Low-carbon smart city project Triangulum reaches successful conclusion

“Manchester is now one of the leading cities for Smart City technologies, using the expertise shared among partners to tackle the challenges of today and tomorrow. The technology has helped us to boost green energy solutions, and we can effectively balance energy demand, storage and usage – creating a more sustainable Oxford Road Corridor.”

Professor Bamidele Adebisi, Smart City lead at Manchester Metropolitan University

Triangulum was a five-year European Union-funded project in which places chosen to demonstrate technology – known as Lighthouse Cities – were used as a testbed to prove low-carbon, cost-efficient solutions are possible and could be rolled out to other urban centres across the continent.

Manchester was one of the participants, showcasing technologies that can now be achieved and replicated, in the key areas of ICT, sustainable mobility and energy along the city’s Oxford Road Corridor.

As part of the pilot scheme, Siemens worked with the University on a distributed energy system at the Birley Campus. A 400kWh lithium ion battery was introduced and 595 solar panels installed on the roof of the Brooks Building, which together with the existing combined heat and power plant can supply electricity to 900 student rooms and the academic building.

Energy-saving projects such as Triangulum have helped the University to rank second in the People and Planet university sustainability league 2019.

Triangulum closed with an international conference in Stavanger, Norway, which, along with Manchester and Eindhoven in The Netherlands, was one of the three ‘points’ of the smart city demonstrator triangle.

It is envisaged the findings from Manchester pilot will be used to develop smart city quarters in other cities around the world.

Triangulum was one of 14 European Smart Cities and Communities Lighthouse Projects funded by the European Union’s Research and Innovation Framework Programme known as Horizon 2020.