‘Decarbonizing Europe’ A Critical Review on Positive Energy Districts Approaches

Abstract

Positive Energy Districts (PEDs) are gaining importance as urban innovation labs and promising climate-neutral living strategies. The concept aims to accelerate the decarbonization processes and scale up the ecological transition; nonetheless, multiple challenges are emerging due to the complexity of the urban systems. This work provides a critical angle on the existing methods, tools and approaches for PEDs’ conception and operation unveiling the multiple gaps in human-centric solutions, and concrete regulatory framework among others. The booklets on PEDs realized grant the importance of citizen empowerment and stakeholders’ synergies to generate pragmatic and long-term contexts to facilitate their deployment. The study significantly contributes to the literature by leveraging the importance of knowledge gaps and recognizing the systemic nature of the urban scale. Together, the review serves to provide a comprehensive analysis and an in-depth vision of what lenses PED design and conceptualization and supports the holistic and human-oriented visions to prioritize the users’ role for livable, sustained and autonomous communities.