Positive Energy Districts and Neighborhoods (PEDs) are seen as a promising pathway towards sustainable urban areas. Several cities have already taken up such PED-related developments. To support such approaches, European countries joined forces to achieve 100 PEDs until 2025 through a comprehensive research and innovation program. A solid understanding and consideration of cities’ strategies, experiences and project features serve as the basis for developing and designing the PED program. JPI Urban Europe has been collecting information on projects towards sustainable urbanization and the energy transition across Europe. The collected cases are summarized in a PED Booklet whose update was recently published on the JPI Urban Europe website. Results presented in this paper provide insights from the analysis of 61 projects in Europe and offer recommendations for future PED developments.

In this study we present the development and testing in a rat model of the self-opening neural interface (SELINE), a novel flexible peripheral neural interface. This polyimide-based electrode has a three-dimensional structure that provides an anchorage system to the nerve and confers stability after implant. This geometry has been achieved by means of the plastic deformation of polyimide. Mechanical and electrochemical characterizations have been performed to prove the integrity of the electrode with very good results. Functionality of SELINEs for fascicular stimulation has been tested during in vivo acute experiments in the rat. Chronic implants were made to test the biocompatibility of the device. Results showed that SELINEs significantly improve mechanical anchorage to the nerve. Stimulation stability is considerably enhanced compared to common planar transversal electrodes and stimulation selectivity is increased for some motor fascicles. Chronic experimental results showed that SELINEs neither produce changes in the fascicular organization of sciatic nerves nor signs of nerve degeneration. The presented three-dimensional electrode provides an effective anchorage system to the nervous tissue that can improve the stability of the implant for acute and chronic studies.

The adoption of chronic implantable peripheral nerve-based prosthetic devices is currently hampered by the lack of a highly integrated neural signal acquisition system-on-chip (SoC). We report a ten-channel peripheral nervous system (PNS) electroneurogram (ENG) signal acquisition SoC within an implantable package. Requiring only four off-chip capacitors, this SoC can be co-encapsulated with flexible nerve electrodes and a resonant coil antenna to form a 3.4 cm³ and 3.9 g implantable device for chronic ENG acquisition. This SoC is inductively powered and controlled through a resonant coil at 22 MHz and transmits the digitized neural signal through a near-infrared LED (NIR-LED). Fabricated in 0.18-μm CMOS, each amplifier channel exhibits an input referred noise of 1.9 μVrms and a noise efficiency factor (NEF) of 4.0 within the signal bandwidth of 5.5 kHz. Each amplifier channel within the SoC is digitized with 10-bit resolution at 17.5 ksps, and the total power consumption (SoC and NIR-LED) is 4.4 mW when the NIR-LED is driven at 3 Mb/s. An electrode impedance measurement circuit with <10% magnitude and <8° angle error for measuring impedances up to 1 MΩ is also incorporated in this SoC. This wireless, low noise ENG acquisition SoC package has been validated in vivo while implanted on a rodent to acquire ENG from its sciatic nerve.

Objective . As artificial prostheses become more refined, they are most often used as a therapeutic option for hand amputation. By contrast to extra- or intraneural interfaces, regenerative nerve electrodes are designed to enable electrical interfaces with regrowing axonal bundles of injured nerves, aiming to achieve high selectivity for recording and stimulation. However, most of the developed designs pose an obstacle to the regrowth mechanisms due to low transparency and cause impairment to the nerve regeneration. Approach . Here we present the double-aisle electrode, a new type of highly transparent, non-obstructive regenerative electrode. Using a double-side thin-film polyimide planar multi-contact electrode, two nerve fascicles can regenerate without physical impairment through two electrically isolated aisles. Main results . We show that this electrode can be used to selectively record and stimulate fascicles, acutely as well as chronically, and allow regeneration in nerve gaps of several millimeters without impairment. Significance . This multi-aisle regenerative electrode may be suitable for neuroprosthetic applications, such as prostheses, for the restoration of hand function after amputation or severe nerve injuries.

Photovoltaic energy (PV) is considered one of the pillars of the energy transition. However, this energy source is limited by a power density per unit surface lower than 200 W/m², depending on the latitude of the installation site. Compared to fossil fuels, such low power density opens a sustainability issue for this type of renewable energy in terms of its competition with other land uses, and forces us to consider areas suitable for the installation of photovoltaic arrays other than farmlands. In this frame, floating PV plants, installed in internal water basins or even offshore, are receiving increasing interest. On the other hand, this kind of installation might significantly affect the water ecosystem environment in various ways, such as by the effects of solar shading or of anchorage installation. As a result, monitoring of floating PV (FPV) plants, both during the ex ante site evaluation phase and during the operation of the PV plant itself, is therefore necessary to keep such effects under control. This review aims to examine the technical and academic literature on FPV plant monitoring, focusing on the measurement and discussion of key physico-chemical parameters. This paper also aims to identify the additional monitoring features required for energy assessment of a floating PV system compared to a ground-based PV system. Moreover, due to the intrinsic difficulty in the maintenance operations of PV structures not installed on land, novel approaches have introduced autonomous solutions for monitoring the environmental impacts of FPV systems. Technologies for autonomous mapping and monitoring of water bodies are reviewed and discussed. The extensive technical literature analyzed in this review highlights the current lack of a cohesive framework for monitoring these impacts. This paper concludes that there is a need to establish general guidelines and criteria for standardized water quality monitoring (WQM) and management in relation to FPV systems.

This paper presents the Positive Energy District Database (PED DB), a pivotal web tool developed collaboratively by the COST Action ‘PED-EU-NET’, in alignment with international initiatives such as JPI Urban Europe and IEA EBC Annex 83. The PED DB represents a crucial step towards sharing knowledge, promoting collaboration, reinforcing decision-making, and advancing the understanding of Positive Energy Districts (PEDs) in the pursuit of sustainable urban environments. The PED DB aims to comprehensively map and disseminate information on PEDs across Europe, serving as a dynamic resource for sustainable urban development according to the objective of making the EU climate-neutral by 2050. Indeed, PEDs imply an integrated approach for designing urban areas—the districts—where a cluster of interconnected buildings and energy communities produce net zero greenhouse gas emissions, managing an annual local/regional overflow production of renewable energy. The paper describes the collaborative step-by-step process leading to the PED DB implementation, the current results and potentials of the online platform, and introduces its future developments towards a more user-friendly and stakeholders-tailored tool. The interactive web map offers a customizable visualizations and filters on multiple information related to PED case studies, PED-relevant cases, and PED Labs. Users can access detailed information through a table view, facilitating comparisons across different PED projects and their implementation phase. The paper offers insights and detailed analysis from the initial dataset that includes 23 PED cases and 7 PED-related projects from 13 European countries, highlighting the key characteristics of surveyed PEDs.