Pilot Actions

Pilot Action 1 : Interactive website with detailed real solar potential for Sainte Blandine district.

Background : The city centre of Lyon is concerned by a large urban regeneration project called Lyon Confluence (150 hectares) that will extend the city centre by means of high-quality development projects that meet stringent quality criteria in terms of urban planning, architecture, environmental impact and landscaping. In 2004 a EU-funded Concerto program called “Lyon Confluence” was set up on this area with the aim of introducing energy considerations (consumption and renewable production) in the first phases of the urban planning. This initiative has recently enhanced an urban rehabilitation of an area called Ste Blandine, nearby the confluence area, where the Pilot Action will be carried out.

Description and results : Within the rehabilitation program of the old city district of Sainte Blandine, energy aspects and experimentation on the rehabilitation of an historical area are two aspects of outmost interest for the municipality of Lyon.
Within this framework a solar potential study has been undertaken by Lyon Urban Agency to evaluate the PV solar potential for residential and local government buildings in the area.

Sainte-Blandine district

An internet website presenting the solar potential results has been published. It aims to inform district inhabitants about the development potential of PV technology on their roofs.

The information needed for developing this Pilot Action are 3D schemes of the district and land registry data. Software tools like GIS, Sketch-up and PV-syst will be also used.

Pilot Action 2 : Citizen jointly owned PV system at Lyon

Background : Until very recently, electricity production has been centralised in a few plants in each European country. With the development of renewable energies and the process of decentralisation of electricity production, a new opportunity is offered to all consumers : they can now produce their own electricity. With its relative easy operation and the possibility to install small systems on roofs of consumers in urban environments photovoltaic energy is one of the most accessible production technologies. In France, the framework is being developed to facilitate the introduction of grid-connected community PV installations. However, it is still complicated for individuals to have access to these installations as investors because of the legal, administrative and, above all, cultural barriers. A structure named SOLIRA has been set up with the purpose of introducing an easier involvement of energy users in electricity production.

Description : The aim of this Pilot Action is to mobilize local investments in PV systems and offer the possibility to local citizens to participate to the development and production of renewable electricity by means of :
 Identification of potential sites for citizens jointly owned PV systems in the Grand Lyon area and selection of an appropriate roof for a PV facility to be installed.
 Organisation of a conference and working sessions for citizens and interested investors in order to set up the legal structure and finance the operation.
 Development of a Guide for the city of Grand Lyon with specific recommendations for citizens investment in jointly owned PV systems.
The information needed for developing this Pilot Action is an adequate roof, in terms of orientation, slope and structure.

Innauguration SAS SISER

Pilot Action 3 : Solar Urban Planning scenario for a new development area

Background : The development of the “Lyon Confluence” project (supported by EU-funded Concerto programme) has made urban developers think differently about energy aspects related to the urban design. However, many aspects need to be improved in the Confluence project : energy considerations haven’t been introduced early enough and the urban planning can still be more appropriate.

Description : This Pilot Action is a follow-up to the experience of the Lyon Confluence project by giving more importance to energy aspects in the very beginning of the urban planning process. The main objective is to experiment urban planning methodologies that take into account solar radiation as the main criteria for planning, by proposing 2 different scenarios for an urban planning area named Bron Terraillon (within Grand Lyon) :
 The first scenario represents the usual one used by urban planners (not taking into account solar energy) ;
 The second one places the optimisation of energy inputs as main criteria.
The report produced can be downloaded here.
The “solar planning scenario” of Bron Terraillon has been integrated in the consultation documents for the area‟s future developer in order to indicate possible optimization measures in the original master plan for passive and active solar gains.
The main goal of this Pilot Action is to go further and to generalize the integration of solar aspects into each stage of an urban development project.

A second step is the creation of guide presenting the work that has been done on the optimization of the planning process regarding solar irradiation criteria as an aspect that shall be taken into account during the whole planning process.