First stakeholder group meeting of the AgroRES project in Lazio region, Italy, was organised at the end of October 2019.
Dina Maini di Arsial, the project coordinator, introduced the work, emphasizing that in recent years there has been a growing effort to consolidate the interest in renewable energy in agriculture and rural areas. "AgroRES - highlighted Maini - involves seven countries, including ours, which participates precisely with Arsial, which collaborates with the Spanish leader Agencia Extremeña de la Energía and other regional partners from Poland, Great Britain, Finland, Romania and Ireland. The project will have a duration of 42 months and will benefit from an allocation of 1.4 million euros, funded under the Interreg Europe 2014-2020 program ".
Then the President of Arsial, Antonio Rosati, has detailed the aims of the program: "The main objective of AgroRES - explained Rosati - will be the development of measures that encourage the production and use of renewable energy in the agricultural sector and rural. AgroRES will design policies to support the integration of those RE technologies that are best suited to each agricultural and rural area ". The challenge - the President underlined with strength - will also coordinate institutions, professional organizations and companies in a virtuous and synergistic circuit which - in addition to the resource factor - makes a suitable use of the time element: «It is not a mystery - he argued Rosati - as sometimes the bureaucratic shackles hinder the outcome of excellent work plans, and this will be the further effort that Arsial will have to put in place, to provide the right impetus - even administrative - to an absolute activity technical excellence: I'm sure we'll make it ".
Carmela Di Giorgio, Head of the European Region Lazio Cooperation Area, emphasized the importance of the cohesion and territorial cooperation policy in the EU, declining the opportunities deriving from good practices of international collaboration, while Renato Andreotti (Production Area) Agricultural and Animal Husbandry Department of the Regional Agriculture Directorate), illustrated the energy measures of the RDP (Rural Development Plan) 2014/20, detailing the interventions for which a regional contribution was envisaged in the implementation of the Plan. "The actions supported mainly concern corporate efficiency - explained Andreotti - that is the modernization of electrical systems, the so-called" thermal coat ", the replacement of fixtures and so on. The other aspect is the support to the production of energy from renewable sources such as solar, photovoltaic, micro wind. The total financed by the Region with respect to these actions reaches just under 43 million euros, an amount more than doubled compared to the 15 million financed in the past RDP. The lion's share turned it into the photovoltaic color change, which won over two thirds of the resources ".
Maurizio Paffetti of Arsial then detailed the activities of AGRORES: "We will make sure to use the funds available for our territory in full - said Paffetti -; more than 30 local stakeholders have been involved who have expressed keen interest: their strong presence here is the best proof. We will support all that concerns the "non-oil" energy production, that is certainly solar and wind power, but also biomass, biogas, geothermal energy. Today we wanted to celebrate the beginning of an activity that will unfold for 42 months and of which we will give timely feedback step by step on the institutional Arsial website »
The morning ended with a lively round table on "Energy for a circular economy", coordinated by Sergio Ferraris, director of Qualenergia, portal that deals with renewable energies.
