On its first anniversary eCitySevilla is already consolidated as an international reference for innovation and sustainability, as it plans to convert the 203 hectares of the Cartuja Science and Technology Park (PCT Cartuja), with its over 500 organisations, into a 100% decarbonised environment and with a zero emission balance by the year 2025.

This public private partnership project, led by the Regional Government of Andalusia (through the Regional Ministry of Economic Transformation, Industry, Knowledge and Universities and the Andalusian Energy Agency, attached to the Regional Ministries of the Presidency, Public Administration and the Interior and Finance and European Funding); the Seville City Council, the Cartuja Science and Technology Park (PCT Cartuja) and Endesa, has also become a focus of attraction for advanced technology and environmental companies.

In fact, companies from this sector grew by 16% in 2019 in PCT Cartuja compared to the previous year, according to its Annual Report, bringing together economic activity of more than 733 million euros and almost 2,500 jobs in the past year, making it a leader of the productive sectors that have a presence in this innovation space. This growth is connected to the launch of strategic projects such as eCitySevilla.

As well as these figures, which are an example of how it is an economic magnet, about five hundred organisations have joined eCitySevilla in its first twelve months, and shown their interest in participating in one of the four working groups (energy, mobility, buildings and digitisation) which handle developing the project, to which a fifth has been added, that covers communication and participation, in charge of publicising the project and galvanising interest.

These groups have worked non-stop even during the state of emergency caused by the COVID-19 pandemic, and have made progress in milestones such as the first energy audits of buildings or the installation of electric vehicle chargers and getting eCitySevilla to be one of the best practices of science and technology parks in 2020, as recognized by APTE, the association that brings together the innovative spaces of Spain.

In addition, the project has also begun receiving recognition at an international level. The European Commission’s European Week of Regions and Cities, which was held last October, selected, with the help of the Seville City Council, eCitySevilla as an example of an avant-garde project that strengthens and positions Seville as an urban laboratory for sustainable and innovative urban practices. In addition, participants at South Summit, the largest showcase of innovation in Southern Europe, also had the opportunity to get to know the eCitySevilla project first hand in October, thanks to Endesa.

Furthermore, in this first year of life of the project, there have already been four virtual meet-ups about aspects of interest to the companies and institutions that joined eCitySevilla. They have addressed business architecture, financing instruments of the IDEA Agency and the CDTI, the presentation of the Programme for Efficient and Sustainable Mobility Moves II Andalusia, managed by the Andalusian Energy Agency, and the advanced materials for energy efficiency.

Statements by the project partners

The mayor of Seville, Juan Espadas, has highlighted that “the Cartuja Science and Technology Park is moving forward with eCitySevilla as a national and international reference in innovation, entrepreneurship and sustainability”. Espadas has underlined, in this sense, the “enormous importance of the project for achieving a model of energy transition, emission reduction and the fight against climate change that is one of the major challenges of the Seville 2030 Strategic Plan, Of the Sustainable Urban Development Goals and the new European Green Deal”.

For his part, the Minister of Finance and European Funds, Juan Bravo, considered that “Andalusia is leading energy transition, promoting the use of renewable resources, with a special impact on self-consumption, promoting sustainable mobility, savings and efficiency in production processes and building, and promoting digitisation. And as part of this process, for the Board, a project like eCitySevilla, has the added value of serving as an example and projection for the general public, as well as contributing to this change of energy model”.

Rogelio Velasco, advisor of Economic Transformation, Industry, Knowledge and Universities and president of the PCT Cartuja, has emphasized that “an initiative of these characteristics, based in and focused on a Science and Technology Park such as Cartuja is a way of promoting and encouraging activity in the Park, as it can become an opportunity to generate interesting entrepreneurship projects within this enclave. But above all, it is a demonstration of how we can empower a business development space as an example of sustainability that can be exported to all the technological environments of the community and to cities in general.”

Furthermore, the general director of the PCT Cartuja, Luis Pérez, has emphasised how importance this project is for the Science and Technology Park and the companies, research centres and universities that operate within it, who are its “main protagonists”. As Luis Pérez has said, the eCitySevilla initiative will make this environment the “largest urban laboratory in terms of sustainability and energy efficiency at European level”. “It is, he added, the most transformational project of PCT Cartuja since it was founded”.

Finally, the general director of Endesa in Andalusia and Extremadura, Rafael Sánchez Durán, has reconfirmed the “commitment to make the island of La Cartuja 100% sustainable, and this will be possible thanks to the collaboration of all the organisations involved, from the administrations to the companies, thereby proving that, together, we can make eCitySevilla a reality.” Sánchez Durán has proven his conviction that Seville will become “an energy paradigm” and a project that is replicable to other urban environments.

 

About eCitySevilla

The eCitySevilla project, a public-private partnership initiative led by the Regional Government of Andalusia, the Seville City Council, the Cartuja Science and Technology Park (PCT Cartuja) and Endesa, proposes the development of an open, digital, decarbonised and sustainable ecosystem city model on the island of La Cartuja by 2025, bringing the energy and climate targets set for 2050 forward by twenty-five years.

Five working groups will develop the strategies to be followed in each of the project’s pillars (energy, sustainable mobility, buildings, digitisation and communication and participation). Once these lines of work have been developed, in 2025, the island of La Cartuja will enjoy a 100% renewable energy supply, will have efficient buildings, will deploy recharging points to encourage use of sustainable electric mobility, and all this will work with a connected and autonomous system that will be connected to a fully digitalised Smart Grid, which will also enable an open data platform for intelligent park management

Más información en https://www.pctcartuja.es/es/proyecto/proyecto-ecitysevilla