The website “Carbon Zero Cities” is based on work with sustainable urban development and the use of local solar energy ever since the EU-funded project European Green Cities was implemented in 9 countries in the years 1996-2002 on the initiative of civil engineer Peder Vejsig Pedersen in the company Cenergia.
This was combined with board work in the support association “Foreningen Dansk Byøkologi” for the national Danish Center for Urban Ecology, which functioned until 2005.
It was the same year that, with funds from a new major EU-funded project and the City of Copenhagen, it was possible to develop the CO2 neutral roof top apartment “SOLTAG” in collaboration with VELUX and architect maa. Martin Rubow.
Already in the year 2000, Peder Vejsig Pedersen and Senior Consultant Jakob Klint from Urban Renewal Copenhagen launched the so-called “Solar Cell Plan for Valby in Copenhagen” with the goal of 15% solar power with good architectural quality by the year 2025, which is described in more detail in the books ”Solenergi & Byøkologi (Solar Energy & Urban Ecology)” and ”Solceller & Arkitektur (Solar Cells & Architecture)”.
In 2006, the non-profit company European Green Cities was established and has since then served as secretariat for the then newly established “Association of Sustainable Cities and Buildings”, FBBB, which had Peder Vejsig Pedersen as chairman of the board until 2017.
Here, a new EU-supported project “Green Solar Cities”, which focused on Valby in Copenhagen and Salzburg in Austria, meant that efforts to develop photovoltaic solutions in an urban context could be continued until 2013. Support from ForskVE, the PSO programme as well as a special EUDP-BIPV programme and funds from Nord Forsk also meant that it was possible to continue efforts regarding building-adapted solar cells, BIPV.
From 2019, Peder Vejsig Pedersen has been the coordinator of the “Smart Energy Green Cities” project with support from the Danish Energy Agency, where CO2-saving urban development has been developed in interaction with groundwater-based heating and cooling, ATES, and local solar cell and solar heating solutions for selected urban areas.
Information concerning this is collected on this website with a special focus on Bispebjerg Hospital, Avedøre, Køge and Frederiksberg Municipality, and also with information on new BIPV solutions as well as previous work on both solar PV and solar thermal solutions.
You can also refer to the FBBB database www.bæredygtigebygninger.dk, where several interesting buildings with BIPV solutions and different degrees of CO2 neutrality are presented.
An interesting example here is Copenhagen International School, CIS, in Nordhavn with architecturally successful solar cells integrated into all facades above the ground floor. Here, an “Active House” labelling was made in 2018, which led to the building being selected as the winner of the international “Active House Award 2018”.
