The first meeting of the Irish Stakeholders Group for the SME Power Project was held in the offices of Clár ICH, Claremorris on 12th December 2019.
SME Power is a new programme which is being funded by the Interreg Europe Programme, and runs from August 2019 through to July 2023. The overall aim of SME Power is to ensure that public policy for the low carbon economy is better adapted to the needs of non-energy intensive SMEs, thus enabling them to be a key driver in the low carbon shift at European Level.
Hosted by project partner WestBIC, attendees at the first SME Power Irish Stakeholder Meeting included John Flynn, Sustainable Energy Authority Ireland; Alma Gallagher and Barry Lowe, Clár ICH; Terence Gallagher, Premier Solutions NW Ltd; and Seamus McCormack and Joan Fahey, WestBIC.
Seamus McCormack gave an overview of the objectives of SME Power, which will include the design and implementation of an action plan for policy improvement to help reduce emissions and increase the use of renewables in non-energy intensive SMEs. He outlined the eight international partners participating in the project. These are as follows:
- Agenzia Regionale Recupero Risorse (ARRR) - Italy (Lead Partner)
- EIfI-Tech (European Institute for Innovation - Technology e.V.) - Germany
- Local Energy Agency Spodnje Podravie (LEASP) - Slovenia
- Durham County Council - UK
- Ente Público Regional de la Energia de Castilla y León (EREN) - Spain
- Sustainable Energy Authority of Ireland (SEAI) - Ireland
- WestBIC (Innovation & Management Centre ClgTa WestBIC) - Ireland
- Heinola City - Finland
The stakeholders discussed the formation and objectives of the Irish Stakeholder Group and noted the opportunities available for participating stakeholders to attend study visits to Partner Regions. These cross partner visits would aim to learn about developments and good practices happening throughout all the partner regions.
Further Stakeholder Meetings will be held bi-annually during the course of the projects lifetime.
For further information:
Seamus McCormack, WestBIC at: [email protected]
Or follow the project on social media: @sme_power
