This project has received funding from the European Union’s Seventh Programme for research,
technological development and demonstration under grant agreement No 609019.
Vaxjö, SE
The city of Växjö is located in the Southern part of Sweden and has a population of approximately 86,000 inhabitants. The city is a pioneer in Europe in the fight against climate change and committed in 1996 to become fossil-fuel-free by 2030. Over the course of the last 20 years, the City of Växjö has already decreased its fossil CO2 emissions by 48%.
Within the Covenant of Mayors, the municipality of Växjö has set a target of reducing CO2 emissions per capita by 65% by 2020 in comparison to 1993 levels. To reach this objective, Växjö has designed an ambitious Sustainable Energy Action Plan and already implemented a wide range of actions in the field of energy efficiency. As part of these actions, the city has installed a combined heat and power plant for district heating and electricity consumption using 100% biomass and improved the capacity of the hydropower plants around the city. Additionally, ‘positive energy buildings’ generating more energy than they use are currently being constructed within the city. A first net zero energy neighbourhood of 21 affordable family townhouses has already been created and an award-winning tennis arena, the Södra Climate Arena, was built using Passive House standards.
To encourage citizens to take part in the process of making Växjö a fossil-fuel-free city, the municipality also participated in the ENGAGE initiative allowing cities to share experiences on citizen engagement. In the future, the municipality intends to develop its capacities in wind power generation while exploring the possibility of using other renewable energy sources such as biogas. In the mobility sector, the city has introduced green biogas buses in 2013 and intends to promote bicycle use.
As an active member of the Replication Campaign of the EU-GUGLE and SINFONIA projects, the city of Växjö is looking forward to discovering innovative solutions for renewable energy generation and to exchanging views on the existing solutions to make European cities smarter and more energy-efficient.
To learn more…