Vinnytsia's Energy Transition Presented at the World Congress Smart City Expo 2023

On November 8, Barcelona hosted the Smart City Expo 2023 World Congress, which was attended by a delegation from Vinnytsia at the invitation of Deloitte. There, city mayors, global private sector leaders and international experts discussed how to revitalize Ukrainian cities to make them environmentally friendly and digital, and to help create sustainable, economically attractive and future-ready communities. Ukrainian communities included representatives from Vinnytsia and Kharkiv.

Pavlo Yablonskyi, Chairman of Vinnytsia City Council, represented the interests of our community. According to him, Smart City Expo 2023 is the world's largest annual event where representatives of more than 700 cities from five continents share their experience in implementing best practices and innovative projects. It is also a good opportunity to find new partners and interest potential investors in implementing projects that are useful to the community.

During a public speech, he said that in early 2022, and shortly before the full-scale invasion, Vinnytsia became the first city in Ukraine where the city authorities approved a declaration on the Green Deal, based on a similar European document approved in 2019. Pavlo Yablonskyi also told the audience in detail how the roadmap is being implemented, according to which our city is developing in a "green direction".

"The signing of Vinnytsia's Green Deal last year was a logical continuation of our community's long-term plans for green development, as set out in both the Concept of Integrated City Development until 2030 and Strategy 3.0. Our city is gradually moving towards green development, pursuing such goals as climate neutrality and CO2 reduction, decarbonization of the economy, agriculture and transport infrastructure, we are implementing an energy transition in the context of the EGD," says Pavlo Yablonskyi. "Actually, we are talking about municipal electric transport and expanding the bicycle infrastructure network, stimulating businesses to switch to renewable energy sources, as well as developing industrial parks where investors will develop industry using innovative technological approaches."

For example, in terms of urban mobility, Vinnytsia has developed a 92 km long bicycle network. Every day, municipal transport runs along different routes. One of the city's achievements was the launch of 9 autonomous trolleybus routes, which allow Vinnytsia residents to reach the most remote areas without hindrance. Traffic lights regulate road safety, and 72 facilities are connected to an automated traffic control system.

Vinnytsia is not lagging behind when it comes to developing renewable energy sources. In April of this year, the city introduced the Procedure for Partial Compensation of Expenses for the Purchase of Autonomous Power Sources for Micro, Small and Medium Businesses, thus encouraging many entrepreneurs to switch to alternative energy. 37 companies have already installed solar panels with a total capacity of 10 MW.

The city is also working on critical infrastructure projects, said Pavlo Yablonskyi. The plans include the reconstruction of the boiler house, which will significantly reduce CO2 emissions, as well as the reconstruction of heating networks and sewage treatment plants.

"We also plan to reconstruct a water treatment plant, build a waste recycling plant and create a household waste disposal complex, develop eco-transportation and build a degassing system for the Stadnytsia landfill and install solar power plants," added Pavlo Yablonskyi.