The primary purpose of this thesis is to examine the innovative smart mobility, and second life battery solutions, represented in the City of Vaasa’s Horizon 2020 IRIS Smart Cities Replication plan. The objective is to find certitude of the Lighthouse cities’ demonstration validity and feasibility concerning the City of Vaasa’s replication plan. Additionally, the aim is to study the solutions’ potential to be implemented in Vaasa, and the benefit concerning the city’s general plans to reach carbon neutrality by 2030. The secondary object is to examine the solutions’ compatibility with the IRIS Lighthouse cities’ demonstrations and gathered experiences, and with the recent plans and projects executed in Vaasa related to smart and sustainable mobility solutions. This thesis was commissioned by the City of Vaasa.
European Union launched 2014 the Horizon 2020 program, aiming to encourage EU nations and their cities to take steps to reach carbon neutrality via projects promoting Smart City development. Horizon 2020’s aim is to battle climate change by encouraging cities to become more sustainable. By promoting innovative, efficient, far-reaching and replicable solutions, from the fields of smart energy production and consumption, traffic and mobility, information communication technology, and citizen engagement, the objective can be achieved. IRIS Smart City project (Integrated and Replicable solutions for co-creation in Sustainable cities) was launched in 2017. The project consists of three Lighthouse cities and four follower cities. Vaasa has been part of the project since 2017 as a follower city. The IRIS project’s solutions are first to be studied and demonstrated by the Lighthouse cities and then to be replicated by the follower cities. A replication plan is required to examine and present the feasibility and validity of the integrated solutions, to secure their implementation process.
The results of this thesis indicate that the innovative smart mobility solutions, including V2G and 2nd life battery schemes presented in the City of Vaasa’s replication plan, are relevant to the City of Vaasa, by being compatible with the city’s climate and decarbonization goals and related sustainable mobility plans and projects executed in Vaasa in the past few years. These solutions play significant role in the Lighthouse ciBes’ demonstrations, thus showing great potential for utilization in the City of Vaasa’s infrastructure, mobility and smart grid development plans. The solutions can advance Mobility as a Service concept, electric vehicle utilization development, and aid in decarbonization, enhancing energy efficiency, creating new businesses and services, and improving the attractiveness of the city
