THEMES
The Urban Energy Institute is focused on six interconnected themes. Read more about our themes here.
- Towards zero-energy buildings & beyond
- Fast transition of the existing building stock
- Thermal urban energy systems
- Solar Urban
- Smart monitoring, management & control
- Transforming cities
Towards zero-energy buildings & beyond 
Future-proof buildings and neighbourhoods
We need:
• New buildings that go beyond energy neutrality, consider circularity, and are comfortable and healthy.
• Existing buildings that are equipped with affordable future-proof solutions enabling connection to sustainable energy supply.
Research challenges
• Buildings designed for the local climate, providing thermal, visual and acoustical comfort (bioclimatic design).
• High-performance materials and components taking into account embodied energy and circular use.
• Technologies for feasible renovation solutions that enable sustainable energy supply and a fast renovation process.
• New approaches for assessing and integrating the ambitions on different aspects of the energy transition.
Contact: Thaleia Konstantinou
Fast transition existing building stock 
Delivering 200,000 high-performance renovations per year
We need:
• Building owners commissioning the renovation of their buildings themselves.
• A construction sector that has the capacity (in size and quality) to deliver renovations on a large scale.
• Affordable renovations.
• Guaranteed performance of renovation solutions in terms of energy, comfort and operations.
Research challenges
• Industrialisation and standardisation of the building process.
• Nudging and incentivising building owners to create demand.
• Continuous monitoring of building performance.
• Evidence-based policies to incentivise innovations.
• Development and supply of innovative business and financing models.
Contact: Henk Visscher
Thermal urban energy systems
Deliver heat, in the right place, at the right time and at the right temperature
We need:
• Technology in place to deliver heat efficientlyto all parties in the urban environment
• Reliable and predictable thermal heating systems, enabled by robust business models.
• Integrated solutions connecting distributed and centralised sources, and on-demand storage facilities.
Research challenges:
• Better predictions of geothermal source and storage performance.
• Development of high-efficiency, low-noise and low-cost heat pumps.
• Governance of heat and electricity infrastructure, such as underground management and optimisation.
• Balancing heat demand and supply over the year
• Integration of renewable sources of different scales into district heating networks.
Contact: Ivo Pothof
Click here to go the website of Thermo-X
Solar Urban 
Utilisation of solar energy everywhere
We need:
• Electricity production from all available surfaces (photons to electrons).
• Multifunctional solar cells integrated in building elements, urban surfaces and the landscape.
• Smart combination of custom shapes, bendability, colour, transparency, shading tolerance and heat usage.
• Circular and efficient materials and components.
Research challenges
• Photovoltaic (PV) solar energy fully integrated in building elements such as walls, bricks, pavements, coatings, roofing and acoustic screens.
• Modelling of design and energy yield of urban/architectural integrated PV systems.
• PV solutions for architectural heritage, domotics, e-mobility and heat management.
Contact: Olindo Isabella
Click here to go to the Solar Urban website
Smart Monitoring, Management & Control 
Give brains to urban energy systems
We need:
• Energy systems with maximum efficiency under all circumstances.
• Consumers participating in the energy transition through smart home appliances and smart grids.
• Smart and ethical use of data for demand/supply match and system optimisation.
Research challenges
• Self-learning and self-optimising energy management systems.
• Advanced energy diagnosis systems.
• Multi-objective optimisation: energy, comfort, air quality and costs.
• Privacy by design.
• Big data for a better understanding of occupant behaviour and energy rebound.
• Big data for real-time performance assessment.
Contact: Tamas Keviczky
Transforming the Cities 
Robust, integrated local energy transition plans
We need:
• Design and engineering solutions for the energy transition.
• Decision support for integrated energy solutions on the city, district and neighbourhood levels.
• Local authorities to direct and facilitate the energy transition.
• Empowerment of energy communities.
Research challenges
• Approaches, methods and tools for the energy transition of cities.
• Integrated modelling of sustainable energy systems for neighbourhoods, districts and cities.
• New governance models for the energy transition in cities.
• Interactive co-creative workshops methods to set energy visions and action agendas across Europe.
Contact: Andy van den Dobbelsteen
