Interreg Europe funded CLEAN project lead partner, ERNACT, recently saw the approval of additional funding for a key action contained in the organisation’s Regional Action Plan for reducing carbon emissions in a move towards NetZero in 2045. This action outlines a concrete plan to tackle the challenges related to the absence of relevant, comprehensive, accessible, complete and up-to-date energy-related data in the North West Region of Ireland.
This pilot action, “Energy Open Data” involves a regional energy-related database implementation that will be deployed in the region. This type of data is highly relevant to energy-efficiency related policy making and measures of implementation in a typical EU region. The data allows regions to establish a baseline for carbon emissions and to set obtainable targets for carbon emission reduction. It also encourages and supports research and innovation in the fields of energy efficiency and carbon emission reduction. This type of data is currently difficult to source as it is collected and stored by many different organisations in various – and sometimes raw – formats.
The key goal of the action is to provide an open and centralised energy data repository. The activities detailed relate to sourcing, organisation, availability, update and usability of the North West Region’s energy usage data. The Regional Action Plan outlines how this will be achieved via an agreement between public sector bodies and accessed via easy to use ICT tools. This pilot action aims to test this approach by implementing it in the Irish Border, Midlands and Western region.
The proposal for extra funding to implement this pilot action was successfully approved by the Interreg Europe’s Joint-Secretariat & Monitoring Committee. It is hoped that this action will significantly benefit public authorities and also communities, as a direct result of facilitating relevant, accessible and up-to-date energy data for estimating policy “baselines” and for evaluating results of policy choices and actions implemented. ERNACT is delighted with the action’s approval and look forward to implementing the final solution in the near future.
