PEACE Alps International Conference in Bolzano addresses centralized energy solutions

The PEACE_Alps International Conference started with excellent presentations and fruitful discussions in Castle Mareccio, Bolzano on 11 October 2018. The focus was on policy recommendations elaborated within the project during the last three years. A live connection to Ms Elena Visnar Malinovska, Head of Unit Adaptation to Climate Change at the European Commission in Brussels offered additional valuable input.
Three round-table discussions with participants of regional and European representatives tackled the topics “financing of aggregated projects”; “capacity building/mutual learning/knowledge transfer” and “governance”. In the afternoon session, reports about successfully implemented centralized solutions were presented by project partners.
The specific approach of the project is the bundling of energy projects to be implemented in several cities and municipalities at the same time. Examples are centralized solutions for the retrofit of public street lighting or the refurbishment of public buildings. For these activities the project recommends the involvement of regional coordinators who work in close cooperation with public authorities and regional stakeholders.
An overview of all project activities is offered in the project’s final online handbook “Pooling Energy Action Plans and Enhancing their Implementation in the Alps” which was presented at the conference by project lead partner Silvio DeNigris from Regione Piemonte.
PEACE_Alps International Conference
PEACE_Alps Conference Agenda
Municipalities Join Efforts for Sustainable and Concrete Energy Solutions
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10.00 h Welcome speech
Irene Senfter, Ökoinstitut Südtirol / Alto Adige
Part 1 New approaches and future perspectives
10.15 h Presentation of the PEACE_Alps project
Silvia Riva, Regione Piemonte
Silvio De Nigris, Regione Piemonte
10.40 h EUSALP Energy transition in the Alps
Ulrich Santa, EUSALP AG9 Leader
10.50 h Climate Change: Update on the EU-policy
Elena Visnar Malinovska, DG Climate Action, Unit Adaptation to Climate Change
11.00 h Alpine Space Programme – Low carbon priority for 2030
Anne-Séverine Lay, JS / Alpine Space Programme
Part 2 Recommendations for future action
Moderator: Stefan Drexlmeier, EWO
11.40 h Roundtable 1: Financing aggregated projects
Emanuele Sascor, Energy manager of the municipality of Bolzano
Nicola Giampaolo, Lawyer and consultant for PPP procedures in Italy
Francesco Righi, Technical manager at Kofler Energies AG
12.10 h Roundtable 2: Capacity buildings/mutual learning/knowledge transfer
Martine Felber, PLANAIR
Emilio Vettori, Ökoinstitut Südtirol / Alto Adige
Katrin Jurisch, Climate Alliance
12.40 h Roundtable 3: Governance
Andrea Dornhofer, Energy and Innovation Centre of Weiz
Sara Verones, Province of Trento
Maren Meyer, Energy Agency South Tyrol-CasaClima
Part 3 Get inspired!
Moderator: Stefan Drexlmeier, Civic Foundation Energiewende Oberland
14.30 h Energy management
Energy alliance in order to implement energy management and the district wide benchmarking in the Allgäu Region (GER)
Energy and Environmental Centre Allgäu
14.50 h Adaptation to climate change
Climate change: what and how to cope with? exchange of practice between local stakeholders in the Rhône-Alpes Region (FRA)
AGEDEN Association for sustainable management of energy
15.10 Energy management
Joint presentation about respective energy management projects in the Kranj Region (SLO)
Business Support Centre Kranj/Development Agency Sinergija
15.30 h Energy refurbishment
How to pool refurbishment projects in natural parks of Rhône-Alpes Region (FRA) Auvergne-Rhône-Alpes Energy Environment Agency
16.00 h Conclusions
Partnership
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PEACE_Alps partnership is composed of 11 partners coming from 6 different European countries. Moreover the project relies on 25 Observers including the Covenant of Mayor of Brusselles. All partners have a long standing experience on sustainable energy planning at local/regional level and in coordinating and participating in EU energy related projects.