As part of the SPARCS City Vision 2050 project, a two-day workshop was held from Maia on the 24th and 25th of November in remote mode, with the aim of co-creating a desired vision of the city of Maia for 2050 among the community of citizens and other stakeholders. The workshop was organized by an internal multidisciplinary technical team, accompanied by the Portuguese SPARCS partners SPI - Portuguese Society of Innovation and NEW R&D, joined by INEGI - Institute of Science and Innovation in Engineering and AdEPorto - Porto Energy Agency. A group of experts was also invited to participate in the previously defined strategic work areas: Urban Development, Energy Transition, Mobility, Smart and Sustainable City and Integrated and Inclusive City. This event was fortunate to have a wide range of key local actors and citizens deeply committed to collaborating in achieving the goals for this SPARCS initiative.

WSL Wohnen & Service Leipzig GmbH actions focus on the investigation and optimisation of the heat consumption of apartment buildings. The analysed demonstration buildings are located in the district “Leipzig West” and connected to the district heating grid of Stadtwerke Leipzig and their solar thermal system, which is also a part of the project SPARCS.

The development of energy-positive apartment buildings is one of the work packages of the SPARCS project under the direction of Leipziger Stadtwerke. Alongside other activities, this subproject of four work packages is examining how CO2-free district heating could be implemented in “Leipzig West”. The initial milestones were achieved in the first year of the project.