Good Practices
Green Energy Cooperative, Križevci - Croatia
In 2018, Green Energy Cooperative (ZEZ) launched the first crowd-investing initiative in Croatia, supported by Križevci local authorities. A solar PV system was installed on the rooftop of Križevci’s Development Center and Technology Park’s administrative building.
ZEZ was a mentor in PROSPECT, and in 2022, the city of Križevci joins PROSPECT+ with their project "Sunny Roofs".
MARTE Project: Marche Region - Italy
The MARTE project (Marche Region Technical assistance for healthcare buildings Energy retrofit) took place in the Marche Region (Italy) and operated an innovative financing model for energy efficiency in 5 healthcare buildings.
The financing framework was combined with EU technical assistance and structural funds. The framework applied EPC (Energy Performance Contracts) via “Energy Service Plus” contracts to the heating system of healthcare buildings in the Marche Region.
SCORE Project - Europe
SCORE is funded by the European Union under its HORIZON 2020programme, facilitating consumers to become (co-)owners ofrenewable energies. The project took place in different cities in:
- Susa Valley, Italy (Biomass)
- Prague, Czech Republic (Solar PV)
- Essen, Germany (Solar PV)
The participating local and regional authorities as well as existinglocal energy projects receive legal and technical assistance for atailor-made participation model. Renewable Energy Clusters (RECs) can be seen as the prototype governance model of an emergingform of energy systems and will typically include demand flexibilityand energy efficiency (EE) measures, storage and peer-to-peertrading within energy Communities, and between energycommunities and the market.
REMOURBAN: Valladolid - SPAIN
The H2020 funded REMOURBAN project had the ambition to accelerate the deployment of innovative technologies, organizational and economic solutions to increase energy efficiency, improve the sustainability of urban transport and reduce greenhouse gas emissions in urban areas. It selected 3 lighthouse cities to implement these goals in : Valladolid (Spain), Nottingham (UK) and Tepebasi (Turkey).
The Green PB: Lisbon - Portugal
The city of Lisbon launched The Lisbon Climate Citizen Commitment, a local government-led initiative that put together climate projects into its Participatory Budget via a “Green Seal”. The Green Seal was a platform that made Lisbon’s Commitment for Resilience to Climate Change material and attracted new private funding sources.
In order to implement commitments, Lisbon launched its Green Participatoy Budget (PB), a new variant on its traditional PB, doubling its value from 2.5 million in 2019 to 5 million in 2020. The Green PB follows the same civil society engagement process as the traditional PB, with the main difference that, throughout its annual cycle, participants can present projects which have measurable and achievable climate mitigation and/or adaptation goals and targets. All the selected projects related to environment and climate change were awarded Lisbon’s “Green Seal”, including two projects related to mobility with bike lanes and green spaces.
The Streetlight-EPC Project - Europe
The project "STREETLIGHT-EPC" had the goal of creating demand and supply for EPC projects in 9 regions by setting up regional EPC facilitation services. They provided comprehensive support to municipalities and to SMEs as potential ESCOs.
The project ran from 1st April 2014 until 31st March 2017. The facilitation services are being continued by the regional partners.
PM4PM - Estonia
The PM4PM Project (Preparation and Mobilisation of Financing for Sustainable Energy Investments in Primorska Region Municipalities) financed sustainable projects in 5 sectors within 33 municipilaties,through the ELENA Grant from 2016 to 2019. PM4PM operated in the following sectors:
- Building Retrofit: improving the energy efficiency of public buildings in municipalities with the most energy saving potential.
- District Heating: renovation of existing small-scale district heating systems and installation of new ones.
- Street Lighting: improving the energy efficiency of street lighting systems.
- Clean Transport: introduction of electric vehicle charging stations, electric vehicles for public services, and compressed natural gas stations.
- Local Energy-Efficient Utilities: energy management and optimisation of infrastructure systems operation.
Albertville - France
Intracting is a process that enhances energy performance by collecting savings from auto financing measures for new energy savings. This practice presents itself as a municipal fund implemented by financial services, which grants loans to technical services for energy savings projects.
These funds are actived by savings and applied to new measures which then generate their own energy savings. These funds grow over the years generating new resources due the multiplifying effect and reduction of energy spendings that they generate.
Fund of Energy Savings and Renewables: Litoměřice - Czech Republic
The Fund was established by a Local Authority, the City of Litoměřice, in 2014 as a part of its internal budget. The Fund aims to reduce long-term operating energy costs of the Local Authority and assets it runs, such as schools, museums and libraries by implementing energy efficient measures and installing renewable energy sources with a minimum impact on the municipal budget. Each year net savings are calculated and distributed according to an agreed formula among various levels of the Local Authority. Savings are reinvested in new sustainable energy projects.
Municipality of Maribor - Slovenia
Municipality of Maribor with energy performing contracting implemented the biggest energy renovation project in the region in 2019. 24 public buildings were energy refurbished (schools, kindergartens, sport halls). Its implementation was followed by many stakeholders and media and is a good practice in the country. The cost of the project was 12 mil EUR. Yearly energy consumption was reduced by 5.952 MWh, energy costs by 446.000 EUR, maintenance costs by 28.500 EUR and CO2 emissions by 1.305 tonnes.
Municipality of Radlje ob Dravi - Slovenia
Energy performance contracting in the form of public private partnership model is well known to be used in public and private buildings. To be used in the building building that is owned both by public and private partner is technically possible but needs more coordination and understanding for all partners. Municipality of Radlje ob Dravi has decided to use EPC model in such building. Municipal administration, with the help of energy agency, was able to manage and coordinate the project's implementation and they have successfully realized it. They have newly renovated building in the town centre used for library, shop and caffe.
PE4PTRANS: Public Engagement for Sustainable Public Transport - Europe
PE4Trans addresses the issue of potential for improvement of public transport policies by including citizens to the process of design and implementation of sustainable transport strategies and plans with the view to change peoples’ mobility habits and routines incorporating findings of behavioural sciences.
Energy efficient streetlighting with EPC: Podravje - Slovenia
Streetlights are essential in every village and city to assure safety, security and evening life. At the same time, they harm the environment – use a lot of energy and negatively influence the life of night animals. Therefore, the energy efficient and well-designed streetlight system is very important for each community and public spaces. In Slovenia many municipalities have used energy performance contracting to energy and environmentally refurbish the streetlighting systems. The reports show that they have saved money and improve the lighting conditions without the initial investment when using EPC.
34 streetlighting contracting projects: Upper Austria
The implementation of 34 streetlighting contracting projects in Upper Austria in the past 2 years shows that municipalities can benefit from modern and efficient street lighting as well as guaranteed annual electricity and maintenance cost savings despite a tight municipal budget. Overall, 10.9 million Euro were invested in LED streetlighting and the municipalities now benefit from annual cost savings of ca. 420,000 Euro. These investments were enabled and supported by the region's energy contracting programme (ECP). The regional Energy Agency of Upper Austria, OÖ Energiesparverband (ESV), manages this programme and supports municipalities in the project implementation. So far, the programme has facilitated the refurbishment of streetlighting in more than 70 municipalities (almost 20% of Upper Austrian municipalities).
Prague Renewable Energy Community - Czech Republic
The Prague Renewable Energy Community (PSOE) was founded in 2021 as a city organisation of the Capital City of Prague. The organisation was established for the purpose of providing comprehensive services related to the preparation, implementation and operation of electricity generation (hereinafter referred to as "production RES"). At the same time, these production facilities will be located both on real estate assets (buildings or land) owned by the City, and additionally on real estate and other natural and legal persons who are interested in participating in the entity. PSOE owns a licence for the production and sale of electricity and will be able to purchase surplus electricity produced on cost effective conditions and supply it to other points of consumption also on cost-effective conditions.
Regional biomass: Diakonie project in Austria
The oil boilers that supplied a centre for people with disabilities were replaced with a modern, low emission biomass system – saving 220,000 litres of oil and 800 tonnes of CO2 per year – and this, without capital investment by the owner! The 1,096,000 Euro investment project was carried out with energy contracting: an ESCO planned, financed, constructed and operates the heating system. Since October 2020, the centre is supplied to 100% with environment-friendly, renewable heat from regional biomass.
Sustainable Tipp: Tipperary - Ireland
In 2017 an in-depth overview of County Tipperary’s emission statistics and proposed actions to improve energy efficiency and renewable deployment in Tipperary was completed. This formed the action plan now referred to as Sustainable Tipp. This plan was an official recognition on behalf of County Tipperary of its responsibility to improve the environmental standards associated with its jurisdiction and a detailed action-by-action synopsis of how this may be achieved. The aim of Sustainable Tipp is to generate actions that will reduce Tipperary’s emissions by 30% from the 2005 baseline year.