Thematic Workshop Report Energy Efficiency · 2014. 3. 17. · 5 Thematic Workshop Report Energy Efficiency 1. The Workshop: Participants & Agenda 1.1 The objectives of the thematic

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Thematic Workshop Report

Energy Efficiency

Capitalising INTERREG IVC projects

21 November 2013

Koen Rademaekers – Triple E Consulting Rob Williams – Triple E Consulting Marie-José Zondag – Ecorys Netherlands

Table of contents

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1. The Workshop: Participants & Agenda 5

1.1 The objectives of the thematic workshop 5

1.2 List of participants 6

1.3 Programme 9

1.4 INTERREG IVC State of play of Capitalisation and perspectives 10

1.4.1 Context and concept 10

1.4.2 State of play 10

1.4.3 Future of interregional cooperation 11

2. Capitalising Energy Efficiency Projects 15

2.1 Results of the first year of capitalising Energy Efficiency projects 15

2.2 Recommendations 15

2.3 Approach 2nd Year - Capitalising EE 16

2.4 Good practices and INTERREG IVC Energy Efficiency projectsError! Bookmark not defined.

3. Summary and Group Discussion 17

3.1 What innovative approaches to Energy Efficiency can be seen in the projects? 17

3.2 Can innovative practices be transferred? 18

3.3 What can projects learn from each other and from other programmes? 18

3.4 Peer to peer response to the questions – and general discussions 19

4. Annexe One: Summary of Project Presentations 22

4.1 IMAGINE: IMAGINE Low Energy Cities 22

4.2 LoCaRe: Low-Carbon Economy Regions 22

4.3 STEP: Improving Communities' Sustainable Energy Policy Tools 23

4.4 RE-GREEN: REgional policies towards GREEN buildings 26

4.5 SERPENTE: Surpassing Energy Targets through Efficient Public Buildings 30

4.6 CLUE: Climate Neutral Urban Districts in Europe 31

4.7 CO2FREE: Cooperating 2 Foster Renewables and Energy Efficiency 34

4.8 Green-IT NET: Green IT Network Europe 37

4.9 RENERGY: Regional Strategies for Energy Conscious Communities 38

4.10 CLimAct Regions: Regions for Climate Protection: toward Governance, from

Knowledge to Action 40

5. Annex two– Workshop feedback 42

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1. The Workshop: Participants & Agenda

1.1 The objectives of the thematic workshop

Objectives of the thematic workshop On 21 November 2013 the thematic workshop for the INTERREG IVC Energy Efficiency projects took place in Brussels at the Committee of the Region. This workshop is part of the Capitalisation exercise of the INTERREG IVC programme. 18 Experts from the 11 Energy Efficiency projects, 6 capitalisation experts from Ecorys and TripleE Consulting and from the INTERREG IVC Joint Technical Secretariat discussed the results of the projects, the recommendations, which gave inspiration to all present for their own projects and which enables the capitalisation experts to draft the second capitalisation report. The objectives of the workshop were:

• To present and validate the findings of the first year of the thematic analysis on the projects’ results and achievements;

• To discuss interesting practices and policies available within the involved regions that could be relevant also to other regions in Europe;

• To discuss the state of play at EU level in the thematic field, in relation to regional policy;

• To stimulate synergies, interactions, networking and mutual learning among the projects.

• To discuss the following questions:

• What are innovative approaches to EE in the projects and how can these give a region a competitive advantage?

• Common features, successes, challenges in the EE projects?

• How can solutions/good practices add competitive advantage in involved regions?

• Can innovative/good practices be transferred ?

• What can projects learn from each other and from other programmes?

• Prerequisites for successful implementation of EE policy / Smart Specialisation Strategy

• Approaches other programmes/projects relevant for IVC EE projects? Content of the workshop Some of the results of the first years capitalisation exercise can be found in chapters 2 and 3 of this workshop report and also at the following website: www.interreg4c.eu/capitalisation (click energy efficiency). The projects which were present gave an overview of the state of play, good practices and recommendations of their projects. This can be found in annex one. Chapter 3 contains a summary prepared by the capitalisation experts, which answers some key questions on innovative approaches, the transferability of Energy Efficiency approaches and other issues. Chapter 3 also contains a summary of group discussions among the projects.

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1.2 List of participants

Name Last Name Organisation Position Project Email

1 Leo van der Klip Province of Zeeland sr policymaker LoCaRe

2 Helle Knudsen Region of Southern Denmark

Project Manager LoCaRe [email protected]

3 Isabel Marques INTELI Project Manager RE GREEN [email protected]

4 Petronela

Sturz City of mizil Project Manager RE-GREEN [email protected]

5 Torsten Lipp University of Potsdam scientist RE-GREEN [email protected]

6 Etienne Viénot Rhonalpénergie Environnement

Project manager CLIMACTREGIONS

[email protected]

7 Jolanta Dvarioniene Kaunas University of Technology

Project Manager RENERGY [email protected]

8 Alessandro

Attolico Province of Potenza Project Manager RENERGY [email protected]

9 Francesco

Scorza Province of Potenza Project Manager RENERGY [email protected]

10 Stéphane

Dupas Energy Cities Project Manager IMAGINE [email protected]

11 Alex Grassick Cork County Council Energy Projects Manager SERPENTE [email protected]

12 Caitriona

Strain ERNACT EEIG Project Manager CO2FREE [email protected]

13 Maria Vicente SARGA Technician STEP [email protected]

14 Franco Carlos SARGA. Government of Aragon

EU Projects Coordinator STEP Project [email protected]

15 Hugo Niesing Resourcefully Founder GreenITNet [email protected]

16 Laura Hernández Pérez

INFO Murcia European Policy Advisor STEP [email protected]

17 Marc Montlleo Barcelona Regional Director of Environmental Projects

CLUE [email protected]

18 Magda Anagnostou INTERREG IVC Capitalisation Officer [email protected]

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Name Last Name Organisation Position Project Email

19 Ignotas Salavejus INTERREG IVC Project officer [email protected]

20 Ilaria Ramaglioni INTERREG IVC Trainee [email protected]

21 Koen Rademaekers Triple E Consulting Director Capitalisation expert

[email protected]

22 Robert Williams Triple E Consulting Senior Consultant Capitalisation expert

[email protected]

23 Marie-José

Zondag Ecorys Senior Consultant Capitalisation expert

[email protected]

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1.3 Programme

Time

9.30 – 9.50 1. Opening and introduction to capitalisation exercise Welcome by INTERREG IVC Magdalini Anagnostou, INTERREG IVC JTS Explanation of workshop programme Koen Rademaekers , TEC Getting to know each other Marie-José Zondag, Ecorys

9.50 – 10.15 2. Results of first years Capitalisation on EE and 2nd

year approach Rob Williams, TEC

10.15 – 11.15 3. What are innovative approaches to EE in the projects and how can these give a region a competitive advantage? Common features, successes, challenges in the EE projects? –IMAGINE and LoCaRe How can solutions/good practices add competitive advantage in involved regions? STEP, RE-GREEN Discussion

11.15 – 11.30 Coffee break

11.30 – 12.30 4. Can innovative/good practices be transferred ? Innovative/good practice/policy for other region? SERPENTE Added value of IVC, contribution to EU2020 & flagships? CLUE and CO2 Free Discussion

12.30 – 13.30 Lunch break

13.30 – 15.00 5. What can projects learn from each other and from other programmes? Prerequisites for successful implementation of EE policy / Smart Specialisation Strategy? GREENITNET, RENERGY Approaches other programmes/projects relevant for IVC EE projects? CLIMACTREGIONS Discussion

15:00 – 15:15 Coffee break

15.15 – 16.30 6. Peer to peer review: Give each other advice in small groups – suggested themes: data, links to structural funds, citizen and politician engagement and buildings

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1.4 INTERREG IVC State of play of Capitalisation and perspectives

Ignotas presented the state of play and perspectives of IVC Thematic Capitalisation and Magdalini Anagnostou presented the vision for the future 2014+. 1.4.1 Context and concept The INTERREG IVC Programme has a wealth of knowledge! €302 m committed in 204 projects involving 2274 partners:

• 90% of EU NUTS 2 regions covered;

• 4,527 staff with increased capacity;

• 252 good practices transferred;

• 262 local policies improved. (as of June 2012) Why Thematic Programme Capitalisation? The aim of the thematic capitalisation of the INTERREG IVC projects is to use and exploit the thematic knowledge from projects working on a similar topic for the benefit of all regions in Europe. 12 Capitalisation topics, 111 projects

Which resources are available? The INTERREG IVC programme has the following resources available for the capitalisation:

• Knowledge resources - Content analysis of the participating projects; - Thematic expertise of the assigned experts; - Input from the stakeholder groups.

• Human resources - Key actor: 1 team of specialised thematic experts per topic; - JTS coordinators.

• Financial resources - ERDF from programme priorities; - 0.5 m€ per year (2012-2014, possible extension 2015).

1.4.2 State of play The first year of the programming exercise has resulted in 12 analysis reports & publications, which:

• Benchmark the knowledge from the IVC projects;

• Demonstrate innovative practices, tools, methodologies;

• Propose synergies & links with other EU initiatives;

• Make theme-specific policy recommendations;

• Validate the added value of interregional Cooperation. They are available at: www.interreg4c.eu/capitalisation

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Why a second year of Capitalisation? 1. To go deeper in the analysis and update the findings with the new project results; 2. To inform and involve the beneficiaries – users of the results form the first year; 3. To explore a capitalisation approach for the future programme. What is the approach of the second year? The second year of the capitalisation will enable:

• Deeper analysis - Collection of new data, especially form on-going & satellite projects; - Create links with other (ETC) Programmes, Strategies and Capitalisation initiatives to increase.

• Mutual learning - Develop a “policy tool box”: theme-specific targeted policy recommendations and tools for their up-

scaling.

• Wider communication - Open days – thematic workshops and exhibition; - Setting up a thematic community; - Awareness raising paper and publications; - Thematic Capitalization event: May 2014.

1.4.3 Future of interregional cooperation Vision for the future 2014+: INTERREG EUROPE The European Territorial Cooperation will be strengthened as there are only 2 goals left for 2014-2020 (Investment for growth and jobs / ETC). The budget of INTERREG EUROPE will stay more or less the same. The framework for the future is the EU2020 strategy and the draft regulation 2014-2020 with 11 Thematic Objectives.

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From 3 objectives to 2 goals

Now From 2014

INTERREG EUROPE (not INTERREG VC) The overall objective of INTERREG EUROPE for 2014-2020 is expected (as not yet approved) to be:

• To improve the implementation of policies and programmes for regional development;

• Principally of programmes under the investment for growth and jobs goal and, where relevant, of programmes under the etc goal;

• By promoting exchange of experience and policy learning among actors of regional relevance. From the 11 thematic objectives (TO) the following 4 have so far been selected by the Programming Committee (not yet approved by the European Commission):

• TO 1: Strengthening Research, Technological Development and Innovation;

• TO 3: Enhancing the competitiveness of SME;

• TO 4: Shift towards a Low Carbon Economy;

• TO 6: Protecting the Environment and promoting Resource Efficiency. The programme objectives are planned to be achieved through: 1. Interregional cooperation projects; 2. Policy learning platforms. Ad 1: Interregional Cooperation Projects - Main features The main features for interregional cooperation projects are currently under discussion by the Partner States of the programme The implementation may be organised in 2 phases:

• Phase 1: Policy exchange of experience (2 to 3 years) ending up with the production of 1 Action Plan per region ((how will I implement lessons learnt on the ground);

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• Phase 2: Monitoring of the Action Plan’s implementation + possible pilot actions (up to 2 years) From start asked to create local stakeholders groups.

Both phases may be obligatory. You would commit yourself for 4-5 years. For pilot actions extra funding will have to be applied for. However pPhase 2 is not meant to replace mainstream funding which shall be the primary source for the implementation of the actions. Ad 2: Policy Learning Platforms - Objectives The planned overall objective is to ensure policy learning across EU. The foreseen specific objectives are:

• To contribute to EU wide capacity building ‘External capitalisation’

• To optimise the exploitation of projects’ results ‘Internal capitalisation’’

• To improve the quality of the programme’s content The current idea of the platform is to ensure policy learning across EU. To ensure external and internal capitalisation. There would be 1 knowledge centre per Thematic Objective embodied through:

• On-line collaborative tool accessible for everyone;

• Expert team Content and coordination role. who will organise thematic workshops etc. . Approach to knowledge management

Possible activities of the planned platforms:

• Monitor regional ops;

• Analyse projects content;

• Benchmark knowledge;

• Advise on strategy;

• Prepare thematic papers;

• Assess pilot actions;

• Moderate online tool;

• Answer questions;

• Organise events;

• Disseminate information. The projects would give input for the platforms.

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2. Capitalising Energy Efficiency Projects

2.1 Results of the first year of capitalising Energy Efficiency projects

In the first year of the capitalisation the capitalisation experts (Koen Rademaekers, Rob Williams and Marie-José Zondag (Ecorys) made an analysis of the INTERREG IVC Energy Efficiency projects. Rob Williams of TripleEConsulting presented the results of the first year’s capitalisation. During the first year there has been a survey of the projects, interviews, project visits and a thematic workshop. The end result was a publication and report which can both be found at www.interreg4c.eu/capitalisation. Findings – Innovative Approaches:

• Community involvement is an effective way of bringing change.

• Involving a diverse range of actors promotes credibility and uptake – but it requires work on creating a ‘common language’.

• Awareness raising and behaviour change needs to be locally and target group specific and practical, but a diversity of delivery methods helps.

• Political and local authority officer awareness often needs improving –they are often willing and interested if arguments are presented appropriately and practical tools are developed.

2.2 Recommendations

Recommendations to Projects:

• Assessing transferability is key.

• Some sectors and applications are more transferable than others – energy use in public buildings appears to offer some good transferability.

• Process related approaches are often more easy to transfer than technical solutions.

• Transferability is affected by the nature of the recipient (their progress and if they have a regional energy policy).

• Not everything can be transferred.

• Light pilots are effective – but they must be resourced and the project partners must be ‘willing to fail’.

• ESCOs are an important mechanism in enabling larger scale investment in energy efficiency, particularly in the public sector – some of the projects could consider post project applications for assistance from ELENA.

• Technically focussed projects need expert involvement and in depth guidance. Policy Recommendations:

• Technology is usually not the problem – applying it in practice is the real issue, so policies need to reflect this.

• Energy efficiency is a truly cross cutting and cross sectorial issue – so projects need to consider multiple barriers, drivers and actors if they are going to have a positive effect on the uptake of energy efficiency.

• Making EC energy policy regionally and local relevant and applicable remains a genuine need – local energy strategies are a big help.

• INTERREG IVC helps disseminate the results of other EE programmes.

• Links between energy efficiency and regeneration and social inclusion are real and bring social as well as energy benefits.

• Innovation can be relative and INTERREG IVC has an important role to play in promoting transfer.

• Saving money remains a key driver for energy efficiency, though capital costs can still deter investments, especially during the downturn.

• Green public procurement is an effective way for the public sector to lead by example and to help create a demand and market for energy efficient products and services.

• Policy and practice in many areas affects energy efficiency - and can be changed to help.

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2.3 Approach 2nd Year - Capitalising EE

For the second year of the capitalisation the following approach is foreseen:

• Deeper analysis of INTERREG IVC project content;

• Update and focus on innovative aspects with potential for replication and upscaling – a ‘policy tool box’;

• Consider the Europe 2020 context, relevance to Smart Specialisation Strategies and links to ETC programmes;

• Widen communication - spread the results to: - Thematic community through a highlights paper; - 2 Programme events; - 1 project / EU topic event;

• 7 Feb first draft, 20 June final report & publication.

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3. Summary and Group Discussion

This section provides an initial summary of the key findings from the workshop, including some points from the first year’s

report, in the form of answers to a number of questions which were posed at the beginning of the workshop. The section

also contains a summary of the groups discussions which were held at the end of the workshop to discuss these

questions.

3.1 Good practices and INTERREG IVC Energy Efficiency projects

The projects were all asked to briefly present the following :

• Project;

• Good practice(s);

• Results;

• Do’s and don’ts;

• Links with other initiatives;

• Recommendations. A summary of these presentations is included in annex one of the report.

3.2 What innovative approaches to Energy Efficiency can be seen in the projects?

• Common features, successes, challenges in the EE projects;

• Multiple barriers and potential drivers – projects need to consider many things;

• Political awareness and interest is generally low. This can be partly addressed by linking EE to jobs and savings, but don’t forget the environment;

• There are many common issues among the projects. This can be summarised by looking at the drivers promoted and the barriers addressed by each project (in their own opinion). The table below presents these based on last year’s and this years’ workshop.

Drivers promoted and barriers addressed – common issues.

Source: Year one and two workshop Innovative elements – that the project presented

• Links to regeneration – also bringing social benefits (SERPENTE);

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• Integrate social and business expertise (e.g. In project partners);

• Engage private home owners (IMEA);

• Development of ESCO models (STEP);

• Public procurement guidance (REGREEN);

• Importance of behavioural change (RENERGY);

• Links to ICT (GREENITNet). How can these give a region a competitive advantage? How are Smart Specialisation Strategies (key to funding research and innovation in future Structural and Cohesion fund) relevant to EE?

• Regional baselines to identify opportunities.

• Sharing best practice and discussing options with a wide range of actors - (RENERGY ‘energy labs’).

• Promoting delivery links between energy businesses and public programmes – helping credibility of both (IMEA).

• 1:1 advice to households and ‘local champions’ (IMEA).

• Local energy policy development tools – indicator system to assess local authourity policy strengths and weaknesses (REGREEN, IMAGINE), how to fill these gaps (STEP, REGREEN and others), roadmap (IMAGINE) develop with policy makers and citizens.

3.3 Can innovative practices be transferred?

• Majority focus on ‘soft’ issues not technologies.

• Translating EC (and/or national) policies and targets to the local and regional level (RENERGY, STEP, REGREEN).

• Get a ‘fit’ with the local policy process (more than one route).

• Tailor the content and style to the target audience – e.g. technically specific for some (PLUS, ENERCITEE) with possible links to technically focussed projects (FP, LIFE+).

• Cross sectoral good practices are popular – using IT to reduce travel times (GREENITNet), electric car charging (CO2FREE).

• Practical help in capacity and knowledge building – (interns into policy departments – ENERCITEE).

• Help in developing a business case / change strategy to turn ideas into action (IMEA)

• Having the right mix of partner skills- national focus point to collect MS specific expertise and experience (IMEA, PLUS) – involving EE business, local champions, well networked (e.g. CoM, Energeecities) partners, to give a head start.

• Use existing policy mechanisms and opportunities (e.g. green public procurement / leading by example). (Energy Efficiency Directive stresses the ‘leading role of the public sector in EE’)

• Location specific issues can limit transferability – climate, building techniques, political and social issues (decision making processes).

• BUT, a variety of common building types, some common technologies (e.g. street lighting in PLUS) – but careful consideration and trialling needed.

• Techniques to overcome process related barriers are often more transferable – e.g. Crating a common language between a range of technical and non-technical stakeholders and decisions makers, involving local community members.

• Tailoring the presentation style to the audience, including innovative communication methods (e.g. Videos).

• Does a detailed energy baseline help transferability (in and out)?

• Not everything will be transferable everywhere!

• Transferring the ‘concept’ of a good practice is much easier than trying to duplicate it.

3.4 What can projects learn from each other and from other programmes?

• Overlap by focus, e.g. public buildings in SERPENTE, RE-GREEN and IMEA;

• Energy baselines help (as reflected in the CoM requirement for a Sustainable Energy Action Plan);

• Green public procurement is an approach which offers much and is politically supported (by the EC – if not all MSs);

• Links to ESCOs, the work done in projects could form the basis for partner applications for funding support (e.g. via ELENA and others);

• Promoting and enhancing citizen involvement, key to behaviour change;

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• Engaging the wide variety of stakeholders needed to make EE a reality – local politicians, civil servants, citizens, private companies, installers etc.;

• Developing skills and awareness of policy officers in local authorities. Are approaches of other programmes/projects relevant for IVC EE projects? / Added value of IVC, contribution to EU2020 & flagships?

• Related / relevant programmes;

• networking and targets: covenant of mayors;

• Sources of information: managenergy, buildup, etc programmes; - URBACT – e.g. cities action for sustainable housing; - ESPON – e.g. rerisk - regions at risk of energy poverty, greeco - territorial potential for a greener

economy; - INTERACT – e.g. ‘accelerating change - delivering sustainable energy solutions good practices from

intelligent energy Europe and European territorial co-operation projects’;

• Sources of funding: structural and cohesion funds, fp7 (horizon 2020), life+, iee;

• Sources of finance – EIB, EBRD, KFW.

3.5 Peer to peer response to the questions – and general discussions

Group 1 Political buy in is important, but if you are associated with one politician this can sometimes bring negative consequences. It takes a lot of time and effort to build consensus and avoid this. Private company involvement in INTERREG is not common – public sector focussed. Often the public sector partners will have local links to the private sector and academia (e.g. triple helix approach in Cork). There are clear links between the INTERREG EE projects and the Covenant of Mayors (CoM). The CoM is a very good political tool. It would be good if the links between CoM and INTERREG could be formalised , though there could be possible problems with the different DGs involved? Additional budget for engagement would help, e.g. with project longevity. Budget to involve politicians in the field visits is useful – they see examples and are more likely to buy in. There can be administrative problems in some MSs (to allow politicians to take part). Structural Funds as end point. Energy is cross cutting issue through many themes. Importance of baseline energy data: should be the basis for all information. Otherwise you do not know what the actual situation is. Group 2 LoCaRe: each region did SWOT. The content people had to liaise with their politicians. It is important to communicate in a way that people understand as ‘climate’ is fluffy – so clear information helps overcome this. Communicate to politicians with examples to make it clear. One problem with trying to gain the interest of politicians is that climate change is long term while politicians tend to focus on short term issues. It is often only possible to engage politicians when they have good knowledge of the issues. Showing the politicians how many jobs it creates is very helpful – as this is a concept they understand and will help them attract votes. The idea of LoCaRe is supported by others: i.e. an emphasis on showing examples. This can be done via a number of methods, including through infographics, video (e.g. with the IVC videos) or data. Involving politicians also brings risks when they change (due to loosing elections). For example the idea for an Eco district Barcelona was with old government – when the politicians changed the project was harder to promote. Good practices are very useful to show what can be achieved. The capitalisation report should contain information that convinces politicians. E.g. What are good practices delivering. How many good practices are coming out of this. With a small investment you can in the end save

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time because you can have a more cost efficient and better approach. Start up of projects takes time. Possible for JTS to do icebreakers?: give overview of what is working well/not , which projects are there already. Group 3 Synergies It is difficult to look for and pursue synergies between projects as there is no budget foreseen to enable this. There is already a lot of time needed to run an Interreg project and this is an additional task. . There is a lack of information on the other initiatives. The most common method of identifying contacts for a project is to work with previous collaborators. . The first year of a project is often a ‘lost year’, with much of the time spent on administrative issues such as gaining approval and making changes in team. The development of links between partners at the start of the projects is also time consuming. The projects should take the preparation of their (post project)implementation plan more seriously. However, because rojects are only two years long they could make the case that they lack the time to really focus on developing implementation plans. The Lead Partner seminars are very useful and there would be support for having these more frequently.

4. Annexe One: Summary of Project Presentations

4.1 IMAGINE: IMAGINE Low Energy Cities

Stephane Dupas, project manager at Energy Cities presents IMAGINE: www.imaginelowenergycities.eu The project was very ambitious. They organised, among other things, training for different actors, local actors and engineers. It was basic training. The project asked a charity, which works on engaging people, to explain how they engage people and why it is good and what you have to do when you are engaging people and what tools are useful. It was not training to apply directly but it showed them what is possible. There were 8 cities in the project. Some are very strong so that makes it easier. Even if support is there, it is hard to engage all levels in the project. In the end they stayed with the usual partners, so maybe that could be improved in future. In IMAGINE they asked people to think of their view of the future, (in 2050) e.g. what life would be like. In general local authorities are not well staffed, they do not have the content capacity so that is also why external expertise was used in the project. Are there links to other projects?: There are not really links at project level, but the the organisation Energy Cities is involved in several projects. (Energy Cities is the European Association of local authorities in energy transition) Political support?: depending on how they bring the topic to the political level, there would be interest. Although the project is about a big thing, the content, you tend to be most busy with the small things, the deliverables that have to be provided such as the 6 month report, the newsletter, etc. A roadmap will be developed. The implementation of the roadmap will be done after the project.

4.2 LoCaRe: Low-Carbon Economy Regions

Helle Knudsen, Project manager from Region of Southern Denmark (DK), presented LoCaRe: www.locareproject.eu There were 6 partners in the mini programme LoCaRe (Low Carbon Economy Regions) which has an objective to reduce CO2 emissions and contribute to growth - at the same time. The partners are from DK, SE, ES, SI, IT, NL: There were 25 partners In sub projects in total. There was much analysis & they identified many good practices on:

• New Energy

• New Leadership

• New Climate. They developed new tools in the following areas:

• Masterplans/ Strategic Energy Planning

• Training of Sustainability Ambassadors

• Asset Based Community Development

• Carbon Footprints of Forestry and Agriculture

• Energy efficiency in companies and retail

• Green New Deal They worked with schools, etc. The issues can be not attractive to politicians, as they are often more interested in jobs. So subprojects focused on the gap between business development and energy savings and CO2 reductions. This lead to the following outcome:

LoCaRe worked with energy efficiency in buildings, biomass market place, carbon footprint certification, etc. This made it interesting for politicians. Recommendations for new green deals: 1. Political leadership at all levels of society is fundamental. You have to involve politicians at all levels. 2. Local and regional implementation based on solid methods – a key to speed EU transition to a Low Carbon

Economy. We worked a lot with municipalities. And provided them ingredients. Real development has to take at local and regional level.

3. Change depends on local norms and values - technologies and infrastructure are necessary. We need new leadership. Two master plans were set up. The approach how to develop this is available for all.

Objectives of the master plan are:

• Secure and cheap energy supply;

• Avoid wrong investments and suboptimisation;

• Create growth and jobs.

Leo van der Klip (NL) explained the new regional energy policy in Zeeland The policy was to embrace all energy initiatives. So they revised it to 5 focus areas. We did SWOT with as many stakeholders as possible (to involve stakeholders). 45 people from all kind of organisations of Zeeland. Then did a multi criteria analysis with a smaller group. Asked advisory councils if they agreed. This summer (2013) the energy policy was adopted without amendment. Comment from Isabel Marques (PT) – RE-GREEN It is very important to involve the political level but also communities/citizens. In Re-Green there is a political board. They met at the conference and there will be one next year as well. We work with communities, the citizens. When the citizens want a greener economy they will press the politicians. So very important to have the debate with the citizens.

4.3 STEP: Improving Communities' Sustainable Energy Policy Tools

Franco Carlos, EU projects coordinator of SARGA, Government of Aragon (ES), presented STEP: www.steproject.eu STEP aims Improving Communities’ Sustainable Energy Policy Tools in 2012-2014. STEP has 8 partners from 6 countries: HU, ES, FI, DE, PL, IE: He explained the objectives:

• Reduction energy consumption and CO2 emissions and increase the rate of renewable energy sources.

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• Promoting regional energy self-sufficiency and energy diversification in line with the EU climate and energy policies.

• Exchange and transfer of policy practices and elaboration of a comprehensive interregional policy practice guide on local sustainable energy concepts and energy management systems.

• To support the implementation of sustainable energy actions by identifying adequate financing possibilities.

• Networking and interregional capacity building of local authorities’ staff in the field of sustainable energy planning and implementation.

Mapping, collecting and transferring good practices Important to show that EE can create growth and jobs. In Spain there is a major need for jobs.

• Collection and benchmarking of good practices related to local sustainable energy polices.

• Elaboration of transnational policy practice guides. We work on 3 guides: 1 for systems, 1 on policies and 1 for financing tools for sustainable energy investments. The last one is very important: - „Development of local sustainable energy systems”; - „Development of sustainable energy policies at local level”; - „Financing tools for Sustainable Energy Investments”;

• Study visits with local experts and relevant authorities’ staff: - Midland (IE); - Saxony (DE).

• Elaboration of regional Implementation Plans - including recommendations and analysis – which is adaptable to the regional conditions.

Energy audits of public buildings & public services

• They developed joint testing methodology for energy audits of public buildings and public services.

• Selection of public buildings in small sized cities: - South Transdanubia /HU/; - Lower Silesia /PL/; - Mid-West /IR/).

• Energy audits according to the methodology guide with external experts =

• Evaluation report on testing outcomes. What is happening as a result of the project?

• STEP partners elaborate 8 policy good practices resulting in 3 thematic policy practice guides with recommendations: - Better implementation of sustainable energy policies at local level; - Development of sustainable energy management systems; - Financing tools for sustainable energy investments.

• The policy practice guides will serve as base of the 8 regional implementation plans, which ensure the regional and local transfer of the policy tools and the durability of project results.

• STEP partners involve local authorities in the whole project implementation via regional policy exploitation actions.

• The main result of STEP will be the improved knowledge about local sustainable energy policies, the intensified cooperation between local & regional policy actors and at least 3 successful transferred policy practices. - They have signed an agreement in the region. - They have developed one tool in rural areas.

They have 3 selection criteria for selecting good practices:

• Better implementation of sustainable energy policies at local level;

• Development and implementation of sustainable energy management systems;

• Innovative financing tools for boosting local EE/RES investments. Aragonese pilot plans for rural sustainable development In Aragon pilot plans for rural sustainable development There are 735 municipalities. Many have less than 300 inhabitants and are isolated. See slide on objectives. Objective: auditing, execution, direction and management of all investments made in the framework of renewable energies, linked to the Pilot Plans for Rural Sustainable Development, clearly aimed at minimising

energy consumption (less public expense). This positive money balance will allow municipalities to manage more resources for the benefit of citizens. Problem addressed: Reduction of the energy consumed by the local administration or substitution of fossil energy sources by renewable energies. Key aspects: Development of audits to analyse the most energy-consuming services provided by the local administration and execution of the priority investments identified in the audits, aimed at meeting the set targets

3 Thematic areas & 8 Good Practices

• Better implementation of sustainable energy policies at local level - Local SE action plans in urban areas (STRIA-Hu) - Local SE plans in rural areas (SARGA-Es)

• Se management systems: - ESCO* models for RES in public buildings (ARGEM-Es) - Energy performance audit (Arleg-Pl) - Local Energy Management Systems (SAENA-De) - RES in municipal district heating systems (Kainuu-Fi)

• Financing tools for se investments - Alternative financing options for Public Sector investments (MWRA) - Financing EE/RES initiatives in local authority functional areas (Midland)

*ESCO= area based Energy Service Company Links made with other projects They signed last week an agreement with PROFORBIOMED (a MED programme project) PROFORBIOMED Project “Promotion of forest residual biomass in the Mediterranean basin”, which was one of the three Strategic Projects approved in 2011 by the MED Programme which axis is efficient and renewable energies. The cross cutting issues are focused on the efficient energy outcomes of the Pilot Actions of PROFORBIOMED and the key outputs of STEP. Cooperation is established by a Cooperation Agreement which is to be signed next week and this cooperation has been discussed at the Steering Committee Meetings of both projects. An example of this cooperation would be the exchange of information between the outcomes of the PROFORBIOMED Pilot Action on Preparation of pre-feasibility projects of biomass plants or district heating/cooling system were we can identify models implemented with the information coming from best practices of energy contracting described by STEP, so these tools can be improved mutually.

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The tools and outcomes will be shared and used to be implemented in different EU Regions serving as a base for future cooperation. Why is the good practice innovative & effective? STEP adopts a comprehensive & systematic approach as to what regional / local sustainable energy policies are about and should contain. This will allow regions to “fill in gaps”. ESCO: this type of institution even if well known in the EC, is not as generalised as it should be within the EU. This will help raise awareness about the importance of ESCO and embed the practice in the rest of the regions. STEP addresses, in a straightforward way, “Innovative financing tools” for sustainable energy investments. This theme is not frequent in projects. It will raise awareness and will hopefully also lead to adoption of such tools in those partner regions that need them. How is GP going to be applied in other region & what are conditions for transferability? STEP partners will elaborate 8 policy good practices resulting in 3 thematic policy practice guides with recommendations: 1. Better implementation of sustainable energy policies at local level; 2. Development of sustainable energy management systems; 3. Financing tools for sustainable energy investments. The policy practice guides will serve as the base for the 8 regional implementation plans, which ensure the regional and local transfer of the policy tools and the durability of project results. How does it contribute to EU2020? Overall objectives of the project:

• To reduce the energy consumption, CO2 emissions and increase the rate of renewable energy sources in the partner regions contributing to the EU2020 targets.

• Promoting regional energy self-sufficiency and energy diversification in line with the EU climate and energy policies.

In order to achieve the EU 20-20 by 20 targets national and regional policies have to be deployed more efficiently at local authorities’ level, which are the key of successful policy implementation. Difficulties STEP encountered the following difficulties:

• Due to crisis 2 partner changes;

• Long reporting processes;

• Too complex GP to transfer;

• Difficult to find proper energy expert to make the energy audit according joint methodology. (Polish partner);

• ESCO: in many countries it does not work well. It works well in big projects. In local areas it does not work because they have no idea about it. It is also a financial issue (funds are lacking).

Successes:

• Useful thematic seminars with study visits;

• Valuable identified GPs;

• Joint developed and tested energy audit methodology with recommendation for further improvements. In France: when you renovate or build building you can get some extra when you do this in an energy efficient way.

4.4 RE-GREEN: REgional policies towards GREEN buildings

Torsten Lipp from University of Potsdam (DE) presented RE-GREEN: www.re-green.eu/en RE-GREEN - targets

• To identify and analyse the economic and social benefits of greening buildings;

• To identify, share and transfer experiences and good practices and to develop joint policy tools and instruments related to innovative solutions for greening buildings, namely in the areas of energy efficiency and renewable energy;

• To develop strategic guidelines and policy recommendations as an integrated toolkit for regional;

• And local authorities, fostering green building focused on retrofitting existing buildings;

• To induce local/regional public authorities to act as „leading examples“ by introducing energy-efficient measures in public buildings;

• To measure the environmental, economic and social impacts of strategies towards green building, through the construction of a system of indicators.

Conceptual framework: RE-GREEN is not only focusing on buildings but also on governance and urban systems.

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In Mizil (RO) they have green public procurement. RE-GREEN made a good practice guide which was elaborated by the University of Potsdam, based on 28 good practices identified by the 7 regional partners from UK, IE, RO, PL, SI, EE and ES There is at least one good practise in each subdimension of the Conceptual Framework:

• Green Buildings;

• Green Urban Systems;

• Green Governance. Good practices Mizil: Retrofitting multi-apartment buildings The city of Mizil supports the retrofitting of private multi-apartment blocks built between 1950 and 1990. Since 2011, 50% of the retrofitting works are paid by the government, 30% by the local council and 20% by the owners. Retrofitted blocks receive an energy performance certificate, indicating annual specific energy consumption. The performance of the newly retrofitted buildings is still monitored until three years after the renovation.

Extremadura: Energy Services Companies (ESCOs) model in large administrative buildings An ESCO, or Energy Service Company, is a business that develops, installs and arranges financing for projects designed to improve the energy efficiency and maintenance costs for facilities over a seven to twenty year time period. The ESCOs services are bundled into the project's cost and are repaid through the savings generated. The Regional Government of Extremadura, with the support of the Extremadura Energy Agency, facilitates the management and financing of energy efficiency measures in large administrative buildings in this way. The Regional Ministry of Agriculture, Rural Development and Energy was the first finished retrofit in January 2013.

Good Practice criteria Relevance • high energy consumption of buildings

• positive side effects like decrease of energy consumption and other important environmental, economic and social impacts

Transferability The good practice can be transferred to other public authorities implementing the project both to private and public buildings, from European, governmental or local funds.

Quantitative indicators Regional Ministry of Agriculture, Rural Development and Energy (first procurement): before after Energy consumption (kWh/year ) 2,388,339 1,409,120 Energy consumption /area (kWh/m2/year) 155.72 91.88 Energy consumption /employee (kWh/person/year)

2,850.0 1,681.5

Energy Supplies Cost /year (€/year) 349,187.83 306,960.31 CO2 Emissions /year (tons CO2/year) 788.15 465.01 CO2/year of avoided emissions 323.14 tons Reduction in energy supplies cost 12.09% Reduction in energy consumption of the building

41%

(13.5% of the economic savings resulting from this reduction are given to the administration)

Total Economic Saving/Total Investment 1,18

Mizil: Green Public Procurement of Mizil Municipality As a member of the Covenant of Mayors, the City of Mizil is currently implementing the Sustainable Energy Action Plan. One important part is green public procurement (GPP). Acting as a leading example, Mizil demonstrates that action in this area is possible and that it leads to positive outcomes. Beyond that it encourages private sector organisations to use green criteria for their own procurement.

Results of the RE-GREEN Project

• Deep involvement of the main responsible people of the municipalities (mayors , civil servants). 10 representatives of the RE-GREEN municipalities were at the launch conference (Lisbon, February 2012). The mayor of Mizil (Romania) participated in the last interregional workshop and study visit (Dublin, September 2013);

• A broad discussion was initiated by the re-green project; more than 200 stakeholders have participated in the 1st and 2nd stakeholders seminars discussing issues related to green economy and green buildings;

• The 7 city/regional partners have now a deeper knowledge (potentials, fragilities, opportunities) of their energy system as whole and particularly of their building efficiency due to the diagnoses made in the scope of the project;

• The project leveraged the sustainable building sector – 23 good practices were visited and some city partners will replicate some of their efficient measures in their regions. These measures will be included in their local implementation plans (lip);

• For some partners the lip is the unique way to have an integrated and coherent strategy for green buildings in a broader approach, including green governance and green urban systems; otherwise they only have loose measures, initiatives and projects;

• The project facilitated the access to more and structured information about green building sector;

• Knowledge partners produce scientific articles and present the results at international conferences (e.g. Glp in berlin, march 2014);

• The project allowed a better connection between INTERREG projects and structural funds. Example: the lip could be a plus for further projects financed by European funds;

• Production of knowledge in green buildings. The partnership developed a position paper for the green paper 2030 framework for climate and energy policies;

• Dąbrowa Górnicza (Poland), a re-green partner, is one of the twelve cities in the competition for the European green capital award 2016. It provides a springboard for sharing best practices, ideas and giving example to other cities;

• Through this project some partners were involved together in other European partnerships (ex. inteli and agenex, iee last call).

What is going well in the project?

• The strategy for stakeholders mobilisation has been successfully implemented;

• Study visits and interregional workshops were very well organized and showed a strong commitment of the responsible partners;

• Re-green partnership has proved highly dynamic (e.g. Position paper about green paper 2030 framework for climate and energy policies);

• The definition of two types of partners (the knowledge and the regions/cities) have worked well. What could have gone better?

• Some difficulties in the communication because of difficulties in English language;

• Different levels of partners experience in terms of European projects (partners with high experience and partners with low experience). Lead partner always supported intensively the partners with low experience;

• Complexity of some financial issues namely delays in sending progress reports to the lead partner due to validation delays by the flcs (the deadline for validation can reach three months - ex. Irish case).

Links made with other projects/programms In the first part of the project (first 18 months) the re green partnership change contacts with other INTERREG Projects:

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• RENERGY: regional strategies for energy conscious communities; the re-green project was presented in the mid term evaluation of the RENERGY project;

• SERPENTE: surpassing energy targets through efficient public buildings;

• IMAGINE: low energy cities;

• STEP: improving communities sustainable energy policy tools;

• Regions4green growth: regional policy instruments and approaches for improving acess to finance and speeding up investments in sustainable energy.

In next months re green partnership will works in achiving some real linkages with these projects. The city of Mizil promoted its experience in GPP in the framework of GPPinfoNET project (Green Public Procurement Information Network), financed by Life+ Program; Mizil is building a phovoltaic facility covering all public energy consumption with European funds for competitiveness; and the municipality has also implemented a project for the revitalisation of neighbourhood through the green spaces modernization with governmental funds. All these measures are part of the effort of the municipality for green city, the main objective that motivated the municipality to be a partner in Re- GREEN project.

4.5 SERPENTE: Surpassing Energy Targets through Efficient Public Buildings

Alex Grassick, Energy projects manager of Cork County Council (IE) presented SERPENTE: www.serpente-project.eu Surpassing Energy Targets through Efficient Public Buildings SERPENTE is a Regional Initiative project financed by INTERREG IVC, running from 1st January 2012 to 31st December 2014. It brings together 10 European regions characterised by different climate, history and building stocks, all interested in exchanging experiences to improve energy efficiency in publicly owned or managed buildings. There are 10 project partners from IT, SE, FR, CY, BE, SK, ES, CZ, UK.: The objective is to improve energy efficiency in different typologies of publicly owned or managed buildings through improved public policies. They focused on publicly owned or managed buildings, which represent a huge potential for reducing energy use and greenhouse gas emissions. Public authorities must play a leading role in the implementation of the EU energy and climate policy. The project focuses on existing buildings and addresses public policy making from the top-down (policy makers) and the bottom-up (citizen involvement) perspective. Partners aim to identify and analyse good practices related to energy efficiency. The project focuses on 5 sub categories of buildings:

• Social housing;

• Sports facilities;

• Schools;

• Offices;

• Historical buildings. From 28 GP (e.g. on developing policy) they selected 5 pilot actions n Cork, Malo, Cyprus, Bordeaux, Florence. (e.g. car cooling – is ICT projects. In Barcelona similar project on car cooling):

• CO ol Bricks;

• links project;

• CASH;

• Re Green;

• Euronet 50/50;

• SERPENTE has helped regions to draft strategy. Our experience with transferability is that when the approach is right that it will be possible.

Currently drafting 3 projects as a follow up. Impact:

• In Malmo, the municipal properties division have written a new energy strategy including the experiences of SERPENTE;

• In Cork SERPENTE has formed part of Energy management Action programme and has added funding applications at a national level;

• In Florence SERPENTE actions have been included on the political agenda.

4.6 CLUE: Climate Neutral Urban Districts in Europe

Marc Montlleo, director of Barcelona Regional, presents CLUE: www.clue-project.eu It is important not only to discuss about good practise but about the concept behind as social, economic situations are different. Helle Knudsen (LoCaRe) says that she likes the ‘concept driven’ idea. There are so many good practises. The problem is that it is of supply side. There are so many details to think of, so it is very good idea to describe the concept behind as this makes it easier to transfer. CLUE Project Cities and regions worldwide are facing three important challenges:

• Increasing urbanization leading to an expanding need for new urban districts;

• Climate change requires a reduction of the carbon footprint;

• Dependency on natural resources has to decrease. The CLUE project aims to enhance cities’ and regions’ capacity of implementing climate mitigation as a driving force in urban development and the formulation of planning policies. There are 11 partners from SE, ES, IT, AT, DE, PL, UK and NL. Project aims

• To identify best practices on improving local and regional development policies to achieve climate neutral urban districts. (Component 3);

• Identification and assessment of tools and methods for measuring, reporting, monitoring and assessing different technologies, systems and solutions for the development of climate neutral urban districts. (Component 4);

• European-wide dissemination (Component 2). Structure of CLUE

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Planning

Overview of the deliverables

Major tasks right now C 2 – Local dissemination seminars; C 3 – Finalising detailing Good Practice and reports; C 3 – Good practice Guide; C 4 – Expert workshop and towards final Guidelines. Added value of the project Mutual transfer of knowledge between professionals and academics on the pressing issue of Climate mitigation policy. A common way of working with Climate Neutral Urban Districts. Assessment of methods and tools for evaluating low carbon initiatives generated from regional and local policies Implementation plans for local development towards climate neutral urban districts. Links with other projects There are links with the following projects (expected): TRANSFORM supports those local stakeholders, responsible for investment and policy decisions, to turn their CO2 ambitions into a Transformation Agenda and into tangible Implementation Plans. http://urbantransform.eu/ The work is divided into 6 Work Packages:

• Smart Energy City: Definition & KPI’s

• Transformation Agenda

• Energy Atlas +

• Smart Urban Labs

• Uptake of Results

• Managing the Project Co2olBricks is a project that is looking for solutions to modernise historical buildings. The aims are to protect their historical value as well as reducing their energy consumption. http://www.co2olbricks.eu/ RE-GREEN aims at improving regional development policies oriented to the promotion of green regions within the new paradigm of the Green Economy, with a special focus on greening the building sector through the enhancement of energy efficiency and the use of renewable energies, stressing its importance as an incubator for new markets in the field of energy, technologies, services and business models. http://www.re-green.eu/en reMAC is a follow-up initiative of project EUCO2 80/50 and has been developed in the METREX network for effective regional planning. In project EUCO2 80/50, 14 metropolitan regions developed strategies in order to achieve a reduction of CO2

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Energy Efficiency

emissions by 80% until 2050. reMAC gives the answer what regional decarbonisation will cost and how savings can fund investment. www.regenerative-energy.org Transfer of good practices Implementation plans are still at a very preliminary stage of development. It is too soon for the assessment of the degree of transfer, next year there will be more.

4.7 CO2FREE: Cooperating 2 Foster Renewables and Energy Efficiency

Caitriona Strain, project manager from ERNACT EEIG (IE) presents CO2Free: www.co2free-project.eu CO2FREE is about Cooperating 2 Foster Renewables and Energy Efficiency

• Focus: translate good practices developed in one region into action plans to be implemented into another European region;

• INTERREG 4c: interregional cooperation, ‘capitalisation’ & ‘fast track’;

• Budget & timescale: €1.64 million (75% funding) over 2 years.

• There are 10 partners from IE, UK, SE, BG, ES, FI, AT, RO, ES. Target was to have 9 Action Plans and 4.5 € million mainstream funds from Cohesion/ERDF/ESF or Member State sourced for implementation of Action Plans There are 9 good practices. There has been transfer of good practices. Introduction • CO2FREE: cooperating 2 foster renewables and energy efficiency;

• Focus: translate good practices developed in one region into action plans to be implemented into another European region;

• INTERREG 4c: interregional cooperation, ‘capitalisation’ & ‘fast track’;

• Budget & timescale: €1.64 million (75% funding) over 2 years. Targets 1. 9 Action Plans; 2. 4.5 € million mainstream funds from Cohesion/ERDF/ESF or Member State sourced for implementation of

Action Plans.

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Good Practices in Renewable Energy & Green ICT

Renewable Energy: North Karelia

Bio-energy plan to tackle climate change, foster energy security and promote economic growth. 65% of total energy consumption in NK comes from renewable energy sources.

Donegal Green Plan covering 3 areas: Wood-burning systems installation in public buildings, Non-Food use of crops and Wind Turbine training programmes

Derry Intelligent ICT-based renewable energy plan for community centres and public buildings

West Romania Renewable energy sources (fuel cells and solar cells) plan for the implementation of innovative solutions in companies

Green ICT: Västernorrland

Green ICT plan to reduce environmental impact of ICT equipment and improve energy performance in buildings. ALAV has achieved impressive reduction in energy consumption and cost savings in public buildings

Good Practices in Energy Efficiency & Sustainable Transport

Energy Efficiency: San Sebastián

Energy City Plan implementing innovative advanced ICT control mechanisms to improve energy efficiency in buildings and public spaces

SE Bulgaria Cleaner Tourism Plan to reduce the carbon footprint of tourism through education, promotion of corporate responsibility and building assessment

Sustainable transport: Carinthia

Sustainable Transport Plan to promote e-mobility. This has achieved great success with the uptake of electric vehicles

Avila Promotion of Biofuels in an integrated sense, from the seeds at farmer-level to the consumption in cars, involving the whole value chain to promote sustainable transport

Achievements 12 Action Plans developed by 9 partners:

• Donegal County Council (1)

• Derry City Council (1)

• Association of Local Authorities in Västernorrland (1)

• Agency for Regional Development & Innovations (2)

• Fomento de San Sebastián (1)

• Regional Council of North Karelia (3)

• Office of Regional Government Carinthia (1)

• Regional Development Agency West Region Romania (1)

• Avila County Council (1) 4.3€ million funds obtained for implementation of Action Plans Action plans have contributed to regional energy strategies All partners will submit projects building on their Action Plans during the 2014 – 2020 programme period Opportunities

• Transferring a successful good practice can save time and money;

• Regions learn from what other regions have already done and avoid similar mistakes;

• Regions develop strong linkages with other region which last well into the future. Challenges

• MA initially interested and ROP potential fit, but it is sometimes simpler to get funds from other sources (e.g. national authority, regional strategy) vis-à-vis the ERDF;

• Funding of the Action Plan usually depends on a competitive process;

• Differing local conditions, e.g. technical conditions, governance, legal frameworks;

• Timing, due to political change or staff changes;

• Rapidly moving technology which can render some of the elements of the Good Practices obsolete very quickly;

• Financial problems being faced by some project partners which may leave them unable to co-finance the ERDF obtained from the ROP; There were not many Structural Funds (this proved difficult) left so they had to find funding from national budget and also some budget form local authorities in Ireland.

Conclusions Capitalisation & Fast Track network a very positive mechanism overall:

• € 4.3M received for Action Plan implementation;

• 12 Action Plans developed that will contribute to reducing European green house gas emission targets;

• 2 year interval from conceptualisation to implementation of successful Good Practice; Improved context for regions to discuss Green priorities with their Managing Authorities. Tapping into mainstream ERDF is NOT a straightforward process.

4.8 Green-IT NET: Green IT Network Europe

Hugo Niesing, Founder of Recourcefully (NL), presents Green IT Net: www.greenitnet.org Example: E-harbours: ReloadIT: Matching energy 60% of cars is produced locally by grid operators, e.g. Sun panels. But transfer of energy is rather difficult: rental cars have already car-key system. You need a lot of effort. 1 municipality who is owning the buildings so one would think that it is easy but lots of discussions, pilots, tests, etc. needed. Links with projects programmes

• per definition, nature project; - Between partners - 100 projects in platform - INTERREG

• IREEN FP7;

• E-harbours;

• ALPSTORE;

• CLUE;

• IPIN (NL). Transfer experiences

• Portal was launched recently;

• Innovative sector, in development;

• Policy dependent (taxes, incentives etc.);

• Policy uptake is time consuming;

• Two examples from Amsterdam perspective; - Hembrug area - REloadIT

• Maturenes and ease technology;

• Conceptual approach. Transfer experiences

• Mostly pilots;

• Change difficult - Extra work - Last long?;

• Look for bright examples;

• Timeline project.

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4.9 RENERGY: Regional Strategies for Energy Conscious Communities

Alessandro Attolico, Lead Partner from Province of Potenza (IT) presented RENERGY: www.renergyproject.eu 12 partners representing Local Authorities, Research Institutions and private sector from 10 Countries: IT, AT, PT, DE, UK, PL, LT, RO, DK, HU, UK INTERREG IVC Programme (Priority 2. Environment and the Risk Prevention) Duration: 2012 - 2014 Budget 2.210.187 Euro (1.720.889 Euro financed by EU) Overall objective: To improve, through interregional cooperation, the effectiveness of regional development policies aimed at increasing RES and EE Fields of application

Methodology KNOWLEDGE TRANSFER Energy Labs: a completely new platform concept for local energy actions ensuring continuous dialogue and cooperation between different stakeholders (experts, producers/suppliers and end-user) representing the 3 project pillars. Case Study visits Exchange: practical experience gained on the spot. Partners could share knowledge and learn from each other, creating a really intensive knowledge exchange ensuring the transferability of Good Practices. Partners and their thematic experts (12) have the opportunity to take part in, where relevant case studies are presented as well PPs got acquainted with the selected experiences which are successfully implemented in case-study location. Good Practice Guide: effective tool for knowledge transfer, due to its feature of collecting in a useful and friendly format all the information on exemplar good practices and providing examples easily to replicate under different local circumstances. Main expectations

• Implementation of the optimal mix of RES and EE in local policies in the partners’ regions;

• Assessment of the regions’ potential in relation to the development of RES in local market: enabling a close cooperation between local businesses to encourage the production and deployment of innovative technological solutions;

• Fostering cooperation between local authorities and key stakeholders to increase community awareness and to promote more energy efficient and sustainable behaviours;

• Improving and developing good practices between the partners through the transfer of know-how and the implementation of integrated action plans.

Specific actions and products

• Self-Assessment Analysis and Reports;

• Policy oriented and structured cooperation/involvement of stakeholders;

• Communication materials and policy documents;

• Identification of a set of strategies for developing EE/RES;

• Exploring new Local/regional/EU funding opportunities to improve EE/RES utilisation. Results and final products Comprehensive Local/Regional implementation plans that aid local/regional policymaking and the development of sustainable energy strategies across communities. Good practices

• Sustainable public housing units (IT): The project is developed in an urban surrounding residential area of the Municipality of Filiano. A small neighbourhood consisting of three buildings in line for a total of 18 houses has been built applying the principles, methods and techniques of Green Building and Sustainable architecture with particular reference to energy saving and renewable sources energy production systems.

• Safe Ecological Schools (IT): This good practice is carried out in the framework of a project that aims at achieving the EU 2020 objectives by boosting the use and promotion of RES and EE measures and by utilizing low-cost techniques and ecological materials in provincial schools and buildings.

• Climate and Energy model regions (AT): The climate and energy model regions are an essential tool for achieving the objective of the Austrian Government, by 2050, to become independent of fossil fuels.

• Energy consulting Lower Austria (AT): Since the project started in 2005, the energy consulting Lower Austria, became the most important point of contact for questions regarding the construction and renovation in Lower Austria. Trained energy counsellors provide prospective at a hotline to the topics of EE and RES. Using this service, the energy goals of the EU can be better be implemented.

• Housing subsidies on energy classification number (AT): The old building stock must be continuously thermally rehabilitated to reduce the total energy consumption. It is for the purposes of the EU, to reduce the thermal energy demand.

• Power saving-promotion Lower Austria (AT): Lower Austrian households consume significantly more electricity today than 20 years ago. At the same time, the Lower Austria has set ambitious energy targets. For this reason, since 2011, there is the power-saving promotion. It is also a goal of the EU to save power.

• New Environmental Education Center (EEC) (PT): The Environmental Education Centre is a sustainable pilot building which aims to integrate a large number of sustainable energy and bioclimatic systems.

• Actionplan “Klik”: The “Climate protection and energy efficiency concept” (DE): Concerning climate protection the City of Worms runs a wide range of activities that are all based on the “climate protection and energy efficiency concept - Klik”. This concept was developed in several working groups, starting 2008, and approved by the city council in 2010.

• “Energy caravan” Worms (DE): The project gives house owners the chance to gain insight about how to improve the living standard of their houses, how to increase their property in value and how to reduce the costs for energy.

• Energy Efficiency Round Table Worms (DE): The “Energy Efficiency Round Table Worms” is a network of 11 local industrial companies. It was founded in 2010 and runs for 3 years. The network aims at the exchange of experiences as well as high achievements in energy efficiency.

• Durham Partnership Climate Change Strategy (UK): Development and approval of a Climate Change Strategy for the County, identifying key themes and priorities, in a community accessible form and inviting response from local communities in the form of locally owned and relevant action plans. Aiming to engage communities in a dialogue about the impacts of climate change which affect them, encourage and support local ownership of action plans leading to measures and behaviour change and improved understanding of CC impacts by communities.

• Energy Days as a tool of community involvement (PL): Energy Days activate the whole local community: institutions, citizens, local actors and stakeholders, schools: children and youth. Energy Days are one of all CoM signatories commitments – they are obliged to organize such events at least once a year to improve the communication with citizens. The methodology was used successfully in many different countries, in town, cities and villages of different size, which proves its reproducibility and transferability.

• EURONET 50/50 - The network of energy saving schools (PL): The implementation of EURONET 50/50 methodology involves the whole school community and the model behaviour is transferred to students’ parents and relatives. Non-investment change of behaviour supports sustainable development. The implementation of EURONET 50/50 methodology has produced good results and proved that it can be successfully applied everywhere.

• The RES in individual house ensures energy independency from external energy supply (LT): Case study presents private house energy supply system which combined RES produce electric and heat energy. System coverage house energy consumption. This case study let increase energy independency, reduce CO2 emissions and decrease energy costs.

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• The website for information exchange regarding the refurbishment of buildings(LT): This portal is very actual and relevant as the building renovation process is too slow in Lithuania. It would increase the information flows and awareness of the community. The case study is concerned with all sustainability aspects: environmental – economical – social.

• Setting up a council owned investment and electricity distributor company Enev-AVRIG LLC (RO): SC Enev-AVRIG LLC is dedicated to the integration of renewable energy systems in Avrig and surrounding villages.

• Smart community – academic course (RO): Avrig has jointly with “Lucian Blaga” University of Sibiu to implement a “Smart community – academic course ”to: Establish local RES & EE Education to enhance Lucian Blaga University of Sibiu University in a key role as a player within our community, the City Hall of Avrig proposes starting with basic topics of the academic course to support common growth and development for renewable sustainability in business, academia and local government sectors.

• Energy Village – project and concept (DK): Local action groups in Flakkebjerg and Omø applied to participate in the project in 2011. The project started in 2012 and will end ultimo 2013. CO2 emission reduction and identification of tools a municipality can use to motivate and support towards the installation of RES and EE.

• Network for energy responsible personal (DK): Network with 15 – 20 responsible personal in different buildings in the municipality. They are each responsible for the energy consumption in own building.

• Network for SME working in EE and RES (DK): EE and RES installations in private homes and SME companies, increased competences of the SME.

• In 2009 the municipalities organized a workshop for SME with a brainstorming about how the municipality could help to promote RES and EE.

• Teacher training course (primary schools) (DK): Teacher training course (primary schools) in order to enable them to use photovoltaic panels that are installed in schools.

• Teachers and kids awareness on RES, increased capacity of teachers.

• Green Kindergarden “Szent Anna” (HU): This way of communication and community involvement can be adapted to anywhere in Europe. Young kids at their level can learn how to use our energy sources, not to waste energy, how to decrease energy cost, through events, competitions, playtime. It has long term effect on used energy amount (EE). They become more and more educated and conscious energy users.

• Utilization of geothermal energy in district heating system (HU): Show Geothermal water utilization for different sectors, like agriculture, horticulture, poultry sheds, municipality runned buildings, residential homes, balneology. This selected Good Practice is contributing to the TG2 thematic pillar. This good practice can be transferable to several part of EU, who has geothermal sources available. Its competitive as at least one third less cost has, than fossils and its environment friendly. Know-how, heating system, and cascade usage of thermal water.

• Green Directions – Mark Woodward (UK): In 2004, Mark Woodward set up “Green Directions”, as a way to save money on energy bills by setting up a business that is completely run on sustainable energy. Today, Green Directions run a conference centre that demonstrates sustainable practices and share knowledge with businesses, schools/colleges/universities, community groups and individuals.

• User perspectives in low energy housing (UK): This good practice is a research project led by Sheffield Hallam University which aims to use film to explore what it's like to live in a low energy or 'eco' home.

Link with other projects:

• RE-Seeties Project: the goal is to help municipalities develop integrated waste and energy solutions, in order to create resource efficient urban communities.

• EnVision 2020 project: it aims to develop a map of the state of the art and the current developments in the field of renewable energy and energy efficiency. It aims also to identify the optimal paths to be taken to reduce the energy intensity of the city in 2020 by the identification of applicable technologies for the reduction of consumption and dissemination of renewable energy within the local area, as well as the creation of new financial instruments.

• REEEZ (Renewable Energy and Energy Efficiency Zealand): which is co-financed under ELENA project. The project improves energy renovation of municipal buildings, and there are among the lead partner 11 municipalities which will invest app 63 mio. € until 2015.

4.10 CLimAct Regions: Regions for Climate Protection: toward Governance, from Knowledge to Action

Etienne Vienot, project manager at Rhonalpenergy & Environment (FR), presented CLimAct Regions:

www.cllimactregions.eu Scope Enable regions to develop and implement local policies to reduce GHG emissions:

• Efficient monitoring and observation of GHG emissions;

• Development of regional mitigation plans using good governance practices. Main Outcomes 4. Identification of good practices at European level:

a. observation of GHG emissions; b. local policies to reduce GHG emissions; c. regional governance;

5. Providing tools for policy makers: a. web based tools; b. guides in the 3 above areas; c. twinning programme between regions;

6. Set up of a European network of observatories. Main results

• Actions plans approved by regional council;

• Good practices transferred: new GHG observatories set up in some regions! Many downloads of manuals on GHG observation/monitoring;

• Climactregions inside Committee of regions: “Proposal for a regulation of the European Parliament and of the Council on a mechanism for monitoring and reporting greenhouse gas emissions and for reporting other information at national and Union level relevant to climate change”.

What has happened since the project? Set up of an international network about GHG and Energy observation: Energee watch:

• To share experiences between regional/local public authorities in the field of energy and GHG inventory;

• To share experiences amongst GHG monitoring organisations;

• Involve and work with European organisations; 18 members (no funded, no fees). www.energee-watch.eu: 4 webinars yearly; 1 meeting annually; 1 brochure every year: « Comparing data between regions » data about energy consumption, RES production, GHG emissions, regional situation regarding 3*20. Next with same partners

• Actions plans: need to work more on energy planning EIE project « Coopenergy » ( 2013-2015) www.coopenergy.eu;

• Energy and GHG observation: need to work deeply in establishing regional observatories, and on access to data on specific topics: transports etc. EIE project DATA4ACTIONS (2014-2016).

Strengths and weaknesses

• Many partners’ meeting/twinning/working groups/: good to know each other, work is made with more efficiency!;

• Technical topics (as observatories): very interesting exchanges between partners, same knowledge and barriers;

• Conceptual good practices: easier to transfer than « political » or strictly technical good practices;

• Difficult to involve politicians. Recommendations

• Build a partnership that can last after the end of project;

• Take time to meet and visit each other to build a strong relationship: you are not alone facing same challenges!;

• Focus on specific topics, well defined;

• Make links with other EU/programmes.

42


Energy Efficiency

5. Annex two– Workshop feedback

Topic Replies Average

Score 5-0*

Comments

0 Preparation of

the workshop

(invitation,

instructions

beforehand)

13 3.8 Well organised. We could have already had some

information about the other projects. Registration was

not automatically confirmed. Agenda didn’t mention

RENERGY. More precise instructions on ppt contents

1. Opening and

introduction

13 4.0 Ask people to present their challenges before the

workshop - 1 sheet. Clear what we had to do.

Presentation was interesting. Well done

2. Results of first

year & approach

2nd

year

13 3.7 Not very clear. Very long presentation, important to

focus

3. Innovative

approaches

12 3.6 Too many slides. Not very innovative, though innovation

is probaly at other levels, enterprise and Universities.

This dimension is not clear for me.

4. Transferring

good practises

12 3.7 Too many slides and GP presents. Seen some relations

between projects. Too much presentation. Limited

number of, and Information on GPs. Deep and fruitful

discussion. Topic very difficult

5. Learn from other

initiatives

13 3.6 Good info from CLIMACT. Too short but the information

and contacts are there to follow up. More actively share -

small group discussions. Only if the examples can be

replicated. The good practices were not deeply

discussed - only information that is on the websites.

Interesting.

6. Peer to peer 8 4.4 Good to discuss in smaller groups. Not sure how to

improve - it can be difficult to start discussions. It was a

very good exchange of ideas. Good idea. Should have

more time.

Overall content of

the workshop

10 4.0 Agenda was not respected. Good opportunity to interact

with other partners. Interesting, should last 2 days to

have more time for exchange.

Logistics (venue,

food)

12 4.3 Venue difficult room and acoustics, food excellent. Ok.

Room was very good even if oversized, food was good.

Well organised, on time.

* 5 = Excellent, 0= Poor

What is the added

value of the

workshop for you?

Learnt about other projects, potential synergies, transfer to other projects.

Information from other project experiences, new ideas and potential partners for

future projects. Potential synergies is a good added value, as there is no other

(e.g. info from

other projects,

potential synergy,

validating

capitalisation

findings, learn

capitalisation

findings, new ideas

for future

projects…)

forum to see them all presented together. o know other projects, meet with

colleagues of different regions, see how they are doing to try and improve in our

project. Not much interaction with the Interreg programme secretariat. Personal

contact with other organisations, with same problems as we have and the possibility

of sharing solutions. Information from other projects, networking, potential synergy.

Information and synergy. Info about projects, about other best practices,

recommendations for a better implementation. Potential synergy and information

from other projects. The idea that we can transfer the concept of good practices,

even if we cannot transfer their technical and political aspects. See how other

organisations face the same barriers

What could be

improved?

More group discussions. Presentations could have been shorter. Maybe, get the

presentations of the other projects before the meeting, to have a quick starter of the

project , we will short time and get earlier in to work. Less participants. Networking

areas. More projects participation. Cooperation for future projects. To foster

exchange between projects. Better focus on subject of good practices. The focus of

the discussion - select only 2 or 3 themes and concentrate the discussion around

this, otherwise the discussion is always vague, we want to discuss everything: good

practice, financial issues, political involvement etc.. ! Avoid powerpoint

presentations for more interactive session.

Other General

remarks

Breaks were very well timed. Capitalisation brings a lot to the programme leader

but not so much for projects.

Thematic Workshop Report Energy Efficiency · 2014. 3. 17. · 5 Thematic Workshop Report Energy Efficiency 1. The Workshop: Participants & Agenda 1.1 The objectives of the thematic

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