Zaragoza, Spain, recently hosted the NEUTRALPATH project’s partners for a three-day gathering focused on innovation, collaboration, and knowledge sharing. Held at the Etopia Center for Art and Technology, the event brought together city representatives, technical experts, and community members to explore the challenges and opportunities of developing Positive Clean Energy Districts (PCEDs), all with the shared goal of accelerating climate neutrality in urban areas.
The first workshop that took place is part of a series led by TECNALIA, focused on uncovering the key factors that drive the successful replication and scaling-up of Positive Clean Energy Districts (PCEDs) across diverse urban contexts. Experts and city representatives engaged in dynamic breakout sessions, each dedicated to one of five critical dimensions—governance, finance, technology, structural conditions, and community engagement—sharing best practices and lessons learned from real-world implementations.
ICONS led a workshop focused on unlocking the exploitation potential of the innovative solutions developed within NEUTRALPATH. Bringing together the lighthouse cities—Dresden and Zaragoza—and the follower cities—Vantaa, Ghent, and Istanbul—the session aimed to assess the innovation readiness of key technologies and services, identify post-project exploitation pathways, and adapt solutions to each city’s unique context. Discussions also explored how the methodologies, knowledge, and expertise generated through the project could be transferred and scaled up by follower cities, supporting broader replication efforts across Europe.
To support the dialogue among city actors involved in PCED implementation, CARTIF held a workshop with the purpose to understand the policy context of the 5 cities involved in NEUTRALPATH that is helping to deploy a PCED strategy as part of the Climate City Contract.
A capacity-building session for technical partners and experts, offering a platform to present and discuss the innovative solutions currently being implemented in the lighthouse cities of Dresden and Zaragoza was organised by Eurocities.
To ensure that local citizens were not just observers but active participants, Three O’Clock hosted an Open Day in Zaragoza. The event transformed complex concepts from the NEUTRALPATH project into engaging, hands-on experiences for the public. Through the interactive Energize board game, educational exhibitions, and technology showcases, residents had the opportunity to discover how their city is advancing toward climate neutrality. This Open Day is part of a broader series of public events hosted by the cities involved in the NEUTRALPATH project.
