energy effi ciency and

eu.baltic.net

Energy effi ciency and renewable energy sources

Eight stories about achievements of transnational cooperation

European Union

Baltic Sea Region ProgrammeJoint Technical SecretariatInvestitionsbank Schleswig-HolsteinE-mail: [email protected]

Energy cluster leaderMr Klaus RückertE-mail: offi [email protected]

Part-fi nanced by the European Union(European Regional Development Fund and European Neighbourhood and Partnership Instrument)

Contents

4 Baltic Biogas Bus5 Bioenergy Promotion7 CO2OL Bricks 8 Longlife12 PEA13 REMOWE15 SPIN16 Urb.Energy

2

At its advanced implementation stage the Baltic Sea Region Pro-gramme 2007 – 2013 presently supports 83 transnational projects. Each project operates in a specific thematic field, be it energy ef-ficiency or innovation in Small and Medium-sized Enterprises or even refurbishment of buildings. Often project outputs and results that are achieved in their respective thematic fields complement one another.

As the projects progressed they discovered that they could achieve more by working together: thus the cross-project clustering was born. To support this, the Baltic Sea Region Programme launched an instrument known as cluster initiatives. The thematic fields crys-tallised and four clusters emerged: energy, water, transport and inno-vation. This opened a new dimen-sion to transnational cooperation.

In this cluster formation, projects learn about the outputs of other projects that may be of interest to them. They are also able to ap-proach common stakeholders and decision makers as a “bigger group with a stronger voice”. The energy cluster paved the way. Eight dif-ferent projects joined forces in the four energy areas: sustainable technologies, renewable energy, energy efficiency in urban context and resource saving in buildings.

In this brochure you can read the stories of the projects that joined the energy cluster. Each story has its own spring, yet they all flow into the river that is full of innovative solutions within the energy field.

Energy cluster partners and the Joint Technical Secretariat

Team Rostock/Riga

Introduction

Energy efficiency and renewable energy sources 3

On a normal weekday, more than 700,000 Stockholmers use public transport services. In addition, hundreds of thousands of com-muters use their own cars to and from the Swedish capital. Both modes of transport contribute to considerable congestion, air pol-lution and CO2 emissions. This is because a huge amount of public transport relies on fossil fuels. Already, in the early part of the 2000s Stockholm Public Trans-port, responsible for the public transport services in the Stock-holm region, found a new way of dealing with environmental prob-lems. The organisation decided that the time had come to move from fossil fuels to renewable en-ergies, and to strive for sustain-able bus transportation particular.

The idea that followed was simply that if more commuters changed to environment friendly public transport, congestion caused by passenger cars would drop sub-stantially. From several possible renewable energy solutions, using biogas in buses was the most attractive. Consequently, almost a decade ago, Stockholm Public Transport introduced biogas buses on a small scale. This raised sub-stantial interest from colleagues in other public transport authori-

ties which grew further, when the use of biogas buses was a proven environmental success: the en-ergy content of 1 litre of biogas is equivalent to ca. 1.1 litres of petrol. The emission studies in the project proved that the CO2, NOx, particle and noise emissions of the buses were dramatically reduced.

Many partners from the Baltic Sea region joined the BalticBiogas-Bus project. An enormous part of the project results was sum-marised in the manual “How to introduce biogas buses”. The man-ual has become a working tool: it helps to start biogas bus services in cities in a cost efficient way. The introduction of biogas buses is a complex process – the manual is used by administrators and public transport managers, and is particularly necessary in the plan-ning and investment period.

Starting biogas buses from scratch needs both strategic plan-ning and decisions, production of biogas, purchase of buses and related infrastructure. Even bus routes often need to be changed. The manual describes experience from, for example, Stockholm and Tartu. Public transport authori-ties and transport organisations interested in moving away from

fossil fuels are the main users of the manual. The manual will also be distributed by the partners and shared on the project website.

Clearly, the concept of biogas buses has to compete with other solutions available on the market, such as methods to save energy and fuel or other types of renew-

Baltic Biogas BusIncrease the use of biogas buses in public transport to reduce the emissions in urban areas in the Baltic Sea Region

Duration: June 2009 - September 2012Number of partners: 12Approximate total project budget: 4.2 million EUR

www.balticbiogasbus.eu

Bus operating with biogas4

Is it more dangerous to operate buses with biogas than with diesel?No, it is not. Biogas is light and non-toxic and has a higher ignition temperature than diesel. The gas is kept in a closed system which means that leakage can be avoided when filling up the bus. The risk of fire or explosion is no higher than is when diesel is used.

ables. Production of a sufficient amount of biogas is also a chal-lenge. Biogas buses are more ex-pensive than diesel buses while in the people’s minds, biogas has yet to be “upgraded” to the “official” status as a legitimate alternative fuel for transport.

However, the change is certainly coming: more than 80 biogas buses will be introduced in Oslo in 2012 and Bergen will be upgrading to biogas buses in 2013 and 2014.

In the next three to four years 450 of 600 gas buses in the Baltic Sea region will run on biogas.

The effect: more demand for buses and infrastructure will result in higher production numbers and thus lower all related costs. Proj-ect experts are sure that in the near future more cities will rely on biogas buses to achieve, like Stockholm, less congestion, bet-ter air quality – and, as a direct result, happier inhabitants.

Imagine a local official in a rural area of northern Finland. He will easily be able to think of produc-ing energy from biomass resourc-es, given the rich woods within his region. But how can they be exploited? The same question might occur to his colleague in Northern Germany, where agro-business is a highly developed industry. How can energy be produced from natural resources which are diverse and exist in different social and economic sur-roundings?

These questions have to be taken seriously, for energy consump-tion is ever increasing and there is growing interest in biomass resources for energy production.

What regions in the Baltic Sea area need most are strategies on how to produce and use biomass in a sustainable and energy ef-ficient way. Successful strategies mean jobs, reduced CO2 emissions and competitive advantage for the regions. Yet biomass production for energy competes with other industries: biomass can be used for food or fibre production. So our local officials will need sup-port to develop consistent strate-gies – be it for Finnish woodlands or for German fields.

This is exactly, what the German Agency for Renewable Resourc-es provides: it funds research projects on renewable resources and distributes information about

renewable resources and bio-energy. It acts on behalf of the German Federal Ministry of Food, Agriculture and Consumer Protec-tion. In the Bioenergy Promo-tion project, project partners

Bioenergy PromotionThe Baltic Sea Region Bioenergy Promotion Project, from strategies to activities

Duration: October 2008 - January 2012Number of partners: 34Approximate total project budget: 5 million EUR

www.bioenergypromotion.net


worked on Strategic Management Plans. These plans help regional and local authorities to specify what they can do to use bioen-ergy, what ideas are at hand, what policy measures can support bioenergy production and how to handle the decision processes.

Strategic Management Plans are the summaries of several project outputs. Seventeen demo regions joined the Bioenergy Promotion from the beginning of the project and went through three steps of analysis: first, they examined the biomass potential – the regions had to find out what biomass they had and what they could do with it. The second step was an analysis of the existing businesses in the area: what businesses were already there, what resources were being used by them, which businesses could use more bio-mass and what was their invest-ment potential. The third step was for the regions to look at policies: what kind of support measures for businesses already existed and what might have to be modi-fied. All three steps contributed to a package called the Strategic Management Plan that now helps regional and local authorities to increase production and use the bioenergy in their region.

Inhabitants of the regions are involved in the early phase of the planning process – this increases the social acceptance. And the Strategic Management Plans also include measures that help to improve energy efficiency. This results in very different solutions for different areas.

The Tukums municipality in Latvia, for instance, has a high wood fuel consumption and a high potential of wood production. In the coun-tryside especially, there are many private and public buildings with old wood burning heating sys-tems. At information seminars for local decision makers as well as for local people, participants learn how to use bioenergy efficiently as well as about the best tech-nologies for their needs. They also gain information on the experi-ence in other demo regions and how to obtain funding from the variety of financial instruments in Latvia.

The financial instruments provided by the state of Latvia allow for replacement of old technologies with new and more efficient ones. In addition, alternative bioenergy sources with high potential in the region, such as straw briquettes, were identified and are promoted. The whole region is benefiting – the regional businesses pro-vide biomass ovens, straw and woodchips for heating plants, the money for the energy is spent in the region and the CO2 emissions are reduced.

Another example is the Kaunas region in Lithuania. Partners discovered that only very few mu-

nicipalities have energy experts with sufficient knowledge and expertise to develop a bioenergy strategy. The project partners support these municipalities in developing so-called Municipal Action Plans for Renewable En-ergy Sources on the basis of the regional Strategic Management Plan for the Kaunas region.

Each demo region is very differ-ent. Some are advanced in using biomass for the production of bioenergy, some are just start-ing. Some regions are rich in resources like forest, others in arable land. In some regions there is biomass, and there are busi-nesses with the potential to use it, yet the knowledge is missing. The Bioenergy Promotion project helps, via knowledge transfer, to link businesses with potential biomass resources.

Even if Strategic Management Plans are individualised for each demo region, other regions, not involved in the project, can still learn a lot. The best practice solutions will be copied to other regions in the Baltic Sea area. Local officials in Finland, Northern Germany or elsewhere will benefit from them.

Biogas plant

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CO2OL BricksClimate Change, Cultural Heritage & Energy Efficient Monuments

Duration: September 2010 - November 2013Number of partners: 19Approximate total project budget: 4.3 million EUR

Any refurbishment of a listed historic building in Hamburg needs the permission of the Depart-ment for Heritage Preservation located in the Ministry of Culture. However, many of the protected historic brick buildings are apart-ment houses, where people live and pay rent. An owner who wants

to save energy (e.g. heating cost) will encounter some problems. Re-furbishment of a historic building is more complex than that of an “ordinary” house.

On the one hand, refurbishment work has to be done. Otherwise, due to rising energy cost, tenants will not be able to afford the rent.

On the other hand, one cannot simply put insulation materials (e.g. Styrofoam) on the façade of the building – this would destroy its appearance and historic value. Therefore, the owners of the buildings have to rely on other methods to reduce energy con-sumption: window renovation or replacement, roof and cellar insu-lation or replacement of the boiler and heating system.

How much energy can one save when introducing these measures? Again, the answer is complex: usually one will get the whole package on the market – which includes insulation of the outside wall, windows, roof, new heat-ing system and so on. The whole package should reduce the energy consumption by a certain amount. Yet no one knows exactly how much of a reduction is achieved by these individual measures. Experts have, meanwhile, discovered that savings from the same energy effi-ciency measures applied to differ-ent buildings can be 20-30% lower than promised. Thus, the important question is: how does one combine the most effective refurbishment measures with preserving the his-toric value of the building?

This is quite tricky for house owners because, effectively they

have to negotiate their way out of the preservation and cost saving labyrinth. But the Department for Heritage Preservation cannot simply say “no” to a refurbishment proposal, even if it would damage the historic value of the build-ing. House owners need help and advice. They have to learn about the appropriate methods and get in contact with companies that can undertake them.

On this basis, the Hamburg Department for Heritage Pres-ervation decided to find out how their colleagues around the Baltic Sea deal with such prob-lems. Together, 18 Co2olBricks partners analysed the situation and summed up the results in a

www.co2olbricks.eu

Heritage protected brick building from the 1920ies in Hamburg-Dulsberg. Photo: Jan Prahm

Apartment building with internal insulation in Copenhagen. The facade is heritage pro-tected. Photo: Torben Valdbjørn Rasmussen


handbook. It displays the “most common methods for improve-ments to energy efficiency”. This state of the art manual explains how the refurbishment of historic buildings is presently being done in the Baltic region. It is a refer-ence for professionals and public. In this handbook, owners, archi-tects and administrators will read examples of refurbished historic brick buildings – and find instruc-tions on the planning and carry-ing out of the building measures that need to be taken.

Solving many problems on a best practice level, the handbook also highlights others that have not yet been tackled. The part-ners, for instance, discovered that often there are no reliable measurements of the energy ef-

ficiency increase after the refur-bishment – methods for calcula-tion of the heat consumption are not reliable, while figures from “before” are often not available. One of the main findings is that there are only calculations of how much the building was consum-ing before the refurbishment and how much it was likely to con-sume after. The calculations on other aspects did not rely on real data. They were usually quite simple and the error rate may be as high as 50 per cent.

Today, the Co2olBricks partners analyse buildings, probe the walls and measure heat consumption. All this helps to test the various energy saving methods and com-pare preliminary calculations with real consumption.

The refurbishment methods and materials tested will be applied in other brick buildings as well. Partners from projects Longlife and Urb.Energy are closely fol-lowing.

As a result the Hamburg Depart-ment for Heritage Preservation, as well as other Co2olBricks partners, can now give better advice to the owners of the listed historic buildings: they will ben-efit from the best tested tech-niques and solutions. The dwell-ers of the cities will not only live in historically charming apart-ments, but also in ones which are affordable. Meanwhile, the cities will preserve their “historic facades” and a further benefit will be far less CO2 emissions.

LonglifeSustainable, energy efficient and resource saving residential buildings with consideration of unified procedures and new and adapted technologies

Duration: October 2008 - January 2012Number of partners: 9Approximate total project budget: 2.4 million EUR

It all started with a visit to Egypt. The Government of Egypt had asked Technische Univer-sität Berlin to prepare a concept for low-cost housing. What the scientists discovered during their study trip to Egypt was cheaply built houses where tenants had to spend lots of money on cool-ing them down.

During the trip scientists from Technische Universität Berlin came up with an idea of designing a cost-efficient house – taking into account the whole life cycle of the building (construction and opera-tion for 30 years). And what was good for Egypt, it turned out, could be beneficial for residential build-ings all over Europe as well. These buildings are responsible for up

www.longlife-world.eu

Design of the Longlife pilot project for the City of Potsdam, Germany8

to 40 per cent of Europe’s energy consumption and CO2 emissions. As heating of the house needs even more energy than cooling, the German Ministry of Transport, Building and Urban Development encouraged starting a project in the Baltic Sea region.

This is how the Longlife project was born. Its competence team includes actors from science, administration and business. Many countries need energy efficient affordable buildings. Several partners have experience in cost efficient housing and implementing EU requirements.

One of the methods to build the cost efficient house is to use qual-ity and affordable pre-fabricated elements. Therefore, Longlife prototype catalogue of materials shows a collection of pre-certified pre-fabricated elements, materi-als and technologies. The items in the catalogue have to reach the “Longlife benchmark” – maximum consumption of 40 kWh per m2 per year. In comparison, a standard building in Lithuania consumes up to 200 kWh.

Items in the catalogue are care-fully preselected, they are not only energy-efficient and have low CO2 emissions, but are also affordable. The catalogue allows for control-ling building and operation costs of the housing stock. In the plan-ning phase one can set targets (e.g. “costs not more than 1000 EUR per m2 of the housing”) and choose pre-certified items from the catalogue.

A sound idea – but quite naturally, the catalogue comes up against reservations from investors. Build-ings built using the Longlife pro-totype catalogue will save costs in the long term. But investors are looking for immediate profit – a typical investor/user dilemma. It takes considerable effort for the Longlife project team to motivate the investor to spend more money on better quality materials and technologies. One can save up to 40 per cent of the operational cost by investing 10 to 20 per cent more during the design and construction phase. The catalogue enables intelligent investment – that’s the message the Longlife team has to convey repeatedly.

The catalogue will be used by the construction and building indus-try such as planners, architects, engineers, developers, investors, public administrators (e.g. for tendering) and housing associa-tions. The Longlife partners will distribute and advise on the use of the catalogue as well as pro-vide training.

In the energy cluster, all part-ners that deal with buildings can use the Longlife catalogue. For instance, the Spin project will enlarge the database for eco-innovative technologies. PEA partners can directly use tech-nologies and materials from the catalogue. Co2olBricks will use technologies for refurbishment of the historical listed buildings and Urb.Energy for refurbishment of building stocks.

An idea born in Egypt has spread its roots into the Baltic Sea re-gion, proving that energy saving in house building will reap reward, regardless of climate conditions.

Planning of the Longlife pilot building in Lithuania

9

The Energy cluster offers the opportunity to test and to develop the viability of the Baltic Sea region in the energy sector. To be part of this, to recognise the potential to exploit and make something new, means economic growth and is also a new quality and challenge for the management of the project.

Maria-Ilona KiefelEnergy Cluster Manager, Kiefel und Partner GmbH

To improve energy efficiency in urban neighbourhoods both an integrated approach and cooperation are essential. The exchange of experiences in the energy cluster helped to promote the results of Urb.Energy and to learn about various potentials and approaches of energy saving.

Britta SchmigotzkiProject Manager, Initiative Wohnungswirtschaft Osteuropa (IWO) e.V. (Housing Initiative for Eastern Europe)

Cooperation is the key to success. By working together in the Energy cluster with common goals for the environment we have successfully contributed to the EU 2020 targets reducing greenhouse gases and increasing renewable energy.

Lennart HallgrenProject Manager and Advisor, AB Storstockholms Lokaltrafik (Stockholm Public Transport)

The advantage is that, for the first time, projects that are working on the same topic can join forces and they therefore do not need to reinvent the wheel each and every time. Moreover, because the forces are joined up the partnership creates a much greater impact than each project would on its own as well as achieving a larger impact than the sum of each one.

Jan PrahmProject Coordinator, Freie und Hansestadt Hamburg, Kulturbehörde, Denkmalschutzamt (Hamburg Department for Heritage Preservation)

Voices from the projects

10

Composition of the Energy cluster


Experts are certain that climate goals can be reached only at the local level; municipalities have the closest link to the citizen. They supply citizens with services, de-liver and maintain local infrastruc-ture. Thus, climate change should start directly in the town hall.

In the western part of the Baltic Sea region municipalities already have experience in taking respon-

sibility for energy economics, i.e. in producing energy from local resources and acting indepen-dently from national structures. The city of Wittenberge, in North-ern Germany, has a long tradition of working with citizens on energy issues. The city coordinates public utilities, local energy supply, dis-tance heating and housing compa-nies. Wittenberge, together with the cities of Perleberg and Karstädt in the region of Prignitz, founded a development agency called Wachs-tumskern (“nucleus of growth”) Pri-gnitz. To offer citizens sustainable energy solutions, local authorities work closely with scientific partners and businesses. Prignitz region cooperates with the University of Applied Science in Wildau and Brandenburg Technical University in Cottbus. This Public Energy Alternative (PEA) works on the basis that sustainable energy strat-egies are taken as an opportunity for regional development.

However, most of the municipali-ties in the former socialist coun-tries were not prepared for this role – they do not have a tradi-tion of acting in the energy field. Historically, only national institu-tions took responsibility for energy and infrastructure. For example the nuclear power plant in Ignalina

supplied electricity to the whole of Lithuania. Yet the plant was closed in 2009. In Estonia, the govern-ment used oil shale to meet over 90 per cent of the country’s energy demand.

The PEA project is to help munici-palities to understand and define their role in the energy field. The idea is to transfer experience from cities like Wittenberge and the Pri-gnitz region to other regions that join PEA. The partners analyse how to approach the energy sub-ject from the municipalities’ point of view. The scientific partners deliver know-how not available in the medium and small sized mu-nicipalities.

Two main pillars of the PEA project are (1) to raise aware-ness in the municipalities and (2) to develop strategies on how to take energy issues into their own hands. In Wittenberge partners developed and tested a common methodology that was later fol-lowed in each partner region. All regions follow a three step plan. First they do a SWOT analysis displaying their potentials. Sec-ond, they then prepare a regional development strategy. Third, they design an action plan that has to be approved by the city board.

PEASustainable energy strategies as a chance for regional development

Duration: September 2009 - December 2012Number of partners: 21Approximate total project budget: 3.7 million EUR

www.pea-baltic.eu

Boiler plant in Võru, Estonia pro-duces most of heating energy from woodchips (85%). It delivers heat to ca 220 buildings. Photo: Mairi Raju

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This approach will be used by other municipalities not participat-ing in the project. The result is a tailor made solution responding to the most pressing needs and based on the available resources in the region.

Mustvee municipality in Estonia is a perfect example: most of the en-ergy available is used for a system of distance heating. The munici-pality is the owner of the distance heating network. Old boilers heat-ing the water are burning wooden logs. The old installation results in huge energy losses in the distribu-tion network. When performing the SWOT analysis and drafting the re-gional development plan, strategy partners found out that it would be wise to refurbish the distribution grid and create a more efficient

system – a Combined Heat and Power Plant (CHP) that produces steam for heating and electricity.

This solution will be much more energy efficient than the “old system”. The investment is laid down in the action plan. The mu-nicipality will apply for funds for the investment from the Estonian government. The regional devel-opment strategy and the action plan are the solid basis for the application. The Mustvee mu-nicipality works together with the South-Estonian Centre of Renew-able Energy (LETEK) and Esto-nian University of Life Sciences in Tartu. The Wittenberge-model is on the way to demonstrating its benefits to regions in former socialist countries that urgently need them.

REMOWERegional Mobilizing of Sustainable Waste-to-Energy Production

Duration: September 2009 - December 2012Number of partners: 9Approximate total project budget: 1.6 million EUR

Citizens and businesses in the Bal-tic Sea region consume a substan-tial amount of goods and gener-ate large amounts of waste. For example, an average household in Sweden, in 2006, produced 560 kg of waste per person. This waste is often disposed on fields (landfill sites) and occupies this valuable resource indefinitely. But citizens and communities are becoming increasingly uneasy about using land for storing waste. In addition,

scientists and technicians have been able to demonstrate that waste itself, such as refuse from household cooking and from res-taurants – might even be treated as a resource.

If waste is not recycled, then using it for producing energy is an inter-esting concept. Project REMOWE is about converting refuse into useful products such as, for ex-ample, electricity or heat, and is

www.remowe.eu

Truck unloading household waste. This is the end stop in the waste collection process and the starting point in converting waste to biogas. Västerås area, Sweden.


looking into new solutions for deal-ing with waste. The lead partner, Mälardalen University, is focusing on education, research and inter-action with society. The university is commercialising the research re-sults - it is working with companies and has contacts with chambers of commerce. The project’s ambition is to reduce CO2 emissions and create positive energy balances in the partner regions.

Regions are at very different stag-es of implementing the waste-to-energy concept. Some are already well advanced such as the Väst-manland region in Sweden, which has invested in the biogas plant and has ambitions to extend the use of the biogas buses, whereas

regions in Lithuania face the lack of experience and know-how and will learn from the partnership.

In order to help inexperienced regions get started, project partners produced a Manual for sorting waste for waste-to-energy systems. This manual collects experience and examples from the partner countries: it explains how cities and regions are collecting and sorting waste. Sorting waste is the first, yet decisive step in the long chain.

As the manual shows, there are two major solutions as to how to deal with waste: centralised and decentralised. In a decentralised system citizens sort waste at home – this system is often used in those countries where the work-force is more expensive. In the centralised system waste is taken to a sorting plant.

The manual is a practical guide for the policy makers, authorities and companies involved in waste management. One can learn how to plan collection of waste and how to choose the sorting system. It shows alternatives and discusses experience from implementation in the regions that have chosen dif-ferent models. Policy makers de-cide on the regulations, authorities have to implement regulations, raise citizen awareness and sub-contract companies to collect and sort waste. Companies have to be aware of the regulations and work closely with citizens. The manual is especially valuable for the cit-ies that are planning to introduce waste-to-energy systems.

REMOWE is closely linked to the Baltic Biogas Bus project. REMOWE is focusing on the organisation of production of the biogas – the supply side. Baltic Biogas Bus creates the demand for biogas. To increase the number of biogas buses in the region, the production rate of biogas has to increase as well.

Thus, the production of biogas heavily depends on the availability of bio-waste – REMOWE secures the resources and develops new technologies. For instance, the REMOWE project is analysing the composition of bio-waste and how to pre-treat waste in order to opti-mise the output: the biogas.

The Report on current status on the waste-to-energy in the Baltic Sea region prepared by REMOWE partners is based on five individual regional reports: it analyses the legal regulatory framework, the availability of bio-waste, types of waste, similarities and differences between regions, and it identifies common and individual bottlenecks in the regions, while also discuss-ing how to deal with the barriers.

As for regional differences: ac-tors in Sweden focus on house-hold waste, from cooking, res-taurants, slaughter houses etc. But there are also other types of bio-waste, those which are more solid. In Poland the focus is on stopping the disposal of waste on the land and on systems for dealing with waste. Because bio-waste is not yet a limited re-source in Poland – as it is already in Sweden.

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SPINSustainable Production through Innovation in Small and Medium sized Enterprises


Nowadays ecological innova-tions are becoming increasingly popular, but nobody needs them as urgently as small and medium sized enterprises (SME) do. Many of them are in constant search of environmentally sound technolo-gies and technology systems that have a minimal environmental impact. SME entrepreneurs face tough competition on the market. In addition, they have to comply with EU and national environmen-tal regulations and directives. SPIN project helps them to be innovative and to comply with the regulations.

The idea of the SPIN project re-sulted from the need for match-

making of supply and demand for eco-innovations in SMEs. In other words: an innovation developed in one enterprise has to be ac-cessible to others – and all over the Baltic Sea region. Project partners discussed how to collect the necessary knowledge about technologies, tools and suppliers of innovative solutions. There are multiple companies in the Baltic Sea region that are looking for these solutions. SPIN partners developed the idea of a network of national contact points – these contact points are designed to match the supply and demand of innovations. In Poland the na-tional contact point is supported by the Ministry of Environment and the Ministry of Economy.

The SPIN partners collected selected eco-innovative technolo-gies and pooled them in a data-base that provides support to the SMEs. The SPIN toolbox is an open database of 42 tools avail-able on the SPIN website. An SME looking for support can search the database by country, industry sector (decentralised wastewater treatment, energy from biomass, surface treatment and sustain-able construction) or type of tool (financing innovations, business and market for innovations and competences in companies).

The Central Mining Institute from Katowice organised training for Polish enterprises on how to use the toolbox and presented selected innovative solutions in the professional press, e.g. the journal Przemysł Zarządzanie Środowisko. The SPIN toolbox and the network of the national contact points are supporting SMEs in the Baltic Sea region.

Today, even if the SPIN project is already finalised, there is an agreement signed by the partners that keeps the network of the national contact points active and supports SMEs looking for help.

www.spin-project.eu

Decentralised wastewater treatment

Biogas


Let’s take a look at the average residential area in Central and Eastern Europe. A large part of the housing stock was built in soviet times. It is of low quality, not energy efficient and has a mainte-nance backlog. The direct sur-roundings of the buildings (side-walks, playgrounds, parking areas,

access roads, green areas, waste bins) are often neither attractive nor functional.

On top of that most of the flats are privately owned – which makes the management and renovation of the buildings by the owner as-sociations rather difficult. One just has to imagine that a hundred dif-ferent flat owners in one building with different social backgrounds and financial resources have to agree with each other before any measures can be implemented. Many of the residents either can-not afford to pay or do not wish to invest. This situation is especially unfavourable as the residential ar-eas have huge potential for saving energy and reducing CO2 emis-sions and are in urgent need for sustainable solutions.

The partners in the Urb.Energy project examined the question of how to upgrade these residen-tial areas. Some of the partners already had substantial experi-ence. For example, in 1990 large parts of the prefabricated buildings in Eastern Germany started to be refurbished. Project partners pre-pared Integrated Urban Develop-ment Concepts (IUDC) for the pilot areas. Each pilot area identified problems, prepared the concept, took out certain aspects of the

IUDC and prepared an investment concept that will be implemented after the Urb.Energy project has finished.

What is an Integrated Urban De-velopment Concept? First, project partners have to look at both the problems and potential in the resi-dential areas - they analyse the relevant elements for the devel-opment of the neighbourhood or district, e.g. demographic condi-tions, environment, infrastructure, buildings. Then they set targets and check what can be realistically implemented in a particular time period and with existing support instruments. Residents of the area are involved in the process and in-troduced to the results and ideas.

Urb.EnergyEnergy Efficient and Integrated Urban Development Action


www.urbenergy.eu

Proposal for renovation of Seminari Street in Rakvere, Estonia. Photo: City of Rakvere

Housing estate in Jugla district, Riga, Latvia. Photo: IWO e.V.16

The IUDC is the basis for large and small measures that are imple-mented in the urban neighbour-hoods. Energy efficiency is one of the important criteria in the IUDC. The concepts have no legal impli-cations (as e.g. land-use plan). Yet they are the commonly used plan-ning approach to deal with urban districts. After the project partners complete their analysis for the se-lected pilot area, they draft IUDCs and prepare concepts on how to implement selected measures. Now they intend to start with smaller or larger investments.

For example, the City of Rakvere in Estonia has an ambition to become the most energy efficient town in Estonia. The IUDC was prepared for a residential area built dur-ing socialist times – it consists of several multi-storey buildings and

one oversized two lane road to the city centre for car traffic only. After analysing the situation and launch-ing an architectural competition there is now a plan to redesign the urban space in the pilot area: the large two lane road will be trans-formed into an attractive park lane equipped with benches, trees and equipment for recreational activi-ties. A bicycle lane will be con-structed and only one lane will be set aside for the cars.

Another example is in the district of Jugla where the city of Riga is facing different issues. Several buildings have been renovated. In these buildings a new problem appeared: due to insufficient air exchange and high moisture in the flats the formation of mould on the walls is quite common. Inhabit-ants do not open their windows

often enough and changing their ventilation habits proved to be a challenge.

One of the solutions suggested by project partners is the installation of ventilation systems. An online monitoring system in renovated and not renovated flats has been installed to monitor the room climate and to provide data that justifies the necessity of ventila-tion systems. Partners did exam-ine how to install the ventilation systems with heat recovery in the renovated flats and how to effec-tively improve the room climate. The problem with mould may appear in many buildings that are energy efficiently renovated. The Urb.Energy partners from Latvia recognised the problem, described solutions and shared them with colleagues in other countries.

Not refurbished balconies in Jugla district, Riga, Latvia. Photo: IWO e.V.


More integrated solutions for the low-carbon economy

Combining solutions for renewable energy and energy efficiency can pave the way for the decarbonised economy. Regions should look more closely into remedies going beyond one sector. That means, for instance, to promote energy saving in housing and, in parallel, to work on measures for sustainable transport.

Imprint

© Joint Technical Secretariat of the Baltic Sea Region Programme 2007-2013

http://eu.baltic.net

Editing: Joint Technical SecretariatDesign & Printing: ArtBerries, artberries.lvPrinted in September 2012

www.balticbiogasbus.eu

www.bioenergypromotion.net

www.co2olbricks.eu

www.longlife-world.eu

www.pea-baltic.eu

www.remowe.eu

www.spin-project.eu

www.urbenergy.eu

eu.baltic.net

Energy effi ciency and renewable energy sources

Eight stories about achievements of transnational cooperation

European Union

Baltic Sea Region ProgrammeJoint Technical SecretariatInvestitionsbank Schleswig-HolsteinE-mail: [email protected]

Energy cluster leaderMr Klaus RückertE-mail: offi [email protected]

Part-fi nanced by the European Union(European Regional Development Fund and European Neighbourhood and Partnership Instrument)

energy effi ciency and

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