KeepWarm at BioVill and CoolHeating final conference in Brussels

28 November 2018

Brussels, Belgium - Manos Conference Center

KeepWarm at BioVill and CoolHeating final conference in Brussels

On the occasion of the final conference of the EU H2020 projects BioVill and CoolHeating, to be held in Brussels on 28 November 2018, an info point about the KeepWarm project will be available. You are welcome to come and meet us there!

BioVill was a three-year project funded by the European Union’s Horizon 2020 programme, which started in March 2016, in collaboration with 9 partners from the target countries, as well as from Germany and Austria. Its aim was to transfer and adapt experiences gained in countries where bioenergy villages already exist (Germany, Austria) to countries with less examples in this sector (Slovenia, Serbia, Croatia, Macedonia, Romania). The project fostered development of the bioenergy sector in the target countries by strengthening the role of locally produced biomass as a main contributor for the energy supply on a local level. It also considers opportunities of market uptake or expansion for local farmers, wood producers or SMEs.

The objective of CoolHeating was to support the implementation of "small modular renewable heating and cooling grids" for communities in South-Eastern Europe. It transfered knowledge from partners in countries where renewable district heating and cooling examples exist (Austria, Denmark, Germany) to countries where there are less examples in the sector (Croatia, Slovenia, Macedonia, Serbia, Bosnia-Herzegovina). Core activities, besides techno-economical assessments, included measures to stimulate the interest of communities and citizens to set-up renewable district heating systems as well as capacity building about financing and business models. The outcome is the initiation of new small renewable district heating and cooling grids in 5 target communities up to the investment stage.

The conference of 28 November 2018 will mark the end of those two projects. There will be a KeepWarm info point at the venue, providing information about its vision, mission, aims and activities. Here is a sneak peek:

Because many district heating systems (DHS) are highly energy inefficient and need to be modernised, KeepWarm targets the largest energy user in the EU: Energy demand for heating and cooling (49%).

Primarily the KeepWarm consortium will ensure that:

  • At least 450 relevant stakeholders are trained, including 150 DHS operators, to increase their skills on technical, organisational, financial and managerial aspects;
  • At least 95 operators are able to develop business plans and to identify the most suitable financial model for modernisation of their DHS;
  • At least 23 business plans for the modernisation of district heating systems have been developed and sources for investment have been identified;
  • DHS network retrofitting is addressed in at least 10 local energy plans and 7 regional or national strategies or plans;
  • At least 23’300 relevant stakeholders (directly) and 125’000 (indirectly) are reached across Europe to replicate the project outputs in target regions;
  • EU policies and initiatives are supported, such as the Global Covenant of Mayors on Energy and Climate and Decarb Heat, by learning from the KeepWarm pilots and disseminating best practices across Europe.

To know more, come and meet us in Brussels or visit our website!

For more information about the conference: http://www.biovill.eu/final-conference/