Nottingham has been named as the smartest city in the country for energy in the UK Smart Cities Index.
The index, which was commissioned by Huawei UK and conducted by Navigant Consulting evaluates 20 cities around the country and their strategies, key projects and overall readiness in using digital technology in a variety of areas, including healthcare and energy.
Nottingham topped the index for energy initiatives and came eighth place overall in the report.
The city council has several energy initiatives, including its own energy company, Robin Hood Energy.
Its Energy Projects Service is developing solar projects to fully utilise the Council’s assets and has a pipeline of solar projects to roll out across its estate by 2020 including more solar car parks.
The local authority will also soon be piloting cutting edge fuel cell technology in three of its high energy consuming buildings; gas boilers will be replaced with fuel cell systems if successful at significantly reducing energy demand and costs then this will be rolled out to many other buildings across the city.
The council’s portfolio holder for energy and sustainability, David Liversidge, said: “We are delighted to see Nottingham recognised as leading the UK’s smart energy initiatives.
“Energy sustainability has been one of our top priorities since our 10-year Energy Strategy was published in 2010. Nottingham is at the cutting edge of energy innovation having the right people and infrastructure to get these types of projects off the ground,’ added Liversidge.
“We have seen successes across a number of projects, and our proud that initiatives such as Project SCENe, REMOURBAN, Sungain Battery Bank, and Enviroenergy as well as our own efforts to introduce smart technologies across our estate are helping us meet our 2020 energy targets. Looking forward, we will build on our smart energy reputation to pioneer smart transport, smart health and smart housing services for the benefit of our citizens,” he added.