Geneva's smartest infrastructure is its lake. Starting with the 2009 GLN loop that first served the UN district, the utility SIG has grown GeniLac into a planned ~30 km hydrothermal network that heats and cools buildings — the airport included — cutting the electricity used for cooling by up to 80%. No algorithms; just cold water, used cleverly.

The atlas documents 2 projects in Geneva, the earliest dating to 1991: 2 still running without a verdict. Every entry carries an evidence grade — the strongest here is peer-reviewed (1 entry) — and links its sources.

All 2 projects in Geneva

✔ Every published entry is checked against the public sources it cites before publication.

Outcome: 2 ongoing — Evidence: 1 peer-reviewed · 1 official

Deeper reads

Where Geneva appears in the atlas's own analysis.

Closest comparisons

One city the atlas reads next to Geneva — the reason first, then the entries it rests on. Chosen by hand from the Geneva threads below, not counted out of them.

1. 🇨🇭 Zürich

   Switzerland's two data-and-heat cities, a generation apart: Geneva's geoportal long predates Zurich's, and Geneva actually built the lake-water thermal grid that Zurich's heat map can only point at.

   • SITG Open Territorial Data Platform ↔ Open Data Zürich: CC0 Government Data Catalogue
   • GeniLac Lake-Water Thermal Grid ↔ EnerGIS — Zurich's Address-Level Heating Options Map

Show 6 further city threadsShow fewer

Every editorial link from Geneva's entries into another city, strongest first. Each one is a statement about two projects, not about two cities — the three above are the ones the atlas is willing to make at city level.

• 🇦🇪 Abu Dhabi: Masdar City Two clean-energy bets: Geneva's lake-water grid scaled from 2009 to 30 km; Abu Dhabi's Masdar eco-city stalled at a fraction of its plan.
• 🇯🇵 Tokyo: HARUMI FLAG Hydrogen Infrastructure Two district-energy bets: Geneva cools buildings with cold lake water (2009); Tokyo's Harumi Flag heats homes with piped hydrogen (2024).
• 🇩🇰 Copenhagen: Copenhagen's Contribution to Open Data DK Same shared-infrastructure model: a multi-partner geodata platform, just canton-led in Geneva instead of city-led in Copenhagen.
• 🇸🇪 Stockholm: Stockholm Open Data Portal Stockholm still scatters data across separate department portals; Geneva's 18 partners unified onto one in 1991.
• 🇩🇪 Dresden: Energy-Autonomous Wastewater Plant Kaditz Local water, two uses: Geneva's grid cools buildings with lake water (2009); Dresden's Elbe-outflow turbine helps self-power a plant (~85%).
• 🇨🇭 Zürich: Open Data Zürich: CC0 Government Data Catalogue Switzerland's other cantonal portal is two decades younger: Zurich opened in 2012, Geneva's network in 1991.

Official strategy and sources

📎 Cite this city

1001 Smart Cities (2026). “Smart-city projects in Geneva, Switzerland.” The Smart City Atlas. https://1001smartcities.org/cities/geneva/ (last verified 2026-08-27). Data: CC BY 4.0.

The underlying data is free to reuse with attribution — see the open data page.

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