Local climate impact on the energy demand: an analysis at the European scale

A reduction by 80% of the greenhouse gas emissions as well as a similar decrease for the final energy consumption is needed to respect the energy strategies and climate objectives at the European scale. To address this issue, we analysed the energy demand of 17 European cities using the coupled CIM-CitySim model. Simulations taking into account the urban microclimate were performed for one typical year to obtain the cooling and the heating demand. When comparing the results with and without the urban microclimate, although on a yearly basis there does not seem to be much difference on the overall energy demand (<15%), when looking at the seasonal dynamics, it can be noted that there are significant deviations, in particular for the cooling demand (>60%). In the future, strategies to design more sustainable urban areas at the European scale will be evaluated. The objective is to be able to define mitigation strategies that will decrease the footprint of urban areas while at the same time increasing its liveability. (paper)