© Thomas Maier
© Thomas Maier

Freiburg leads smart city initiative

Under the direction of the city of Freiburg im Breisgau, Germany, over 60 partners from manufacturing, research and politics are partaking in the ‘smartFAB’ project.

Participating cities include Aalborg, Denmark; Bologna, Italy; Kauna, Lithuania; Maribor, Slovenia; and Almada, Portugal.

SmartFAB aims to install exemplary urban districts, unifying sustainable issues in various areas including energy, building technology, eMobility, IT and communications.

Freiburg, Aalborg and Bologna are to initiate pilot projects whose examples the cities of Kaunas, Maribor and Almada will then follow.

SmartFAB is active in Freiburg in the new development Green Industry Park that houses the former freight yard as well as the Smart Green Tower.

The Smart Green Tower’s energy production temporarily exceeds its own energy needs, therefore a flexible energy storage system in the form of a battery platform in the megawatt range will be included. Phase one will rely on a lithium-ion battery manufactured by ads-tec. While, phase two will be complemented with a redox flow battery. The high capacity storage has the ability to collect and administer renewable energy to a large urban district, thereby offsetting times of peak energy demand.