Monday mayors and representatives of local authorities all over Europe will deliver 153Sustainable Energy Action Plans (SEAPs) to the European Union. This is part of their commitment, as signatories of the Covenant of Mayors, to increase energy efficiency and the use of renewable energy sources in their authorities. To mark the event, a ceremony will be held in Brussels with the European Commission’s Directorate-General for Energy, the Executive Agency for Competitiveness and Innovation (EACI) and the Covenant of Mayors’ Office in attendance.
In total the Action Plans submitted today will contribute almost 2.500.000 MWh of electricity generated by renewable energy sources each year. This output represents the equivalent of 500 onshore wind turbines. Likewise the primary energy savings associated are set to exceed the 5.300.000 MWh threshold, which corresponds to the annual primary energy consumption of more than 130.000 European citizens.
Today’s symbolic handover demonstrates the leading role cities can play in reaching the EU 2020 Energy and Climate Objectives through concrete action plans at the local and regional level. Those involved will now shift their focus to putting these plans into practice.
Support through the Intelligent Energy Europe (IEE) Projects
A total of 189 local authorities, including the 153 submitting their Sustainable Energy Action Plans (SEAPs) today, have benefited from the help of three IEE projects. These are: Energy for Mayors (a project designed to help Covenant Coordinators and Supporters provide assistance to local authorities and guide 139 through the SEAP elaboration process), City_Sec (a project that supported 50 local authorities in the SEAP elaboration process and mobilised Regional Development and Energy Agencies to become active energy actors) and ENNEREG (a project designed to support 12 European regions in the development and implementation of their regional SEAPs).
Patrick Lambert, Director of the EACI, says: «These projects demonstrate what can be achieved through sustainable energy action planning at the local level. The focus will now shift to the implementation of these plans to achieve a real impact on the ground.»
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Intelligent Energy – Europe (IEE) supports organisations willing to improve energy sustainability. Launched in 2003 by the European Commission, the programme is part of a broad push to create an energy-intelligent future for us all. It supports EU energy efficiency and renewable energy policies, with a view to reaching the EU 2020 targets.
The IEE programme actively supports cities in their sustainable energy efforts. It has been the main source of EU funding behind the Covenant of Mayors initiative, the Commission’s flagship initiative to mobilise and recognise cities and regions that are committed to ambitious energy objectives. In addition, IEE has given direct support to concrete projects involving cities of various sizes and locations. Support is provided both at the development and the implementation stage of a Sustainable Energy Action Plan. More than 500 plans are expected to be approved by the end of these projects; technical assistance to bankable projects is also being provided through the ELENA facility and the new funding priority on Mobilizing Local Energy Investments. More information: http://ec.europa.eu/energy/intelligent/
The Covenant of Mayors is the mainstream European movement involving local and regional authorities, voluntarily committing to increasing energy efficiency and use of renewable energy sources on their territories. By their commitment, Covenant Signatories aim to meet and exceed the European Union 20% CO2 reduction objective by 2020. More information: http://www.eumayors.eu/
Sustainable Energy Action Plans (SEAPs) include concrete and innovative actions aimed at increasing energy efficiency and renewable energy use across different key sectors of the economy in the territory of local authorities. The methodological framework behind the SEAP development is flexible, allowing signatories to choose their own approach to addressing territorial needs.
ManagEnergy is a technical support initiative of the IEE programme, which aims to assist actors from the public sector and their advisers working on energy efficiency and renewable energy at the local and regional level. More information:
http://www.managenergy.net
Today’s event highlighted a number of best practices and key cities’ contribution to EU energy policy targets:
In order to increase the efficiency of its public lighting system, the city of Pula in Croatia replaced over 2,100 old lighting fixtures (45% of total) achieving energy savings of 20.6%. Improving its lighting system also helped to reduce light pollution and the overall environmental impact.
Despite severe economic and social difficulties, the city of Vrilissia in Greece retrofitted three schools and the City Hall. In addition, the Municipality developed through the Energy for Mayors’ project an online tool for collecting building energy data from citizens for the SEAP.
The Italian city of Vignola implemented several SEAP actions, including a district-heating network for 15 public buildings and a street lighting retrofit project through innovative financial schemes (energy service company/third party financing scheme in the framework of the ELENA Modena project).
