A low energy jewel on the river side.
© Ville de Besançon
The city of Besançon (117 000 inhabitants) is located in the east of France in Franche-Comté region, at the heart of the newly created Rhin-Rhone metropolitan area. Recognized as the first green city in France, Besançon is known for its quality of life and its historical and cultural heritage: the city is on the Unesco World Heritage List since 2008 (Listed as Fortifications of Vauban).
The city of Besançon is active in the field of sustainable energy for 40 years and has been recognised nationally for the management of buildings and public transport. Besançon developed an Agenda 21, then got involved in a European pilot programme and was among the first French municipalities to receive the European Energy Award certification. Besançon might even become the first French city to receive the EEA gold label.
PUBLIC BUILDINGS AND SERVICES
Besançon developed a strong experience in the field of renewable energies with the construction in 2006 of a 7,3 MW wood heating plant on the Planoise district heating network supplying 13 000 equivalent housing units. More than 50% of supplied energy is from wood. A master plan on heating network on Planoise and Hauts de Chazal districts was published: it provides strategic orientations by year 2020. In year 2012, a call for offers for a new wood plant (16 MW) on the Planoise network will be issued, starting to make the master plan concrete.
The city produces also photovoltaic electricity (42 MWh/year) and uses biogas from the water treatment unit of Port Douvot to co-generate electricity and heat.
The municipality of Besançon has a department dedicated to energy saving and has therefore been a pioneer in the operation of technical installations, the management of energy consumptions and energy contracts.
A low energy consumption nursery (Clairs-Soleils district) was delivered recently, an additional one at nearly zero energy standard will be on September 2012. Regarding public lightning, 2100 light bulbs were replaced in 2011 and 1000 more will be this year.
The most innovative approach of Besançon is probably the financing of its actions (buildings, lightning, photovoltaic…) by “energy saving” loans: the annual instalments are paid back thanks to operating revenues. Moreover, additional revenues come from energy saving certificates that the city collects: one half of this revenue goes to the financing awareness raising actions towards citizens, the other half to municipal actions. One million euros have already been invested and a total of 4 more million euros will be invested in the period 2012-14 (2,5 on buildings).
Read more: RES Champions League . PUBLISHED BY YANNICK RÉGNIER
More information: Energy Cities Energy and Climate Policy of the City of Besançon (PDF)
