An innovative approach to implementing advanced energy projects in urban areas: From comprehensive simulation to actual implementation

• Methodical approach to establishing energy communities in urban settings. • Utilisation of excess heat enhances energy efficiency in smart cities. • Advanced simulations optimise energy sharing and infrastructure planning. • Data-driven modelling supports cost-effective heat and power solutions. • Economic analysis supports investments in advanced energy projects. The recent energy crisis has once again confirmed that energy and resource efficiency, combined with the use of renewable-energy sources, must be the backbone of future sustainable development across all sectors. It is also clear that achieving climate neutrality by 2050, or sooner, will require new approaches. At the implementation level, the social, technical and financial realities of local energy projects demand solutions that appeal to a variety of stakeholders, including utilities, energy service companies, banks, and end users, who must collaborate to bring projects from the idea to a practical implementation. Presented here is a methodical approach to establishing advanced energy communities in complex urban environments and implementing advanced projects with a common energy infrastructure. The outcomes of the first use case clearly indicate that investing in an energy community is beneficial from multiple perspectives. Detailed simulations enabled an accurate assessment of additional renewable-energy potential, revealing that the company in question has the capacity to install another 11,000 kW p of PV in Ljubljana and other locations across Slovenia. This would increase the share of renewable energy in its total electricity consumption to 31 %, which is in line with the national target for 2030. In the second use case, a significant potential for utilizing excess heat from a data room was identified. An economic analysis showed that the excess-heat utilization project has a payback period of 2.5 years, a net present value of over EUR 47,000 and an internal rate of return of 40 %.