Viladecans the scene Delivering eco-buildings Solar energy in Viladecans Overcoming barriers stepping forward 69 6 New energy for growing communities Results, lessons and recommendations Frame: Checking the ambition Four crrescendo cities Diversity of projects in the different communities EU policy lessons Local policy and project level lessons The building sector lessons Bridging recessions 90 The discovery of a sustainable community Columbuskwartier Annexes 5.1 A learning history The district Almere Poort From simple idea to detailed plan Getting a grip on sustainability 78 Managing Columbus egg 81 Annex I Realised crrescendo projects 92 Annex II People behind the projects 98 designing building Frame: Empowering the community 82 Annex III Solar potential in Europe 100 connecting inspiring giving learning

12 Dawn of the solar age Bridging the recession crrescendo summary A turbulent decade: The preparation of the crrescendo project started in It was not the most ambitious project when it was accepted in CONCERTO. But it promised to be impactful, not only due to its size, but also due to the ambitious smaller projects inside the project: the so-called icons of sustainability. crrescendo was embedded in a completely new kind of policy, an integral way of looking at sustainability. Policy inspired by the cradleto-cradle ideas. Now, a decade later crrescendo turned out to be recession-proof, being one of the CONCERTO projects with substantial impact. crrescendo is led by 4 main cities with 11 local partners. The cities of Milton-Keynes (England, UK), Viladecans (Catalonia, Spain) and Almere (Netherlands) are submetropolitan New Towns while Ajaccio is the historical capital of Corsica (France). There were three so-called observer cities, Misterbianco (Sicily, Italy), Sofia (Bulgaria) and San-de Senart (France), entitled to learn from the results. The cities are nicely dispersed over Europe, with similarities and differences. In the beginning the project was well on track, but in 2007 it became clear that the crisis in the American mortgage market was also causing project developers to be cautious in Europe. Nevertheless, first realizations in Almere and Milton Keynes had started. Through 2008 crrescendo developments continued in all four cities. In Almere many eco-houses had been delivered and the building of Solar Houses had started. In Milton Keynes the CHP had been realized. In Ajaccio the renovation of houses was delayed. In Viladecans the Daycare Centre was at the last stage of realization. The building of houses in Viladecans was delayed and it became clear that the recession had arrived in Europe, especially in Spain. At the end of 2008, the housing market crisis had a deeper impact on the demos in UK than previously thought. Since then the housing crisis became a global financial crisis, with substantial consequences for crrescendo, especially in Milton Keynes and Viladecans. It was promising that the urban development in Almere and renovation activities in Ajaccio nevertheless had continued as planned. In Almere the recession simply arrived later. crrescendo convinced Brussels that only with a substantial amendment was it still possible to realize the original ambitions, while a prolongation of the project was accepted to accommodate this. Alternative demonstrations have been developed in the cities to compensate for the possible loss of ambition in the original project. The world changed quite a bit from , with 2003 CO2-neutral Sun City in Heerhugowaard: precursor to CONCERTO and crrescendo The German Feed-in Tariff boosts the PV market to a global cumulative installed capacity just above 1 GWp. The price for PV modules is 3 /Wp. China starts first PV mass production started in 2005 and co-funded over 175 Million to 58 cities in 22 projects in 23 countries /Wp With 75% of the PV Market in Europe (heavily subsidized) the price does not go down enough in 2006, while cheap production in China is attracted. 10 crrescendo

13 the mortgage crisis, financial crisis and real estate crisis followed by economic downturn. However due to the re-scoping crrescendo could be still successfully realised with the same overall high ambition. In that same decade we also saw enormous technological changes: in energy efficiency measures, in renewable energy especially PV solar energy technology, while last but not least the concept of smarting the energy grid and smarting the city gained a foothold. It was not possible to sail through these times and at the same time contribute to those needed changes to the max. As the sky was not the limit anymore, the larger demonstrations were carried out realistic ambitious, while the project s overall ambition was kept high or even higher in smaller icon projects. As the price of PV solar energy was reduced drastically, this promising technology for the built environment could be kept easily on-board, while the concept of a smart community could not be adopted overnight, but will be explored in the decade beyond the project ( ). 4 crrescendo communities Now, at the end of crrescendo 10,000 people live in modern, comfortable, healthy and energy efficient homes due to the well-orchestrated sustainable developments of the metropolitan areas of Almere, Milton Keynes, Ajaccio and Viladecans. In Almere (NL) two Energy Rich districts are part of the crrescendo project. In Almere the total reduction in conventional energy consumption is 31%, in which the high carbon reduction due to cogeneration in both communities and green electricity in Columbuskwartier is NOT included. About 2000 new dwellings have been built in three Energy Rich classes: - eco-houses, built at least 10% more energy efficient than the building standard; - solar houses, with an energy performance 25% better than standard; - passive houses, having an energy performance 50% better than standard. Most crrescendo dwellings in the district Noorderplassen West are eco-houses. In this area some private dwellings have PV systems, but the major solar contribution is achieved by the Almere Solar Island (opened June 2010). For the first time homes in the Netherlands are heated collectively with locally-generated solar energy. The Almere Solar Island is an icon in the Almere landscape. The way the island works is simple: water in the solar collectors is heated by the sun. The heated water is pumped directly into the low-carbon district heating network that supplies heating and hot tap water to the residential district Noorderplassen West. The Almere Solar Island is the fourth largest solar collector field in the world. In the second crrescendo district, Columbuskwartier, about 500 solar houses and 103 passive houses have been built. On these and other houses and buildings in the district a total of 600 kwp PV panels have been installed. In realising its ambitious objectives, the heat for the 1,000 homes of Columbuskwartier comes from the Diemen Combined Heat and Power (CHP) plant on the other side of lake IJmeer. The connection of all dwellings and buildings of the spanning district Poort to the district heating system is fed by this CHP system. A new pipeline connection from the Diemen plant goes through the IJ-lake to Almere. The overall energy supply is obtaining a 93% CO 2 reduction not only for Columbuskwartier but for the whole Poort district. In support of that the energy company NUON is required to deliver only green electricity in the Poort district. Milton Keynes (UK) is centrally located in the UK, 70 miles North West of London. In Milton Keynes the total reduction in conventional energy consumption is 30%, in which the reduction due to the CHP is included (the share linked to crrescendo buildings). The local programme, where a holistic approach to urban design has been adopted, includes four separate developments: - Combined Heat and Power (CHP) with private wire network; - Enhanced building fabric in a residential and a nonresidential building; - A large 165 kwp Photovoltaics (PV) system. A successful component of the Milton Keynes project has been the delivery of the CHP engine, connecting via 2007 Europe was leading the global PV production (4GWp) only in The IPCC and Al Gore have jointly won the 2007 Nobel Peace Prize Europe China Japan Rest World In Almere Columbuskwartier first houses are completed. The U.S. Mortgage Crisis becomes a international financial crisis and is followed by a EU house-building crisis especially in Spain and the UK. The huge world PV market share in Spain collapsed from 41% in 2008 to 1% in Completion of the Pinnacle office and Vizion residential buildings in Milton Keynes 2010 Completion of the two Almere communities and the Solar Island. bridging the recession 11

14 a private wire network up to many buildings in the city centre. In 2012, the BREEAM Excellent rated Network Rail Headquarters Quadrant development, comprising 38,000 sq.m. connected to the CHP system in Central Milton Keynes. This expansion is a good indicator of the confidence now being shown in the ability of the CHP to deliver cost effective heat and power. The Vizion complex is a high quality vertical mixeduse development, which is loved by residents. The development (2009) contains 441 apartments and townhouses but also includes a large Sainsbury s store of approximately 10,000 m²and another 4,100 m 2 commercial and retail units. The enhanced building fabric was applied to raise the standard of the building and its thermal characteristics far beyond national standards. Heat, cooling and electricity are supplied by the above CHP system. The same applies to the Pinnacle, a high-quality office with an element of mixed-use. The building is performing well for the occupants. It is the first BREEAM Excellent rated office development in Milton Keynes and a winner of an Office Development Award for Sustainable Achievement. The Pinnacle accommodates three commercial offices and several smaller retail units, with over 19,000-m 2 commercial space. Finally, the former bus station was settled on as the most appropriate site for the PV installation. In total, 825 panels, made of polycrystalline silicon, were installed on the roof. The installation had to respect the architectural integrity of the existing building. As a consequence, the PV arrays have been installed at an angle of 5. The electricity produced is delivered free of charge to a youth community interest company which uses the building. By the end of 2003, the community of Ajaccio (Corsica, FR) decided to answer the call for projects of the CONCERTO programme. Until then the city had little awareness for the environmental approach, but this changed with the crrescendo contract in August It is from this date that Ajaccio s understanding and involvement grew towards more conscious politics on the environmental issue. Ajaccio became more aware of the need to reduce public energy consumption as well as the energy use of social buildings tenants. Public buildings like schools, which are part of the urban renewal project in priority areas, are henceforth built in compliance with High Environmental Quality Standards (HQE, France), aiming at zero energy consumption, or even better as for the (to be built) Maison de quartier des Cannes, a positive energy building, producing more electricity than what it will use. At the same time, taking advantage of the National Programme for Urban Renewal (since 2007), social landlords were able to rehabilitate an ageing housing stock by undergoing money saving and energy saving/ producing building improvements. The refurbishment of social (rented) housing stock (419 apartments) was the key element of crrescendo s activities in Ajaccio. Also a surface of 346 m 2 of solar collectors has been installed on social housing buildings and will produce hot water for 223 apartments. In the Ajaccio demonstrations the reduction in conventional energy consumption is about 20%. Viladecans (ES) is a coastal community, located 12 kilometres from Barcelona. In the frame of crrescendo, due to the recession only five public buildings have been built or refurbished (day care centre, youth cultural centre, historical cultural centre, sports building and municipal building). The city is committed to reducing CO 2 emissions, elaborated in 1996 the Agenda 21 and joined in 1997 Barcelona network of towns towards sustainability. In addition, Viladecans has signed the Declaration of Vilafranca on preventing climate change in This initiative is covering the whole Barcelona province. Finally, Viladecans has signed its adhesion to the Covenant of Mayors in The Viladecans Council is elaborating its Action Plan for Sustainable Energy that contains 143 specific actions for this purpose. In the coming years, the municipality will finalise the installation of 1 MW of photovoltaic panels in the city (up to 342 kw of them are part of crrescendo project) and (as soon as the recession is over) will build new dwellings in a new eco-district called Llevant. New energy for growing communities crrescendo, with the full project title Combined Rational and Renewable Energy Strategies in Cities, for Existing and New Dwellings to ensure Optimal quality of life, has been carried out very successfully, despite the crisis and thanks to the perseverance of the four 2011 The price of PV is 1 /Wp. Global PV production is 35 GWp/year. China leading solar producing country Total cumulative installed PV solar capacity is just above 100 GWp with 70% in Europe Europe China Japan Rest World Europe China US Rest World Start of Horizon2020 / Smart Cities & communities programme to prepare smart zero-energy urban communities in 2020 and beyond Since the recession in Europe has slowed down the building of houses, we see in so many cities a latent wish or need for sustainable projects, but more integral than ever before. The future city must not be only carbon-neutral, but also smart and social. The pipeline is full and the political will is there. Energy and ICT technologies to realize a smart zero-energy city are becoming very affordable. E.g. the price of PV has fallen in one decade by a factor of 8. There are promising years to come. 12 crrescendo

15 cities and flexibility of the CONCERTO programme management. The main impact of crrescendo is that it paved the way in all four cities to make a transition towards a smart zero-energy society within the coming decade. We showed that cross -Europe learning works well for both the main cities and the observer cities, if well orchestrated. We also have to accept that the solutions for different parts of Europe often differ from each other or at least need a local translation. During the project a strong political wind arose in Almere to adopt an integral (ecological and socioeconomical) sustainability policy, leading to a smart zero-carbon city in 2025 or earlier. To do so things need to change quickly, all while trying to maintain citizen and potential stakeholder involvement. The disadvantage that the crrescendo project was easily overtaken by future developments has been compensated by high-ambition icon inner projects. The combination of this and the larger scale of crrescendo as a whole give maximum impact for replication. The large number of visitors from all across Europe and beyond confirms that this idea has worked well. Milton Keynes eventually realized large ambitious but realistic projects, with low-energy buildings and a paradigm changing Combined Heat Power plant (CHP), that are easy to replicate on short-term. Due to the recession the ambition was downsized, leading to a hesitation by the founding fathers to showcase the results. But the economic cases were so strong that (also due to the co-operation the private sector) the impact of a strong replication throughout the UK is easily shown anyway. Viladecans was forced to focus on training, education and showcasing sustainable community buildings and PV solar energy. Despite the recession a strong policy back up remained; there is a latency of projects as soon as the economy recovers. Also Viladecans benefits from the lessons learned in crrescendo especially for the future ambitious eco-district Llevant. As aimed, crrescendo integrates a major share of sustainability into over 3,150 new and existing homes and their energy infrastructure in order to demonstrate the possibility, feasibility and most importantly to meet the citizens wish to live in a comfortable energy efficient home in a healthy and clean environment. The cooperation between the cities within the EU CONCERTO programme not only showcases the successful integration of poly-generation and renewable energy into a large number of ecobuildings, but also provides the tools for a successful reprise in these towns, the observer communities and many other cities in Europe, in an ever swelling crrescendo. But the outreach goes beyond that. The project as a whole has withstood the building crisis of because the recession impacted the four cities very differently. crrescendo showed that it was still possible to do in the middle of the crisis a substantial step in energy reduction: with energy efficiency & renewable energy in new & renovated districts in growing & modern communities and in north & south Europe. It is now convincingly prooved that a zero-carbon community is possible anywhere in Europe in 2020, as this is simply just one step away from crrescendo Planned completion of the Maison de quartier des Cannes in Ajaccio. This community building will produce more energy than it will use: with a solar roof, an urban windturbine and more PV solar will be the cheapest source of electricity in the world. The annual PV production will be above 300 GWp while the price of produced energy will be lower than 0.05/kWh. SolarGIS 2013 GeoModel Solar 2020 signatories aim to meet and exceed the European Union 20% CO2 reduction objective by Viladecans, Milton Keynes and Almere are part of the 5,883 signatories representing 189,148,547 inhabitants (2014). A huge statement by the EU cities & citizens!!! 2022 Ajaccio could benefit from the lessons learned in the project but also from other French cities in other CONCERTO projects. Renovation is firstly tackled, while Ajaccio jumped on the train of sustainability. For Ajaccio the time was just right (increasing sustainability standards, conjuncture, politics and house markets in France). The main impact on Corsica is the growing drive from lagging behind on sustainability to being there at the very forefront in France. bridging the recession The demonstrations are described in further detail in the following chapters, while spread pages in-between chapters will guide you through the extensive research, training and dissemination. This chapter 0 continues with a summary of results and lessons learned in chapter 6 (page 84) Almere stands for Growing Green Cities and wants to be a zero-energy city in the year of the Floriade World Expo Every city & community to be smart & energy-neutral as soon as posible! 13

16 1 1.1 Almere a New Town 1.2 Opportunity for sustainability Sustainability: a matter of Principles 1.3 Mobilising civil servants, stakeholders and inhabitants 1.4 Almere Solar Island for a low-carbon district heating 1.5 A solar PV power plant dispersed over Columbuskwartier The certification scheme Solar House 1.6 Ecohouses and private commissioning in Noorderplassen West 1.7 Research on sustainability 1.8 Towards smart energy-neutral in 2025 Towards a zero carbon city Almere District Noorderplassen West with the Almere Solar Island 1.1 Almere a New Town Almere, a New Town with over 190,000 inhabitants, situated east of Amsterdam, is expected to grow to 350,000 in From its inception in 1975, the city committed itself to sustainable development. For example: the majority of homes in Almere were already connected to district heating since the beginning. In 2005, plans were made to build 2,700 new sustainable homes with accompanying schools, offices and stores in the district Noorderplassen West and to build 1,000 new sustainable homes and accompanying schools in the community Columbuskwartier in district Almere Poort. About 2,000 of these houses and buildings were brought into the framework of the crrescendo project. A greener energy supply for the area needed to be developed as well. The planning of the projects was initiated in 1997 for Noorderplassen West, and in 1998 for Almere Poort. Plans needed to include an approach for the whole energy infrastructure, which was done separately for both districts. Nieuw Flevolands Peil was an important initiative helping to make the principles of sustainable development more practical. It was a regional 14 new energy for growing communities

17 Almere saw its growth, typical for a New Town, as an opportunity to build with a high ambition level. crrescendo enabled Almere to increase that ambition in the developments in Noorderplassen West and Columbuskwartier. The idea was to accomplish these ambitions on the scale of a large urban development. We have successfully built houses that are either 1, 2 or 3 steps more energy efficient than required by the building code. public programme describing actions on sustainability for the province of Flevoland. This grass root programme had a clear influence on the ambitions of Almere in the beginning of the project. 1.2 Opportunity for sustainability One step better: in Noorderplassen West, the main goal was to reduce the energy demand by 10% with simple interventions in an otherwise conventional way of building without higher costs. However, the energy supply had to have 50% lower carbon emissions than a conventional new-built district. Emil ter Horst, crrescendo project Two steps better: in the South of manager for Almere Columbuskwartier, the goal was to realise an integral sustainable neighbourhood. Not only from an environmental point of view, but sustainable in many other ways. An important goal for Columbuskwartier was to reduce the energy demand of the houses by more than 20% and to reduce the overall carbon emissions by over 90%, in a cost-effective way. The extra investment costs had to be earned back with cost reductions, mainly by lower energy bills. The Columbuskwartier was developed with an integral approach to sustainability. Besides energy savings in buildings the development addressed the public space and social aspects. Concurrently, the Dutch energy agency (now introduced a certificate Zonnewoning (Solar House), which combines sustainability and the indoor climate into practical, easy-to-use guidelines. Caspar Noach (Ecofys): We learned that combining the Solar House certificate with a tender for integral sustainability resulted in the most successful part of crrescendo: The development of the southern part of the area Columbuskwartier known as The Marvel (De Verwondering). However we also learned that the certificate was hardly known among the house owners. The municipality of Almere anchored these ambitions in legally binding, mutual agreements. Because ambitions cannot be forced on project developers, a good anticipation for what level of ambition would be acceptable, was of key importance. The high tide of continued (inter)national economic growth and booming house markets in allowed for setting the ambitions high. And the builders, keen to win the contract, set them even higher. Eco-houses in Noorderplassen West Three steps better: over 100 (passive) houses in the North of Columbuskwartier have an approximately 50% lower energy demand than normal. With that the project shows the way to build sustainable houses in a cost-effective way in the future. In both communities solar energy played an important role. The ambition level for buildings was set at 10% energy savings in Noorderplassen West and 20%in Columbuskwartier. In 2005 the urban development process in Noorderplassen West was already rather advanced, but a step of 10% was still achievable. The Columbuskwartier however still had to be developed. The project developers readily accepted the 20% ambition, also because it was set relative to the familiar Dutch national energy performance standard. towards a zero carbon city 15

18 Cover of the book The Almere Principles Sustainability: a matter of Principles The intended growth of Almere in the coming decades will take place in an ecologically, socially and economically sustainable fashion. The aim of the national government, the provincial government of Flevoland and the municipality Almere is to position Almere as a national laboratory for largescale implementation of sustainable systems. The joint desire is to turn Almere into an icon of sustainability. This high ambition is reflected in the winning bid for the organisation of the world famous Floriade 2022, and in policy goals such as to reach climate and energy neutrality for the whole city in 2025.! Agreements on content do not alter the process of development. Sustainable quality can only be achieved through (personal) involvement. It is not about enforcing, but all about alluring and connecting. The key is to connect parties that amplify each other. The Almere Principles 1. Cultivate diversity: To enrich the city, we acknowledge diversity as a defining characteristic of robust ecological, social and economic systems. By appraising and stimulating diversity in all areas, we can ensure Almere will continue to grow and thrive as a city rich in variety. 2. Connect place and context: To connect the city we will strengthen and enhance its identity. Based on its own strength and on mutual benefit, the city will maintain active relationships with its surrounding communities at large.! Use tools to objectify sustainability contributes to make ambitions real and comprehensible. These range from simple checklists to clearly defined goals. 3. Combine city and nature: To give meaning to the city we will consciously aim to bring about unique and lasting combinations of the urban and natural fabric, and raise awareness of human interconnectedness with nature. To inspire everyone who contributes to the future of the city, local politicians defined the Almere Principles together with Cradle-to-Cradle champion William McDonough. The Almere Principles were developed parallel to the preparation and realisation of the crrescendo demonstrations in The ambition and mission behind the integral sustainable Columbuskwartier were based on the same corner stones and thereby Columbuskwartier was the first neighbourhood built completely according to the Almere Principles, even before they were formally accepted by the council. The numerous delegations from Netherlands, Europe and far abroad which visit the neighbourhood prove that Columbuskwartier has given us a good translation of the Almere Principles, showing an interesting modern approach on how to realise an integral sustainable urban concept into practice. 4. Anticipate change: To honour the evolution of the city we will incorporate generous flexibility and adaptability in our plans and programs, in order to facilitate unpredictable opportunities for future generations. 5. Continue innovation: To advance the city we will encourage improved processes, technologies and infrastructures, and we will support experimentation and the exchange of knowledge. 6. Design healthy systems: We will utilize Cradle to Cradle solutions, recognizing the interdependence, at all scales, of ecological, social and economic health. 7. Empower people to make the city: Acknowledging citizens to be the driving force in creating, keeping and sustaining the city, we facilitate them in pursuing their unique potential. 16 new energy for growing communities

19 Schools (both buildings and education) were part of the project. Opening of the Clock House information centre for children. In parallel Almere s ambitions on the policy level were also rising. In 2007 the minister of Environment imposed the condition that if Almere wanted to grow, it had to do so in a sustainable way. This resulted in a covenant between Almere and the national government (Schaalsprong Almere). For the municipality Almere this also led to the launch of the Almere Principles, advertised by Alderman Adri Duivesteijn. 1.3 Mobilising civil servants, stakeholders and inhabitants But it took time to learn how to make sustainability part of the planning routines in a fast growing city. Tools had to be developed and civil service officers had to change their role. At first the project was not optimally embedded in the organisation to make use of its full potential. Alex van Oost, senior staff member Sustainable Building and Energy at the department responsible for environmental policy: At the beginning we were struggling to find a workable definition for sustainability, and how to make it tangible. We lacked experience with an integral approach to the complex definition of sustainability. What we were trying to do had hardly been done on this scale before. We started to create a context based on People, Planet and Prosperity. We determined specific goals and ambitions, and worked these out in a detailed sustainability matrix. There were political changes as well. After a shift in political power in 2006, the new alderman Adri Duivesteijn initiated a paradigm shift in the way of building. Conventionally, project developers would build in batches of ten to hundreds of houses in the Netherlands. For individual people, it was difficult to build on their own: there were simply no single plots available. Adri Duivesteijn stipulated that 35% of the houses to be built should be allocated to private commissioning. During the first three years, communication was mainly an internal process directed at the most relevant stakeholders in the urban development. Though the objectives of the project were described very well in the project proposal, development of a large new housing area takes over a decade from initiative until commissioning. Once the development started and is picking up speed, it is hard to stop or even change the process. On the other hand a long running project must provide space for new politics and changing realities. Examples are the financial crisis of 2008 and the recession since the start of the development. Communication with (future) inhabitants is difficult in new districts, and was also missing in the beginning. Later on, the local environmental federation NMFF took the responsibility for the communication together with the municipality. How to communicate and interact with citizens is something a New town had to learn, also because houses are actually built before people moved into the area. At first an Explore Lab platform was set up for inhabitants to express their wishes and expectations towards the architects and builders. This Explore Lab evolved into the more successful platform Sustainability Lab, which focused on knowledge transfer to the project and to the employees of the municipality. More recently it became DuurzaamAlmere.nl, a sustainability shop in the centre of Almere City where citizens, municipality and local businesses can really meet. When the focus shifted to private commissioning the communication towards the citizen improved a lot, also through the successful Kavelwinkel, a shop selling lots. In the final project year the communication focus shifted again. From mainly internal communication to stakeholders and instructions for citizens to more general dissemination to Almere, the Netherlands and Europe. Almere Solar Island and the Columbuskwartier houses in The Marvel have become well-known and attract many visitors from Almere, and other cities in the Netherlands. In addition professional groups from abroad come to visit almost weekly. towards a zero carbon city 17

20 Name/type Noorderplassen West Number of Homes Gross area per house m 2 Measures Total Solar Overview crrescendo measures in residential buildings in Almere Eco Apartment High insulation, EPC = 0.89 District heat Eco House 1, High insulation, EPC =0.89 district heat Solar Apartment High insulation, EPC = 0.72 District heat Solar House High insulation, EPC = 0.71 District heat PV Systems on 3 Private Commissioning Houses n.a. n.a. PV Panels 9.9 kwp Noorderplassen West 1, kwp Columbuskwartier Eco Apartment High insulation, EPC = 0.8 District heat Eco House High insulation, EPC = 0.8 District heat Solar Apartment PV panels High insulation, EPC = 0.62, District heat 17 kwp Solar House High insulation, EPC = 0.6 PV panels on more than half of the homes District heat 325 kwp Passive house PV panels High insulation, EPC = 0.38, District heat 108 kwp Carbon neutral house PV panels High insulation, EPC = 0.03, Urban wind turbines 6.7 kwp Columbuskwartier kwp Total All dwellings 2, , kwp 18 new energy for growing communities

21 Name/type # functional units Realised Gross m 2 Measures Solar Noorderplassen West Overview crrescendo measures in non residential buildings in Almere Day care centre 5 1,382 High insulation, District heat Health centre 22 9,344 High insulation, District heat Shopping centre 11 1,757 High insulation, District heat Primary school 3 6,996 High insulation. District heat, PV panels 47 kwp PV on Sports accommodation 1 n.a. PV panels 45 kwp Solar Island 1 n.a. Solar collectors 7,800 m 2 Noorderplassen West 38 12, kwp 7,800 m 2 Columbuskwartier Health centre High insulation, District heat Office 1 45 High insulation, District heat Primary school 6 5,178 High insulation, District heat Sports accommodation 1 1,071 High insulation, District heat PV panels 44 kwp International School 1 5,135 High insulation, District heat PV panels 26 kwp PV on Klokhuis n.a. PV panels 1.4 kwp PV on secondary school n.a. PV panels 23 kwp PV on Community Disposal Centre 1 n.a. PV panels 37 kwp Columbuskwartier 12 12, kwp Total Non-residential 50 24, kwp 7,800 m 2 towards a zero carbon city 19

22 Panorama of Almere Solar Island (source: Panopictures.nl, J.A. Prins, 2010) Solar Island, installation of (large surface) collectors 1.4 Almere Solar Island for a low-carbon district heating Solar Island Noorderplassen West District heating was already common practice in Almere (40% lower carbon emissions than the reference). But in Noorderplassen West the municipality wanted to go one step further and reduce the CO 2 emissions of the energy supply by an additional 10% (to 50%). The initial idea was to place a solar thermal system on individual homes by the utility. However, potential project developers opposed the idea of roofs owned by a utility. Consequently centralized generation was considered and the Solar Island was born. The plan was a large ground-based solar thermal energy system feeding its heat into the district heating system - not done anywhere else before. In 2003, a location was found in the secondary space near the ring road: an area not usable for housing due to noise regulations. But the visibility to the public and thus the potential exposure was excellent. This was to be the first large-scale icon for sustainability in Almere. Who should pay for this first-time innovation? The Solar Island would increase the costs of district heating per house by 1,500. On top of the normal connection costs of 3,500 that is quite a burden either for households or the utility. The CONCERTO project could co-finance the Solar Island, thus limiting the extra burden on households to a few hundred Euro ( 427) per home. But a more sustainable energy supply should not become an excuse to build less efficient houses. Antonin van de Bree, building expert of Ecofys: To avoid that the efficiency gain of the Solar Island would lead to a lower insulation quality of the homes, its effect was excluded from the applied energy performance calculation method. The additional ambition of a 10% lower energy demand was enforced in one straight forward text line in every developing contract for a specific site. Solar Island commissioning and building The building process of the Solar Island was delayed. Quite late in the design process, it was discovered that feeding the heat of the Solar Island into the city district heating did not fit, due to counter pressure of this system. A new design had to be made for the regulation system, with heavier pumps. Finally the Solar Island was put into operation, in June It consists of 7,800 m 2 gross area (7,135 m 2 net area) of solar collectors. It delivered approx. 8,700 GJ per year to the district heating in Almere in From a technical point of view this is very satisfactory: just above specifications. From an economical point of view NUON started with a financial loss. This was caused by a lower amount of connections than anticipated in the business case caused by delays in the building of houses due to the financial crisis. The Solar Island has been replicated already several times in Europe, clearly showing the economic feasibility in general. Emil ter Horst: Meanwhile, the Solar Island has become an icon for sustainability for Almere. It attracts visitors from all over the world, because a solar heat installation connected to district heating is unique. One advantage of the direct connection to district heating is that all the solar heat produced can be utilised throughout the year. 20 new energy for growing communities

23 secondly, NUON implemented a flue gas heat recovery system on the power plant, delivering 5 to 6 MW of extra heat. Such a system can be added to an existing plant without interruption of operation. The heat recovery system proved financially beneficial as it produces extra heat without extra energy/electricity use. A new electric power plant (Diemen-34) has already been constructed by NUON exploiting heat recovery technology right from the start in The huge impressive red Heat Transfer Station in district Poort Long-distance district heating for Columbuskwartier Tender for the energy supply In 1999 the energy supply of Almere Poort was tendered. An important criterion was to achieve a 50% or more reduction in CO 2 emissions compared to a reference scenario based on gas heating. NUON won the tender with an offer achieving a 93% CO 2 reduction with a combination of district heating, photovoltaics, and a biomass plant. Consequently NUON was contracted to supply renewable heat and green power to Almere Poort. The contract specified the agreed performance levels but no specific technologies. Change of plan In 2005, NUON proposed to change technologies, because they had become owner of the Diemen Power station. This is a large gas fired electric power plant with excess heat used for district heating near Amsterdam, and about 8 km away from Almere. A study had shown it was feasible to transport the excess heat by a pipeline through the IJmeer lake to the districtheating network of Almere Poort. The municipality endorsed this change, as Almere had gained insight that a biomass plant in a living district might not be the best solution due to possible air pollution and increased traffic of supply trucks. The final CO 2 -emission and renewable energy performance goals for the energy supply in Almere Poort contracted to NUON: - 91% CO 2 -reduction with the supply of heat - 100% CO 2 -reduction with the supply of electricity - Resulting in an average of 93% CO 2 -emission reduction compared to the emission of equivalent newly built houses in % of the total energy supply is to be generated by renewable energy sources Getting it done Planning and especially obtaining the environmental permits for the pipeline took a considerable amount of time, because the trajectory runs through the IJmeer, a lake area protected under the Natura 2000 law. Construction started in 2011 and was completed in 2012 with the commissioning of the impressive red Heat Transfer Station. The sustainable district heating was realised without crrescendo funds. In March 2012 the first heat was delivered in Almere. Pipeline trajectory Almere Sustainable District Heating coming from Amsterdam, reaching the Heat Transfer Station Both parties agreed upon an addendum to the contract safeguarding the CO 2 reduction from the original offer in two ways. First, NUON will buy green electricity certificates equivalent to what the cancelled biomass plant would have produced during 30 years. And towards a zero carbon city 21