Energy prices play an important role in the budgets of cities and municipalities and many of their representatives are looking for ways to reduce the energy consumption of the facilities they operate. At the beginning of 2023, the city of Slaný therefore commissioned a conceptual study of municipal energy from the CTU UCEEB.
The concept was based on the construction of photovoltaic systems on municipal buildings with the possibility of sharing this energy among themselves, as envisaged by the newly proposed LEX RES II law. We considered the potential of installing photovoltaics for school facilities, the municipal office, the newly renovated ice rink and the wastewater treatment plant. For each building, we first had to map the baseline operation through a walkthrough and discussion with the local manager, obtain consumption data, and measure the roof layout for installing PV panels. The result showed that the buildings can be up to 55% energy independent during the year within the community. The key to efficient and economical operation will be just the mutual sharing of energy and smart management of battery storage flows.
At the same time, during the spring and early summer, researchers from our
participatory planning and design team conducted the first phase of participatory activities related to the city of Slany's plans for a new use of vacant land in the Na Dolíkách area in the western part of the city.
The first task was a stakeholder mapping exercise to identify important actors and interest groups that will be significantly affected by the future use of the land, or whose activities are in turn important for the city as a whole. As part of this task, our researchers surveyed more than 100 stakeholders, who were then described in terms of walking distance to the subject site, type of actor, and area of operation. The analysis was complemented by an assessment of the relevance of the entity's activities to the city, particularly their social or community overlap. As a result, 9 main interest groups were identified (city management, citizens living in the vicinity of the site, educational and training institutions, interest groups, sports clubs, religious groups, entrepreneurs and others).
In the next stage, our researchers conducted 11 in-depth interviews with previously identified opinion leaders. Their purpose was to determine needs and concerns towards the site and also the general mood in the locality. The last part of the first phase was an online questionnaire survey supported by the possibility of plotting on the so-called feeling map, in which citizens could express their opinions both about the Na Dolíkách locality (important and pleasant or, on the contrary, problematic places) and about the city of Slané as a whole (positively and negatively perceived places, problematic sections in terms of pedestrian, car and bicycle traffic, places important for leisure, suggestions for improvement).
The answers in graphical and textual form were then thoroughly categorised and subjected to qualitative analysis. The results of the first phase of the survey were submitted to the City of Slany in the form of a final report, which will serve the architectural studio as an input for the competition for the design of the site. The second phase of the participatory activities, which will be directly related to the tendered designs, is planned for the beginning of 2024.
The article is published with the consent of the city of Slany as the client of the study.
