ENERJ was presented in the Workshop “Smart Energy use” at the International Climate Alliance Conference 2017, Sept. 20 to Sept. 22, inEssen, Germany. The first contribution came from Alexander Nordhus who works in the energy management unit of the city of Nuremberg. An interview with him can be found in this Newsletter. Katharinina Meler presented the project “Ista macht Schule”. The campaign is a contribution of the enterprise as a sponsor for Essen as Green European Capital 2017. The project deals with the measurement and visualization of energy consumption data and how to integrate these into a pedagogic concept.
The presentation of ENERJ contextualized the project within the Interreg MED community and more generally within the European projects that deal with energy efficiency in (public) buildings and try to confront a very low rate of refurbishment in all of the EU countries. The reasons are well-known. Each project tries to tackle this issue from a specific angle to overcome the existing barriers.
ENERJ does so departing from a base of existing energy plans, mostly elaborated in the context of the Covenant of Mayors and has as its cardinal points the elaboration of Joint Actions and the training of Joint Action Coordinators. The situation of the Greek and the Portuguese partners were used as examples.
The discussion concentrated on the difficulty to collect data, which all participants considered a major problem. The conclusion for ENERJ should be to dedicate attention also to promising ways of institutionalising the collection of data. A second point in the discussion were the different approaches needed to involve different target groups in energy efficiency measures, a topic certainly of interest for ENERJ. Techniques of visualization play here a major role. The third point was the use of public funds and the reluctance of many public bodies to use the ERD funds. Reasons that were given are the complicated procedures and an uncertain outcome that in view of some participants does not justify dedicating large amounts of staff time.

The first Annual Congress of the Energy Efficiency Building (EEB) Community in Nice took place from October 4 - 7. Representatives of all twelve Modular Projects (MPs) participated, to present the progress of their projects and interact with each other. ENERJ was represented by Kostas Konstantinou from Anatoliki, the Greek lead partner.
On the afternoon of the first day there was the session “First outcomes from the Modular Projects” split in two roundtables. ENERJ presented as one of the first results of a joint action energy audits in twelve buildings in Greek municipalities under one joint procurement call posted by Anatoliki.
The second day started with a roundtable with high level speakers from the MED program as well as officials from the EASME and the EIB, which focused on key EU policies, including exchange of views between the participants and the speakers. The session provided the opportunity to interact with high level decision-makers.
In the following session, some completed projects on Energy Efficiency (especially in public buildings) from the previous MED programming period and from different EU programmes (INTERREG IV, FP7, Horizon 2020) were presented emphasizing difficulties, successes and results, aiming to help current projects in different ways: project management, time management, capitalization. In the session the ENERJ poster was presented to the participants. Energy Cities presented also Innovative Financing Schemes (Internal and external Energy Performance Contracting).
On the morning of the third day an internal meeting of MEDNICE and representatives from the Modular Projects offered an opportunity to discuss progress, difficulties, and potential solutions of the various projects.

There are energy efficiency measures, without a very heavy investment, that can be implemented in public buildings, in this case in public swimming pools that together can make a difference in the monthly energy bill. Our partner, the Intermunicipal Community of Alto Alentejo, Portugal with the municipalities of Arronches, Campo Maior, Sousel and Gavião set up a working group for this joint action of technical personnel of the municipalities involved.
The thermal blankets installed in the municipal swimming pools in the wake of an energy diagnosis and the elaboration of an executive project required an investment of close to € 150.000, financed at 75% in the context of the poctep project RETALER 2 with ERD Funds. The municipal pool of Arronches succeeded in reducing the energy demand for heating the pool water by over 40%. This reduction was obtained with only slightly increasing the work load of the staff that work in the municipal swimming pools. Their sensitization as to the regular use of the thermal blanket has been an important part of the overall project.

The Andalusian Energy Strategy 2020 points at a low carbon future of the economy and society with 2020 being the next stop and 2050 the horizon. It intends to shift incentives from fossil to renewables and energy efficiency and promote a new energy culture and it can be summarised in five principles:

• To contribute to an efficient and intelligent use of energy, prioritising the use of sustainable indigenous resources, as well as self-consumption systems.
• To position the sectors of renewable energies and savings and energy efficiency as engines of the Andalusian economy.
• To guarantee the quality of the energy supply, promoting the transition of energy infrastructures towards an intelligent and decentralised model, integrated into the landscape.
• To act on demand to make citizens the protagonists of the Energy System.
• To optimize energy consumption in the Administration of the regional government, improving the efficiency of its facilities and incorporating management criteria aimed at energy savings.

The strategy proposes a new objective in 2020, which will enable Andalusia to demonstrate a situation of energy efficiency within the European regions: reducing among others 25% of the primary energy consumption and decarbonising 30% of energy consumption (base year 2007).

With ENERJ FAMP contributes to the realisation of the fifth principle upon which the Strategy rests, i.e. the reduction of energy consumption in the public buildings of Andalusia local governments. Joint Actions and the Joint Action coordinators have the potential of mainstreaming the goals of the Regional government into the functioning of local governments and empower them. Local administrations thus take the lead in their territories in a transformation towards a new culture of intelligent energy that involves the whole of society.

Info on Andalusian Energy Strategy (in Spanish)

November 16, Milan - Financing Energy Renovation of buildings in Italy, Croatia and Slovenia

Organised by the European Commission in partnership with the Italian Ministry of Economic Development, the Italian National Agency for New Technologies, Energy and Sustainable Economic Development (ENEA), the Italian Banking Association (ABI) and the UN Environment Finance Initiative (UNEP FI).

The event aims to share best practice on how energy renovation of buildings can be financed with focus on Italy, Croatia and Slovenia, in particular through the use of private funds and innovative financing instruments. Speakers will focus on practical experience in developing and structuring investment programmes and the event will allow time for debate.
During the event presentations will be presented and interpreted in Italian and English.

Programme | Online registration

November 22-23, Malta - 3rd project meeting

After Rome and Seville Malta will host the third project meeting. The partners will review the Guidelines for Joint Actions and discuss the implementation activities in the next phase of the project. The meeting will also see the conclusion of the preliminary analysis activities collecting the data for the public buildings energy audits. The web platform, the training courses and transferring will be among the other arguments that will make for two days full of work to move ENERJ ahead.

Programme & online registration

mariagiovanna.zamburlini@ccre-cemr.org

Programme & online registration