Urbio Featured in Swiss Cleantech Report for AI-Powered District Heating Planning
- Sep 7, 2023
- 2 min read
The Swiss Cleantech Report highlights how Urbio's generative AI platform is helping European cities optimize energy infrastructure and target gigatonnes of building emissions reductions by 2050.
Tackling Europe's 40% CO2 Emissions with Software
Buildings are responsible for nearly 40% of Europe's greenhouse gas emissions, yet determining which energy infrastructure projects will deliver the greatest impact remains a challenge. Energy planners and utilities often face what Urbio co-founder and CEO Sébastien Cajot describes as "a bit of a free-for-all, with a number of associated risks."
The Swiss Cleantech Report recently featured Urbio's approach to this problem: automatically combining dozens of databases to direct energy-transition stakeholders toward projects with the highest added value, both financially and in combatting climate change.
How Generative AI is Transforming District Heating Network Planning
Urbio's platform, a kind of "Google Maps" for the energy sector, uses interactive maps and AI-driven scenario generation to help utilities and municipalities evaluate energy infrastructure options at building and district scale.
The platform's generative design functionality uses algorithms to automatically produce multiple optimized district heating network planning scenarios. Rather than manually modeling a handful of configurations, energy planners can explore dozens of possibilities, each evaluated for cost, carbon impact, and technical feasibility.
The company recently registered a patent to protect its AI interaction model, and claims the software for district heating planning can generate scenarios with up to 15% more savings on carbon emission while enabling customers to spend a tenth of the time usually required for preliminary project design.
Real-World Deployment: From Swiss Utilities to Brussels' Climate Plan
Urbio is already working with major Swiss energy suppliers including Romande Energie, OIKEN, and Groupe E. The platform has also expanded internationally to Germany and Belgium, where it was adopted for Brussels City Council's net zero plan—demonstrating the technology's ability to simulate climate measures at city and regional scale.
The company has raised CHF 4.5 million from investors, nearly half from venture capitalists, and is preparing to raise additional capital for international expansion. Urbio estimates that its service will help cut several gigatonnes of cumulative carbon emissions by 2050 across Europe.
"We want to have as much impact as possible on reducing the carbon footprint of the building sector."
– Sébastien Cajot, CEO of Urbio
Read the full feature: Swiss Cleantech Report - Urbio
About the Swiss Cleantech Report:
The Swiss Cleantech Report is the official reference publication for Switzerland's clean technology sector, published by the Swiss Federal Office of Energy (SFOE), the Federal Office for the Environment (FOEN), and Switzerland Global Enterprise (S-GE). Distributed globally through Swiss embassies and trade fairs, the report spotlights the country’s most innovative SMEs and start-ups that are actively contributing to the UN’s Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs).