The ZEN Research Centre5 pilot projects serve as innovation hubs where researchers, together with building professionals, property developers, municipalities, energy companies, and building owners and users, test new solutions for the construction, operation, and use of neighbourhoods in order to reduce the greenhouse gas emissions to zero on a neighbourhood scale. In total, the ZEN pilot projects encompass more than 30,000 people, more than 1 million m2 built area, and more than 5.5 million m2 land area.
Bodø’s former civil and military airport is planned to be replaced by a smaller civil airport, located 900 m southwest of the existing one. Today the site is approx. 5,600,000 m2 and located in close proximity to the city centre. An area of 2,200,000m2 will be used for the civil airport development. The remaining 3,400,000 m2 – the same size as the current city centre – is dedicated to expanding the existing city centre and will include residential and business areas, as well as a logistic hub (flight, railway, shipping) close to the airport.
The planned multifunctional urban area, known as NyBy, will be developed within the next 60 to 80 years. The site is located south of the city centre, within walking distance to the centre. The area lies on a peninsula and is surrounded on three sides by water. A residential area with detached houses to the north forms a small belt between the old airport and the city centre. A commercial area with a shopping centre connects to the residential area to the east. A green zone with a camping ground and a low-density residential area borders the site to the northeast.
Ny By – Ny flyplass is a pilot project within the Research Centre on Zero Emission Neighbourhoods in Smart Cities (https://fmezen.no/ ).
The goal is to develop a dense, mixed-used urban neighbourhood, which is environmentally friendly and citizen-centred. The environmental goals are to minimize the neighbourhood energy demand and greenhouse gas emissions. Buildings are planned to be built according to the ZEB standard6. The neighbourhood development is expected to function as a catalyst for the business sector in Bodø, which is mainly characterized by the construction, and consultant sectors, the IT sector, and an export sector based on agricultural products and food. The municipality has imbedded the NyBy project in a broader vision, which is to become the world’s smartest city. NyBy is planned as a citizen-centred development with a strong focus on citizen participation in the planning process.
The goals are planned met using the following measures:
Development of a design and planning toolbox to integrate energy and emission aspects into the planning process and the evaluation of different option based on scenarios.
Integration of citizens in the planning process, e.g. through the living lab methodology: The application of co-creation processes in collaboration with citizens, the research and the business sector.
Knowledge transfer by building up national and international networks with business and research partners as well as other cities and through participation in several research projects.
Development of knowledge and gaining experience through the design and construction of the municipalities’ own buildings according to ZEB-standard in the near future.
Creating a local network of partners.
Smart City Strategy. The neighbourhood development is expected to function as a catalyst for the business sector in Bodø, which is mainly characterized by the construction, and consultant sectors, the IT sector, and an export sector based on agricultural products and food. The municipality has imbedded the NyBy project in a broader vision, which is to become the world’s smartest city. NyBy is planned as a citizen-centred development with a strong focus on citizen participation in the planning process.
Innovative stakeholder involvement strategies. The stakeholders involved are the project group from Bodø municipality, with a project manager and members from different departments (e.g. city planning and environment). The defence department for the military airport and AVINOR for the public airport are both represented. The National Road Authority, responsible for the interregional street system, is also involved in the early planning stages. Bodø municipality has been working with Urbanetic Pte Ltd to develop a modern urban planning tool for designing and managing sustainable green cities. The tool gives the urban planners and stakeholders the ability to design for sustainability and significantly improves the understanding of the built environment with the complex and dynamic nature of interrelationships of its components. One of the main goals of the project is to incorporate future ZEN metrics and KPIs directly into the planning tools. This will give urban planners, architects, and communities the tools needed to design climate neutral neighbourhoods and greener cities.
Typology of energy supply. Norway is about 98 % renewable in its power production. (94.3% hydro, 3.4% wind 2.3% other RES in 2017). Moreover, a unique feature of the Norwegian power supply is the high share of flexible renewable production capacity (hydropower), i.e. 75%. Moreover, the large storage capacity (50% of Europe’s reservoir storage capacity).
Norway has the highest share of Renewable energy sources (RES) in its power supply in the EU and the lowest share of emissions in Europe. In 2016, Norway reached a record high power production equal to 149 TWh. In 2018 the total power production equalled 148.7.
Bodø Municipality is located in an area with excess power-production. However, distribution grid remains a challenge in various parts of the region. Hence, in developing the new urban area the focus is placed on energy efficiency, reducing peak loads, constructing a robust and sustainable energy system. Efforts will be made to develop an energy system that relies on various sources of renewable energy, local renewable energy production, sharing energy within areas/neighbourhoods/districts and optimisation of local energy systems within a larger a larger regional/national/Nordic/EU energy system. Security of supply is at the core, as well as clean affordable energy for consumers.
Today, Norway’s thermal power plants accounts for about 2.2% of total production capacity (2017). Many of the thermal power plants are located in large industrial installations that use the electricity generated themselves. Production therefore often depends on the electricity needs of industry. These power plants use a variety of energy sources, including municipal waste, industrial waste, surplus heat, oil, natural gas and coal.
The urban development in Bodø will demand that thermal power is generated from renewable sources. Thus, are solar thermal energy, geothermal energy, district heating/local heating, heat pump system and industrial waste heat all relevant sources of energy supply.
Challenges/barriers. Based on qualitative interviews with Bodø Municipality and the local energy utility company, 10 major challenges and risks have been identified in the planning process so far:
1. Steering of the project development: Most of the former airport area is owned by the military and will be sold in the near future. The interview partners see the establishment of a real estate corporation as the project developer as a priority. The ownership - and thereby influence and steering opportunities – is seen as an important factor if the local authorities are to realize the goals to establish a ZEN.
2. Setting appropriate system boundaries with regard to the scope of activities that are included in the calculations and evaluation by ZEN. The greenhouse gas emissions generated by the use of data, business and industrial activities within the neighbourhood are of particular interest.
3. Data synchronization for scenario-based planning: The planning authorities need an evaluation tool for planning alternatives with regard to e.g. energy, emissions, and transport. Most of the data required for the calculations already exists in the municipality, but due to the existence of different data systems in the several departments, the alignment between them is time- and cost-intensive.
4. Coherent development of the area: The re-location of the airport to the southern part of the site will create a medium-term brownfield between the new airport and the city centre. The challenge is to develop the whole site – the airport, the city, and the brownfield - at the same time and create functional connectivity between them despite the long timeframe for the development (60 to 80 years). The brownfield’s geographical location and the development sequence are important factors for a successful development.
5. Re-use of existing buildings and infrastructure vs. demolition: The former unique use of the buildings and infrastructure for military and airport poses challenges with regard to re-use with other functions. Little is currently known about the alternatives for re-use vs. the demolition of buildings and infrastructure with regard to emission assessment and user-demand.
6. Flexibility for adaptation: A challenge is to create a planning frame that sets high environmental standards and is simultaneously capable of adapting to new circumstances (e.g. technology, population and business sector growth and digitalization) over the long development period. The allocation of the technical infrastructure at an early stage of the site development and the construction phase of the new civil airport could be barriers to later adaptation.
7. Commitment to the project and its ambitions: To develop a neighbourhood with ambitions higher than existing laws and regulations requires political commitment and resolve among the involved partners to follow these ambitions.
8. Organisation and cooperation: The uniqueness of the project and its ambitions need an integrated and interdisciplinary approach, which requires new forms of process organisation as well as cooperation and communication between the stakeholders.
9. Time pressure (Risk): The civil airport’s recently renewed taxiway has an estimated lifespan until 2024, when the new airport is planned completed. The construction of the new airport has to start already in 2019 to be in line with the schedule. This short timeframe places pressure on the planning and design process for this part of the area.
10. Uncertainty about deposits on the site and environment-friendly cleaning and decontamination methods (Risk): Military use has had an impact on the site, but little is known about the condition. Contamination could be a challenge with regard to costs and the tight time schedule. The adaption of environment- friendly cleaning and decontamination methods with low greenhouse emissions is desired by the municipality.