The implementation of Positive Energy Districts (PEDs) is recognized as a promising approach to achieving energy efficiency and reducing the negative environmental impact of climate change through the surplus of local renewable energy generation. However, several barriers to the implementation of PEDs, coupled with the lack of a joint definition and clarity surrounding PEDs, need to be addressed. These barriers include governance, incentives, social, process, market, technology, and context challenges, requiring a profound understanding of the priorities, ambitions, strategies, contextual conditions, administrative conditions, policies, economic and technical resources, and existing solutions of cities.

This study explores the creation and implementation of PEDs, seeking to uncover the potential and challenges of this innovative concept in the pursuit of climate neutrality and energy efficiency. Through a peer-to-peer analysis of PED case studies and qualitative interviews with key stakeholders in Brussels, Stockholm, Vienna, Évora, Lisbon, and Salzburg, challenges such as the lack of clarity in the definition of PEDs, diversity of ownership, administrative complexity, resistance to change, limited knowledge exchange, financing constraints, technological limitations, and inadequate involvement of relevant actors are identified. Moreover, success factors and enabling strategies from these case studies are highlighted, including clear roadmaps, stakeholder collaboration, integrated decision-making processes, political commitment, and coordination platforms.@en

Positive Energy Districts (PED) are areas within cities that generate more renewable energy than they consume, contributing to cities’ energy system transformation toward carbon neutrality. Since PED is a novel concept, the implementation is very challenging. Within the European Cooperation in Science and Technology (COST) Action, which offers an open space for collaboration among scientists across Europe (and beyond), this paper asks what the needs for supporting the implementation of PEDs are. To answer this, it draws on Delphi process (expert reviews) as the main method alongside the literature review and also uses surveys as supplementary methods to identify the main challenges for developing PEDs. Initial findings reveal seven interacting topics that later were ranked as highest to the lowest as the following: governance, incentive, social, process, market, technology and context. These are interrelated and interdependent, implying that none can be considered in isolation of the others and cannot be left out in order to ensure the successful development of PEDs. The resources that are needed to address these challenges are a common need for systematic understanding of the processes behind them, as well as cross-disciplinary models and protocols to manage the complexity of developing PEDs. The results can be the basis for devising the conceptual framework on the development of new PED guides and tools.

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