The Energy Agency of Rhineland-Palatinate hold one of the regional kick-off meetings of the project SUPPORT at the Environmental office of the City of Mainz on April 25th. The kick-off meeting was part of a network-meeting of climate change and energy managers that work for local authorities in the Rhineland-Palatinate region of Rheinhessen-Nahe. The event was organised by a Regional officer of the Energy Agency. The kick-off meeting was attended by 14 participants.
Experience reports by representatives of the City of Mainz and a report by a representative of the Ministry of Environment about the development and progress of the climate change concept of Rhineland-Palatinate were part of the agenda. The City of Mainz shared their experience with eco-fair public procurement rules and the progress in implementing their “Masterplan 100% Klimaschutz”, which is aiming at climate neutrality of the city by 2050. The topics and discussions served as perfect starting points for the presentation of the project SUPPORT, since it focuses on difficulties local and regional authorities are facing when implementing energy efficiency strategies.
At first of the topic and aims of SUPPORT were presented and the ways to get there were explained. The climate change and energy managers are very interested in working on the development of the action plan to optimize the ERDF-programme in Rhineland-Palatinate. It was explained that the process starts with a regional background analysis and that regional stakeholders are asked to share their experiences through a questionnaire. Before handing out the questionnaire there was a discussion about the ERDF funding procedures for energy efficiency measures in Rhineland-Palatinate. The stakeholders had detailed questions about the programme. Some already applied for funding without success and others are not sure if planed actions are eligible for ERDF funding. It was discussed how SUPPORT can provide immediate support to local authorities.
It was agreed that the communication of the ERDF application and project selection procedures are not clear and potential beneficiaries don’t know about the application criteria of the programme, like minimum invest or the possibility of joint applications. It is not clear from the available documents. The SUPPORT project will collect the needed information and forward it to the climate change and energy managers. It will also be interesting to find out how these questions are handled in the project partners regions.
The climate change and energy managers showed great interest in the topic of SUPPORT. They already have implemented energy efficiency projects in the authorities they represent. Still there are projects they face problems to get ERDF funding. Especially LED interior lighting for increasing the energy efficiency in public buildings was mentioned. National funding for these kinds projects exist, it has short payback times and in the first quarter of 2017 the Ministry of Environment of Rhineland-Palatinate announced additional funding opportunities for these kinds of measures. The questionnaire will help to specify the obstacles local authorities have and what kind of measures have already been implemented and might be best-practices for the SUPPORT project.
The stakeholder group is also looking forward to the results of the questionnaire and the information about funding opportunities through the ERDF programme in Rhineland-Palatinate. The network tries to meet every two month. At one of the next meetings in 2017 the results of the questionnaire will be presented and discussed, to ensure an ongoing and active exchange with the regional actors.
Next to this kick-off meeting other kick-off meetings were organised in Rhineland-Palatinate to involve other relevant regional stakeholders. Two bilateral meetings were hold: one with two representatives of a regional network fostering the energy transition “Energiewende jetzt e.V.” on February 23rd and one with the mayor and two other representatives on CoM signatory Böhl-Iggelheim on March 9th. Two other meetings with a group of stakeholders were organised in April: one with the regional officers of the Energy Agency Rhineland-Palatinate, since they are important to reach the actors in the municipalities (key multipliers) and another meeting with municipalities that implemented an energy management in their buildings to check the energy consumption. All these actors are important to reach the goals of the project SUPPORT and will be involved throughout the project duration.
Pictures of meeting here (library)
