Pilot investment: Slope Elevator in Cuneo
Overview
The Municipality of Cuneo is part of the "Covenant of Mayors for Climate & Energy", which is the world's largest movement for local climate and energy actions, that involves more than 9.600 local and regional authorities from all over Europe. Within this project an electrical storage for an already existing slope elevator in combination with a PV-system is planned. For the deployment desk seven internal and twelve external stakeholders are identified. Most of the internal stakeholders are directly involved in Store4HUC project and a part of the external stakeholders is directly involved in the implementation of the pilot project. The others will be involved through periodic meetings, e-mail newsletters and social network communication. These external stakeholders are for example representatives of bank foundations and of the chamber of commerce as well as electric energy distribution companies, technical experts, representatives of other municipalities or multi-utility companies. The goal is that every stakeholder benefits from the participation in the project. The Municipality of Cuneo for example can gain new contents for the improvement of the Cuneo Building regulation and Cuneo Urban Plan, or for the improvement for the Cuneo Smart City level. The electric energy distribution companies can improve the electricity distribution service thanks to the installation of RES and storages and so on.
Description of the Pilot
Cuneo is a medium-sized city situated in the north-west of Italy. The city has about 56.000 inhabitants and is the capital of a province Cuneo of nearly 600.000 inhabitants in total. Cuneo takes its name from the shape of the plateau on which it stands, at the confluence of two rivers: called Gesso and Stura. It forms a triangle with a point stuck in the heart of the plain and the other two open towards the mountains and the six wonderful valleys that lead to France. The shape of the city is the reason why it is called Cuneo, that in Italian means “wedge”.
The Environment and Mobility Service, Public Work and Environment Sector, has been engaged for years in promoting policies in favour of sustainable mobility and energy saving. The pilot project of the municipality of Cuneo is settled on the border of the city centre. For this reason, there are no specific constraints that have to be considered for the implementation of energy storage while a specific permit was obtained by the Piedmont Region for the PV plant. However, a preliminary opinion will be required by the municipality to the national authority for architecture and landscape.
In Cuneo the project Store4HUC focuses on the energetic optimization of an already existing slope elevator. In average the elevator makes about 160.000 races per year transporting more than 700.000 people. Today the elevator is entirely powered by electricity without using renewable energy. In 2018 the elevator had a consumption of 18.226 kWh of electricity (3.584 €). Therefore, the purpose of the project is to carry out a pilot project that allows the use of renewable energy for the operation of the elevator system, limiting the energy consumption to a minimum. Through a precise analysis of consumption, the strategy for the realization of the pilot project will be defined, which will see the combination of a photovoltaic system with direct exchange to a part combined with a storage system.
The total investment of the energy efficiency project forecast in the project actions amounts to a total of € 89.000 including taxes. The project will be defined and approved by 2019. By 2021 the project will be contracted and implemented. The major aim of the project is to create a pilot project that allows the sloping elevator to free itself in large part from grid energy using renewable sources. It should be an example of best practice that can be replicated in other areas of the city center of Cuneo and also in other cities with a similar situation.
