Feasibility of Innovative Smart Mobility Solutions: A Case Study for Vaasa

Abstract

The global trend of urbanization and growing environmental awareness have risen concerns and demands to develop cities to become smarter. There is a grave need for ambitious sustainability strategies and projects, which can aid cities intelligently and comprehensively in this task. European Union (EU) launched 2014 the Horizon 2020 program (aka Horizon Europe), aiming to encourage the EU nations and their cities to take action to reach carbon neutrality through projects striving to smart city development. By promoting innovative, efficient, far-reaching, and replicable solutions, from the fields of smart energy production and consumption, traffic and mobility, digitalization and information communication technology, and citizen engagement, the objectives of the smart city strategies can be achieved. Horizon 2020 funded IRIS Smart Cities project was launched in 2017. One of the follower cities in the project has been the City of Vaasa in Finland. Vaasa’s climate objective is to reach carbon neutrality by 2030. In order to achieve this goal, the city has taken several decisive measures to enhance de-carbonization during recent years. One essential target for de-carbonization activities has been traffic and mobility. The primary purpose of the research conducted was to study the smart mobility, vehicle-to-grid (V2G), and second life battery solutions in the IRIS Smart Cities project, demonstrated first by the Lighthouse cities and then to be replicated in the City of Vaasa. The aim was to study which importance and prioritization these particular integrated solutions would receive in the City of Vaasa’s replication plan led by the City of Vaasa’s IRIS project task team of 12 experts, with the contribution of the key partners and stakeholders. Additionally, the aim was to study the potential of the integrated solutions in question to be eventually implemented in the Vaasa environment, and the benefit for the city’s ultimate strategy to reach carbon neutrality by 2030. The secondary object was to study the solutions’ compatibility with the IRIS lighthouse cities’ demonstrations and gathered joined experiences concerning the smart and sustainable mobility and vehicle-to-grid solutions, and utilization of 2nd life batteries. The results of the research indicated, that the innovative smart mobility solutions, including vehicle-to-grid and second life battery schemes, are highly relevant not only to the IRIS Lighthouse cities, but they also present good potential for the City of Vaasa in the long run, being compatible with the city’s climate and de-carbonization goals.