Newsletter Issue No 2 March 2014

The project Final workshop

Green-Twinning is an Intelligent Energy Europe The Final Confe- project which aims at strengthening the technical rence “Green Twinning: and financial capacity of local authorities in the Municipalities together fields of sustainable energy policies and for smart and implementation. sustainable energy The Green-Twinning project supports municipalities solutions” was organized from , Bulgaria, Poland, Slovenia and on 20 March 2014 in the Romania to fulfill their commitments in the Committee of the framework of the Covenant of Mayors initiative Regions in Brussels. through various tools such as training courses, a The conference was well helpdesk and the conclusion of twinning agreements attended, with 75 between “learning” municipalities with little participants from EU experience in sustainable energy planning and countries. The conference presented the main implementation and “experienced” local authorities activities and results of the two-year cooperation from Spain. among 10 partners, regarding the development and implementation of Sustainable Energy Action Plans. Experiences and lessons learnt were presented by Partnership mayors and representatives of municipalities. A roundtable discussion on the challenges and perspectives of the EU sustainable policies at local and • Regional Union of Municipalities of regional level took place during the last part of the (Coordinator) - EL conference and was completed with a debate with the • EXERGIA Energy and Environment public. The participants were representatives of the European Parliament, Committee of the Regions, Consultants S.A. - EL Covenant of Mayors Office, Greek Permanent • Sofia Energy Centre - BG Representation to the EU, Directorate – General for • Association of Rhodope Municipalities - Energy of the European Commission (DG Ener) and BG mayors of Smolyan and Giurgiu municipalities.

• Polish Network “Energie Cités” - PL • Municipality of Giurgiu - RO • Building and Civil Engineering Institute - SI

• Energy Agency of La Ribera - SP • Municipality of Vrhnika - SI • Harghita County Council - Energy The main conclusion of the conference was the need to develop stronger cooperation and communication Management Agency - RO between EU and local authorities in order to improve the implementation of sustainable energy policies and to design compliance strategies and enforcement programs. It is clear that energy efficiency is the key element of European Union sustainability strategy. Projects like Green Twinning, underline the major importance of the European Union energy reduction planning. Newsletter Issue No 2 March 2014

Benchmark of excellence Benchmarks of excellence

Solar energy used in the Solar installation rural municipality of for improvement Lubin (PNEC) – (PL) of air quality in In the years 2012-2013 Kościerzyna (PL) the municipality of Lubin The municipality completed the project of Kościerzyna is "Construction of lighting implementing a points supplied from re - programme of installation of thermal solar plants for newable sources", which included the supply and hot water production called “Solar Kościerzyna - installation of 22 sets of street lighting with LED building solar installations as an opportunity for light source powered by batteries charged from permanent improvement of air quality by using photovoltaic panels with a capacity of 360 -380 renewable energy sources”. Thermal solar collectors W. The total cost of this investment was 46 000€. will be installed at 125 residential buildings and In 2014, the municipality plans to implement new within a year will produce about 575 GJ of clean 25 lighting points powered from renewable energy. The average annual savings on energy bills sources. Planned expenditure amounts to 50 000 of all residential buildings participating in the project €. will reach 6 800€ . They will also contribute to a In addition, on the roofs of three buildings of rural reduction of CO emissions amounting to 77.5 community centers in Gola, Obora and Zimna 2 Mg/year. The municipality of Kościerzyna, in the Woda, built in 2010 - 2013, solar collectors which framework of the Green Twinning project, also support central heating and domestic hot water seized the opportunity to exchange experience on production were installed Recuperators were solar projects and best practices with the used in the ventilation system. Lubin is a Green municipality of Padul – Spanish twinning partner. Twinning partner of Dzierżoniów. SEAP actions implemented by Ilion municipality Event PEDA - (EL) Ilion is implementing an Energy Efficient Street National training event in Bulgaria Lighting project and is replacing 260 existing 125W SEC and ARM organized a national training event high pressure Mercury street luminaires with new on SEAP development and implementation which 60W LED ones. The annual energy saving potential is was held in Bulgarian. The event was based on the estimated at 80.9 MWh, the annual CO2 abatement training material of the two international training at 93.0 tCO2 and the total cost of the project at events. The training took place in Asenovgrad, on 175,890€. In parallel, an energy study that records the existing the 21st November 2013 street lighting in the city is under development. and was attended by 11 Morever, by 2015, the municipality plans to imple- representatives of 6 ment a green roof project on the roof municipalities . top of a municipal nursery school.

The project concerns the construction of a semi-intensive green roof type (ground floor) and Green Twinning Helpdesk an extensive type (fist floor). Green http://helpdesk.green- roof will cover an area of 480m2. twinning.eu/home The total cost of the project is estimated at 124,051€. Newsletter Issue No 2 March 2014

Benchmark of Excellence Green Twinning Thermal retrofitting of the railway station of Achievements Piaseczno (PL) The modernization of the building of the In the framework of Voluntary Fire Brigade in Chojnów, in Piaseczno the Green Twinning municipality, which was completed in January project, 25 local 2014 and connected with other modernization authorities joined works, resulted in a reduction of energy the Covenant of consumption coming to approx. 21.36 Mayors, committing to reduce their CO2 MWh/year (14%) and a CO2 emission reduction of 4.3 Mg/year. emissions by at least 20% by 2020 while 18 municipalities developed their SEAPs. Another building selected for the thermal Covenant of Mayors signatories: retrofitting was a railway station in Piaseczno which was constructed in the 30-ties of the XX Greece: century. The thermal retrofitting is being Bulgaria: Smolyan, Laki, Banite, Chepelare, Nedelino undertaken in conjunction with other Poland: Pałecznica, Śrem, Lubin, Częstochowa, renovation works and the revitalization of the area around the building. Dąbrowa Górnicza, Przykona, Lisków, Łękawica, Porąbka, Słupsk, Toruo, Przemyśl Originally it was heated with heating oil and Slovenia : Vrhnika, Idrija, Kranj, Tolmin, Kočevje electricity. After the thermal retrofitting the Romania: Miercurea Ciuc, Borsec building will be connected to the municipal district heating network. The expected financial savings will reach annually over SEAPs submitted to the Covenant of Mayors: 30.000 €. Greece : Ilion, Agioi Anargyroi- , , The municipality of Piaseczno is a Green , , Agios Dimitrios Twinning partner of Guadix (SP). Poland : Koscierzyna, Piaseczno Slovenia: Idrija, Kranj Romania: Sfantu Gheorghe, Giurgiu

Paiania (EL), Śrem (PL), Vrhnika (SL), Kočevje (SL), Tolmin (SL) and Zagorje ob Savi (SL) municipalities participated in Green Twinning activities and were supported by the project consultants in order to develop their SEAPs. The above mentioned local authorities will submit their action plans to the CoM during the next period.

www.green-twinning.eu Newsletter Issue No 2 March 2014

Benchmark of excellence Event Twinnings among local Sustainable promotion authorities from Spain and of electric household other EU countries (Province appliances, Giurgiu of Granada) Municipality - Romania

The Province of Granada has Following the activities

involved 9 of its municipalities described in the recently

in GREEN TWINNING Project, th submitted SEAP, on the 4 of April 2014 Giurgiu and thus, those municipalities Municipality organized an event in R’ART Giurgiu and other EU municipalities shop for electric household appliances, under the RES & RUE issues. The kick-off meetings occurred logo: “Working with the citizens and the from July until November 2013 in Spain. The stakeholders”. This awareness raising event was Mayors of all the municipalities formally signed the aiming at informing customers on energy Memorandum of Agreement. consumption and the annual cost of electric Twinning agreements bring municipalities together appliances and helping them in choosing electric in order to develop administrative capacity related appliances in a sustainable way. to CoM initiative and even to facilitate the adoption This action was a synergy between Green Twinning, of successful RES & RUE actions implemented YAECI, Buy Smart+ and EUROTOPTEN MAX projects. previously by the other partner.

Event Benchmark of excellence

Twinning Agreement - L’Alcúdia Municipality (SP) 3rd national workshop in Greece On the 10th of January 2014, PEDA organized the The municipality of l'Alcúdia (Valencia, Spain) and 3 rd national workshop “Energy saving in street the municipality of Giurgiu (Romania) have signed a lighting” with the participation of 30 Twinning Agreement in order to exchange expertise representatives of PoL municipalities and and best practices related to RES & RUE issues. stakeholders . The workshop focused on the The kick-off meeting was conducted on 25-26th experience of Ilioupoli and Ilion PoL municipalities April 2013 in Spain. Mayors of both municipalities in street lighting in connection with the twinnings formally signed the Memorandum of Agreement with the Spanish municipalities. up. The main issues relating to street lighting discussed Up to the present time, the main activities have were : New technologies, Monitoring and control been aimed at sharing know-how on the systems, ESCO’s, Sustainable procurements and refurbishment of public street lighting and on

contract, main problems sustainable mobility. that Greek municipalities face during the implementation of street light projects .

Green Twinning Helpdesk http://helpdesk.green- twinning.eu/home Newsletter Issue No 2 March 2014

Benchmark of excellence Twinnings after Green

Implementation of public awareness activities in Twinning the municipality of Ilioupoli (PEDA) - (EL) And from now on?? What will happen with the Ilioupoli municipality is informal twinning partnerships once IEE funding is implementing a public over? This is a very interesting question!

awareness campaign To find out about this, AER prepared and

targeting the residen- circulated a questionnaire among Green Twinning

tial, tertiary and public project participants. The twinning effectiveness

sector. The campaign evaluation survey was a good opportunity to

will last from 2014 onwards until 2020 towards gather the opinion of municipalities’

achieving 41,193 of CO2 emissions reduction. representatives (politicians and civil servants) and

In 2014-2015, Ilioupoli is implementing a project project Consultants about the twinning

entitled : "Information and networking for activities/partnerships in order to evaluate process

municipal Employees - Changing public awareness (identifying barriers tackled, challenges overtaken

on Energy consumption" which consists of various and impacts achieved), the level of satisfaction

public awareness activities such as: a mobile found during the whole process and their interest

school exhibition, a “bike day” campaign, press in going on with the twinning activities. releases, printed materials, internet communi- cation channels and seminars for municipal As a result of the information obtained, 100% of employees, teachers and general public. informal twinning municipalities and their The annual energy saving potential is estimated at respective Consultants are interested in going on 10 ,013 MWh, the annual CO abatement at with their twinning process. 2 10,917tCO2 and the annual social cost savings at Furthermore, survey participants considered that

861,022€. some of the ways to create a sustainable twinning

partnership are the followings: Voluntary Twinnings • Ensuring a two-way twinning process. Both • Albal (Spain) - Agios Dimitrios (Greece) counterparts must benefit

• Alginet (Spain) - Rudozem (Bulgaria) • Identifying and deploying sources of funding to

cover twinning activities • Borsec (Romania) - Sfantu Gheorghe (Romania) • Castelló de la Plana (Spain) - Nea Smyrni (Greece) • Expanding twinning partnership to other • Lanjarón (Spain) - Paiania (Greece) municipal activities (culture, traditions, etc.)

• Lubin (Poland) - Dzierżoniów (Poland) • Collaborating in transnational projects (EU

• Nea-Smyrni (Greece) - Agioi Anargyroi-Kamatero funding) (Greece) • Promoting partnership and cooperation of • Pałecznica (Poland) - Niepołomice (Poland) other municipal sectors (industry, educational • Idrija (Slovenia) – Bolzano () sector, etc.) • Kočevje (Slovenia) – Idrija (Slovenia) Definitely, the sustainability of twinning partnerships created during Green Twinning Green Twinning Helpdesk project is guaranteed. http://helpdesk.green- twinning.eu/home The sole responsibility for the content of this newsletter lies with the authors. It does not necessarily reflect the opinion of the European Union. Neither the EASME nor the European Commission are responsible for any use that may be made of the information contained therein.