Research
Results
The results of our research, exchanges, field work and participative frameworks will be made available as tools that are accessible to all.
We will continue to update this page with links, videos, downloadable articles and research results and much more, so stay tuned.
Photo from POSEIDON project launch.
Partner
interviews
As part of the POSEIDON Project’s mission to support the development of Positive Energy Districts (PEDs) in Mediterranean cities, we engaged our project partners in a series of interviews to reflect on their local challenges, strategies, and contributions. We asked them to share how POSEIDON supports their efforts in tackling energy, environmental, and social issues—while adapting solutions to their unique urban contexts. From municipal leaders to technical experts, their responses highlight key themes: citizen empowerment, integrated planning, climate resilience, and the importance of tailored, people-centered approaches.
Explore the interviews below to hear directly from the people shaping the future of sustainable urban living across Europe.
Playlist
In this interview, Benoit Garrigues from the Municipality of Marseille shares how Marseille is advancing its energy transition, with a clear goal: carbon neutrality by 2030. He outlines the city’s main strategies and policies driving this transformation, and how POSEIDON supports Marseille in shaping ambitious, city-wide approaches to energy and emissions.
Giulia Turci from the City of Cesena shares the city’s approach to regenerating a dynamic and diverse urban area, where social and environmental challenges intersect. She explains how integrating outdoor space improvements with building renovations helps Cesena respond to increasing heatwaves, and how POSEIDON supports the city in building a more cohesive strategy toward climate neutrality.
João Dinis from the City of Cascais reflects on the opportunities of going carbon neutral, while openly discussing the challenges of implementing renewable energy projects locally. He also sheds light on the broader climate threats affecting Mediterranean regions, and how cities like Cascais are preparing to meet them.
Beril Alpagut from Demir Energy shares how their team supports POSEIDON cities in analyzing local needs and identifying suitable areas for PED development. She also unpacks key concepts behind PED “boundaries” and how tools like MCDA (Multi-Criteria Decision Analysis) can guide more informed, strategic planning for sustainable districts.
Bahanur Nasya from Wonderland – platform for European architecture shares valuable insights into the importance of citizen engagement in the energy transition. She explains how Living Labs empower communities by creating inclusive spaces for experimentation and dialogue, and how pilot cases can build trust and open communication between citizens and decision-makers.
Papers and
publications
Through ongoing collaboration, local engagement, and real-world testing, we generate valuable insights that shape our methodologies and tools. These experiences are distilled into scientific papers, reports, and publications that aim to inform policymakers, urban planners, researchers, and practitioners.
By sharing our findings, we hope to foster dialogue, inspire replication, and support the wider adoption of PED models in cities across Europe and beyond. Explore our latest publications below to learn more about the research behind POSEIDON. We’ll be sharing them here with you as they’re published and made available.
An Inclusive Tool to Support the Implementation of Urban Living Labs in Positive Energy Districts
Positive Energy Districts (PEDs) are strategic models, recognized by the European Commission, that promote the energy transition of a neighborhood by transforming it into an area with a positive energy balance and zero net emissions. Indeed, neighborhood constitutes an adequate scale to drive a deep urban transformation that the local communities and organizations can understand and participate in. Despite this potential, the inclusion of the social context through engagement, participation, and co-creation methods is unfortunately considered secondary in many PED processes. The definition of the functions of the different stakeholders in this transition is a complex task that can become a major pitfall if not correctly addressed. This contribution aims to introduce the governance framework developed and validated within the POSEIDON project to manage this issue effectively. The governance plan designed for each of the project’s urban laboratories—in Alcorcón (Spain), Antalya (Turkey), Cascais (Portugal), Cesena (Italy), Marseille (France), and Rome (Italy)—consists of seven stages and is based on the quadruple helix approach. In that sense, it aims to ensure participation from academia, business, public administration, and civil society. Its goal is to enable an inclusive energy transition in the district, that involves key actors with a dual perspective: one “designed with the users”, where the public administration will play the role of mediator and facilitator of the transition actions, and another “designed by the users”, where the direct users will assume the role of main actors of the transition.
Passive strategies as a technical instrument to promote the transition to positive energy districts in the Mediterranean area. Methodology and case study in Spain
According to the European Commission, Positive Energy Districts (PEDs) are a promising tool to accelerate the energy transition of cities. However, several barriers still hinder their development. These include the lack of reliable energy consumption data, which makes it difficult to characterize the baseline situation and needs of the district, and the lack of clear guidance on how to design a PED transition. This research aims to develop and evaluate a methodology to assist municipalities in planning the transition to PEDs by identifying a possible PED scenario. Furthermore, the study was validated in an existing district in Alcorcón, Spain. The methodology proposes three stages to achieve this objective. The first stage is to develop an urban analysis and estimation of the current consumption of the district. Then, a PED scenario is defined, considering three retrofit packages for consumption reduction and renewable energy generation. Finally, the PED level achieved by the district is defined considering the different types of PED (Autonomous, Dynamic, and Virtual). Furthermore, the results show that it is possible to move from a Virtual PED to a Dynamic PED level through the different retrofit scenarios proposed. The Dynamic PED in the case study achieved an energy surplus of 9,5 GWh per year. This can be used to supply energy to other districts in the city.
Companion modelling for energy transition: A participatory approach to design positive energy districts in Mediterranean cities
Methodologies for the design of positive energy districts: A scoping literature review and a proposal for a new approach (PlanPED)
Sustainable Retrofits for Affordable Housing: A Comparative Analysis in Mediterranean Contexts
Cities account for over 66% of global energy and are major contributors to climate change. Within Positive Energy Districts (PEDs), retrofitting existing buildings is key to reducing operational energy demand. However, embodied environmental impacts of construction materials are frequently overlooked, particularly in affordable housing, where cost constraints are critical. This study evaluates how material selection can balance environmental, technical, and economic criteria to support a more inclusive and sustainable energy transition. A four-step methodology is applied: (1) defining scope and materials for energy retrofitting in Spain, drawing from the portfolio of solutions developed within the POSEIDON project; (2) collecting data on embodied impact, thermal performance, service life, and cost from recognized local sources; (3) compiling a comparative table; and (4) interpreting the results to assess the strengths and limitations of each material, emphasizing their implications for decision-making in affordable housing renovation. The analysis of façade, roof, and window components reveals trade-offs between cost, environmental impact, thermal efficiency, and durability. Among the materials evaluated, insulation types illustrate these trade-offs particularly well. EPS is cost-effective with low thermal conductivity but entails moderate embodied carbon and a high reliance on fossil resources. Mineral wool, though more expensive and emissive, offers better fire resistance, durability, and thermal efficiency at similar or lower thicknesses. Roofing systems show significant GHG variability during installation. Double-glazed windows offer strong thermal performance, though their carbon footprint varies with frame and glazing type. These findings highlight the importance of detailed life cycle data to guide sustainable retrofit strategies. Due to limited data availability, the use (B1–B7) and end-of-life (C1–C4) stages were excluded. Future research should consider these phases to capture the full life cycle impact of retrofit materials. Despite these limitations, the study offers practical recommendations to support more inclusive and informed decisions in energy-efficient renovation, contributing to a socially just and environmentally responsible energy transition.
Converting Existing Mediterranean Districts into Positive Energy Districts: A Design and Implementation Methodology
Positive Energy Districts (PEDs) enable to address the challenge of the urban energy transition from a bottom-up perspective. However, their effective implementation is currently restrained by several barriers mainly issued from their novelty. In that context, there is a need for moving from theory to practice through the development of instruments that support practitioners in the planning and application of PEDs. The present paper introduces a novel methodology for Mediterranean cities, an area facing several multidisciplinary challenges in its energy transition pathway. Concretely, the methodology has the ambition to support the execution of a four-step process to generate a transition scenario to convert existing districts into PEDs. In the first step, a multi-criteria decision analysis is conducted to identify and select the most suitable areas for PEDs implementation. Then, the second step is dedicated to the iterative technical design of the PED consisting of the selection of solutions and their integration within the district. After that, the third step focuses on incorporating the district’s social and economic ecosystem into the design. Finally, the last step leads to the generation of the transition scenario. Through this methodology, the paper aims to support the inclusion of PEDs in the planning strategies of Mediterranean cities.
Solutions for transition to Positive Energy and Climate-Neutral Districts in the Mediterranean area
This work aims to present a methodology adopted within the European project POSEIDON, funded by DUT programme, for the definition of a database of technical solutions able to support decision-making in urban regeneration, both at the building and urban level. This project seeks to guide the transition of existing neighbourhoods towards Positive Energy Districts (PEDs) in the Mediterranean area that, besides sharing similar climates conditions, exhibit common urban and cultural characteristics. The methodology combines case studies and heuristic approaches with a bibliographic review behind the solution kit portfolio framework. The results show the development of each phase of methodology and the 17 most relevant and common technical solutions among demo sites classified according to 5 main families of actions. In conclusion, the paper shows how the methodology facilitates the strategic planning faced by the different cities and its scalability and replication potential in other Mediterranean cities or other climatic regions.
Challenges for positive energy districts deployment: A systematic review
While the effects of climate change are already being felt in many parts of the world, societies are compelled to drastically rethink the way they produce and manage energy, to reduce the greenhouse-gases emissions associated to the sector. Urban areas are a critical piece of the puzzle to achieve the energy transition and reach the ambitious climate targets set out at global and European scales. Positive energy districts (PEDs), a new concept introduced in 2018 by the Strategic Energy Technology Plan, constitute a bottom-up response to this massive problematic and an opportunity to accelerate the transition towards low-carbon energy models in cities. However, their deployment is currently facing a set of diverse and complex challenges, mainly arising from their novelty and the lack of practical experience. In that context, the contribution of the present review of the literature is twofold. First, it seeks to provide a broad perspective of the advances of the research on PEDs with a special focus on applied studies and practical experiences. Then, it aims to identify substantial challenges that are currently slowing down PEDs effective operationalization, and study to what extent researchers and practitioners are currently approaching them. To that end, 135 papers are selected, categorized, and analysed according to their topics, locations, climates, districts, studied solutions and social concerns. As a result, the paper gives an overview of the main trends and necessities of PEDs research and practice and draws recommendations on how to adequately address identified challenges.
Technical Feasibility for the Boosting of Positive Energy Districts (PEDs) in Existing Mediterranean Districts: A Methodology and Case Study in Alcorcón, Spain
The deployment of Positive Energy Districts (PEDs) is currently facing a set of diverse and complex challenges, mainly arising from their novelty and the lack of practical experience. In that sense, there is a clear need for translating concepts and strategies into instruments that support the design, planning and operation of PEDs. The present research aims to address this gap by introducing a methodology to assess the potential of an existing district to be converted into a PED in the specific context of Mediterranean cities, which, in addition to presenting similar climatic characteristics, share a common urban pattern and culture. The first step consists of analyzing the initial state of the district through the study of its bioclimatic and urban characteristics and estimation of its energy demand. Then, the second step allows for selecting and designing a set of passive and active strategies for the district. Finally, the technical feasibility of the scenario is evaluated by calculating its annual energy balance. The methodology is applied to a district of Alcorcón, Spain. Results show that the selected district could achieve an annual surplus of 4 GWh and, therefore, has the technical potential to be converted into a PED.