Development of urban solar infrastructure to support low-carbon mobility

© 2015 Elsevier Ltd. The provision of an adequate network of urban infrastructures is essential to create clean and energy-efficient urban mobility systems. However, the urban infrastructure to support sustainable mobility can produce a substantial environmental burden if no life cycle environmental criteria are applied in its design and management. This paper demonstrates the potential to support energy-efficient and CO<inf>2</inf>-free pedestrian and electric bike (e-bike) mobility through the ecological design (eco-design) of urban elements. An eco-design approach is applied to reconceptualize a conventional pergola toward an eco-product (solar pergola). The solar pergola generates surplus photovoltaic electricity that provides a multifunctional character. According to the end-use of this energy, different scenarios are analyzed for robust decision-making. The deployment of solar pergolas can contribute to save from 2,080kg to over 47,185kg of CO<inf>2</inf> eq. and from 350,390MJ to over 692,760MJ eq. in 10 years, depending on the geographic emplacement (solar radiation and electricity grid system). These savings are equivalent to charging 2-9 e-bikes per day using clean energy. Instead of maximizing infrastructure deployment to shift to environmentally friendly modes of mobility, the implementation of multifunctional urban elements represents a key area of action in the context of smart city development.