BMZ

Sustainable Urban Energy Planning in Southeast Europe

Virtual Connective Cities Dialogue Event

Overview

Approximately 90 experts and urban practitioners from more than 30 municipalities within 9 countries of Southeast Europe, gathered to discuss major opportunities and challenges convoked by the shift towards greener energy consumption around the world. As major countries of the world come out with bod statements of reaching climate neutrality by 2050, all of us need to keep up the pace and start acting on the promised shift. The Dialogue event held during the week of 17-21 May focused on discussions of energy efficient solutions, innovative renewable energy sources as well as on getting some new insights into the EU Green Deal.

This event offered a virtual platform to discuss these challenges and supported municipalities in developing locally adapted solutions for climate challenges, specifically those related to energy efficiency and renewable energy sources.

During these 5 days of asynchronous and synchronous digital meetings participants listened to inspiring Keynote presentations from leading European scientists and shared insights with peers.

The project has built a Network, an exchange platform of urban players, which provides a systematic access to practice-oriented solutions for sustainable urban development by facilitating change and providing mutual support.

Program

In order to be able to accommodate the discussions under the heading of “ Sustainable Urban Energy Planning ” and achieve the objectives of the Virtual Event, three following thematic priorities were identified:

  1. Boosting energy efficiency in municipalities - Almost any aspect of urban life where energy is used can be made more efficient, and the intervention areas are similarly broad: from refurbishing buildings to installing a new heating and cooling systems, to replacing public lighting, to upgrading public transport fleets, and so on. As such measures tend to be quite costly, they require careful coordination of national policies and funds, multilateral support, IFIs, and local actors.
  2. Fostering municipal energy production and supply through Renewable Energy Sources (RES) - The rollout of renewable energy in the region is in its nascent phase, especially for the core technologies seen as the future of electricity generation – distributed solar PV and onshore wind. Photovoltaics and wind power are just some of the examples that cities around the world have already experimented with as reliable ways to achieve a more sustainable energy supply mix towards a greener urban economy.
  3. Promoting innovative municipal Financing in sustainable energy projects – Successful implementation of sustainable energy production and promotion in municipalities is reliant on effective and medium as well as long-term planning. In SEE, several funding programmes specifically target municipalities (led by the European Investment Bank) and other development banks, such as KfW and the World Bank). These funds are channelled through specific multi-donor initiatives and bring tangible improvements.

Participants presented their ongoing or planned project ideas, later on the third day good practice examples were exchanged within working groups put together with MENA region, allowing these practitioners to broaden their horizons and find similarities or learn from mistakes made by other projects.

This heavily packed week tried conveying as much knowledge through digital experience as possible, participants were able to listen to inspiring Keynote presentations from leading European and American scientists and politicians; share insights with peers either while presenting project ideas or good practices; learn how to collaborate digitally and get acquainted with network tool created within Connective Cities programme.

Keynotes

  1. Lessons from Tetra Tech’s global energy experience – Mr. Himesh Dhungel
  2. Sustainable Urban Energy Planning – Mr. Mark Oven
  3. EU Green Deal - Dr. Michael A. Rupp
  4. Facets of the Transition, prospects of Green Deal - Dr. Dirk Buschle
  5. Processes and structures fostering sustainable energy planning on local level - Mr. Klaus Hoppe
  6. Introducing the portfolio of European Investment Bank in South Caucasus – Mr. Maciej Czura
  7. Financing Energy Projects: The Private Sector Perspective - Ms. Mayra Rodríguez Valladares

Presentations

Presentation of Ideas

  1. Energy efficient concept of Rustavi municipality – Mr. Revaz Barbakadze, Rustavi Georgia
  2. Modernization of the system of centralized district heating boiler house – Mr. Rostyslav Cherevashko &  Ms. Yuliia Baklykova, Oleksandriia, Ukraine
  3. 5GDHC Kamenica – Ms. Vildane Maliqi & Mr. Maliq Prieci, Kamenica Kosovo
  4. Ensuring energy-efficient performance of the PTWM-50 boiler – Mr. Volodymyr Pylypchuk, Brovary Ukraine
  5. Modernization to ensure energy efficiency of public buildings in Pinsk – Ms. Oksana Kunitskaya, Pinsk Belarus
  6. Construction of a boiler house operating on pre-RDF fuel – Mr. Andrei Shauchenka & Mr. Sergey Petlitsky, Slonim Belarus
  7. Supporting usage of electrical vehicle and reducing emissions – Mr. Irakli Karkashadze, Kutaisi Georgia
  8. Development of alternative economic activities through the cultivation of energy crops – Mr. Denis Sakhno, Vozdvyzhevskaya Ukraine
  9. Equipping the kindergarten with Solar Panels – Mr. Zaur Rostomashvili, Gori Georgia

Good Practices

  1. " Energy efficient projects in Batumi" -  Ms. Etuna Lomadze, Batumi, Georgia
  2. "Public Lighting Project"  - Kragujevac, Serbia
  3. "Urban Energy Transformation" - Mr. Maksym Terletsky, Lviv, Ukraine
  4. " Eco-Naturalistic park" - Ms. Irina Gudz & Ms. Larisa Kapchinskaya, Novograd-Volynsky, Ukraine
  5. "Encouragement of energy saving measures" - Ms. Olena Golovko, Zhytomyr, Ukraine
  6. "Energy efficiency in buildings and Sewage treatment plants" - Ms. Oksana Sehin, Chortkiv, Ukraine
  7. "Energy Efficiency in Keda" - Mr. Raul Tsintsadze, Keda, Georgia

All above mentioned presentations can be found on the Network platform, here: https://community.connective-cities.net/en/group/93/stream

Results

By bringing together various project ideas and experts from the energy field representatives of each project idea were able to reflect on practical examples and challenges experienced by their peers. First two days of the event generated an informational bubble, accumulating information from the speakers as well as other municipality representatives, who have gone a step further and have already given a thought to projects. These inputs were later aided with some technical and most importantly financial advices offered at the last day of the event. Together with input from financial institution representatives made of fifth day participants envisaged more clear picture of what might be their eye-catching point in attracting donors and realizing projects saving  quite large amount of energy spending for their municipalities.

Report

Sustainable Urban Energy Planning – Road to Energy Efficient and Renewable Energy powered municipalities

2021 - Connective Cities virtual dialogue event in Southeast Europe, 17 —21 May 2021

Author: Elene Samukashvili | Connective Cities

To get an even deeper look into the virtual dialogue event on municipal energy efficiency projects in Southeast Europe

Gallery

Categories: Connective Cities Good Urban Governance Urban management and administration Integrated urban development Cities and climate change Urban renewal
Regions: Central, Eastern and South Eastern Europe Belarus Slonim Georgia Batumi Gori Keda Kutaisi Kosovo Kamenica Serbia Kragujevac Ukraine Brovary Chortkiv Lviv Novograd-Volynsky Vozdvyzhevskaya

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