Smart Municipalities
Lots of municipalities have the opportunity to run the development of sustainable cities and communities of the future. At the same time, there are daily operations and legal tasks which cannot be prioritized less or outsourced.
Case: Smart Energy Hvaler
Smart Energy Hvaler is leading the way as Norway’s most important arena for smart city development. This has been done by establishing an innovation partnership with the NCE cluster in the region, by creating innovative business development and services, and having R&I close to businesses and inhabitants (Quadruple Helix).
The results and the knowledge are now being used in five municipalities in the region. Three of the municipalities, Sarpsborg, Spydeberg and Hvaler, have initiated Smart City projects. We have further scheduled meetings with six other municipalities to start dialogues on establishing Smart City projects.
We are working with ideas from R&I in the NCE cluster, from workshops in the NCE cluster, from the program group of Smart Energy Hvaler and from conferences and workshops from home and abroad. The chief municipal executive and the management team choose which ideas to go with. We will then design the projects, describe pre-projects, pilots and low risk demos. Following pilot success, the projects go full scale.
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Examples of municipal innovation investments:
- Norway’s first Smart Grid
- Norway’s first grid tariff for sale of domestically produced electricity from house and cabin owners
- Hvaler Solar Park (Winner of the award “The local climate initiative of the year 2015”)
- Smart Water Hvaler, a one-of-a-kind water project in Europe
- Norway’s most modern recycling facility
- Fiber optics for the community of Hvaler, the most important freeway of Smart City
- Welfare technology – safe living at home
- Charging infrastructure to the community of Hvaler
- Sustainable charging of e-cars
- Micro grid and micro market
- Eco-communities and locally produced food
