Estonia: Co2mmunity presented on paper and in person

Co2mmunity has been presented at the annual meeting of Estonian eco-communities on 12th January 2019 by Ülo Kask from the Tartu Renewable Energy Agency (TREA). The photo shows Ülo Kask during his presentation of Co2mmunity, the RENCOP model and the opportunities for eco-communities to engage the topic. (photo by Paavo Eensalu)

Additionally,  TREA has published an article in the Estonian Biomass Association’s annual magazine ‘Combustible and non-combustible energy resources 2018/2019‘. The article is in Estoniana and the whole issue is published on the homepage of the Estonian Biomass Association (external link).

 

 

Estonia: TREA engages the “Small Footprint” Community Mõisamaa

In December 2018, two Tartu Regional Energy Agency (TREA) employees met with five community members of Mõisamaa village of a Väike Jalajälg, which translates to “small footprint” community. Mõisamaa village is a RENCOP community and is one of ten communities taking part in the mentorship program within Estonia. The ERDF funded Estonian Energy Cooperatives Mentor Programme supports Estonian start-ups and their development through workshops, peer-to-peer learning, and mentorship programs.  The community is home to 20 people, and they are currently exploring alternative forms for the community’s future energy production and consumption. It is for this reason that TREA visited them. This informal meeting was a way for community members to establish initial contact and trust and for the TREA employees, and for the TREA employees to gather a preliminary understanding of the community’s day-to-day activities.

Currently all buildings in Mõisamaa are locally heated by boilers and regular wood logs stoves totalling 28 stoves, with electricity being provided by the public grid. The community’s vision is to replace oil boilers with more sustainable solutions, varying from building renovations, to PV stations, to bio-gas. TREA will be working with the community to develop the best solutions to satisfy their energy needs.

Mõisamaa’s main motivations and drivers for a community energy project is to reduce their energy costs and to become independent from energy imports and the public grid. As per the discussions, the community can also envision selling their sustainably generated energy to close neighbours, however this is not their primary goal.

A follow up meeting will take place in mid December for TREA to gather energy consumption data on the eco-village. The meeting will be with both citizens and farmers, along with any other interested and potential buyers. More information regarding the small footprint community can be found at http://vaikejalajalg.ee/en/

Finland: Heating thought through – a way forward for Helsinki

Aalto University, the Co2mmunity partner implementing the RENCOP in Helsinki, has developed a comprehensive overview on renewable heating within district heating in Helsinki. A short article on the homepage of Aalto University also provides some key points. One main component proposed is to use wind energy to power large heat pumps. Already since 2006 the biggest heat pump in the world produces 100 MW of heat under the Katri Vala Park in Helsinki. And only 10 such heat pumps could power the whole district heating system of Helsinki.

Generally speaking, it is not very efficient to use electricity for heating, as for example electric space heaters do. Especially when using electricity generated from fossil fuel the combined efficiency can be well below 30% of the original fuel source. Heat pumps however leverage the energy by taking advantage of existing temperature differentials in the environment. Therefore heat pumps can provide a multiple of the electricity invested in the form of heat and boost overall efficiency. The discussion paper by Aalto University proposes to use the heat pumps in an integrated system with wind energy, CHP plants and heat storage to provide both heat and electricity when they are needed. Surely, this would be a great step towards an integrated energy system.

 

Germany: Co2mmunity partner offers seminar on public participation in wind energy planning

The first part of the seminar will be held on 4th December in Rendsburg, Schleswig-Holstein, Germany. There the participants will get to know how to participate in the amendement of windenergy development zonation in the federal state of Schleswig-Holstein, which is still possible until the 3rd January 2019. A second workshop on realising regional and local benefits follows in January. Unfortunately both workshops are in German only.

Find the complete invitation here:
REGIONALPLANENTWURF FÜR WINDENERGIE-VORRANGGEBIETE
VERSTEHEN, BEURTEILEN, STELLUNG NEHMEN UND DANN?

Dienstag, 4. Dezember 2018, 18 – 20.30 Uhr
ConventGarten – Gildezimmer, Hindenburgstr. 38 – 42, 24768 Rendsburg

 

 

Sweden: Next RENCOP meeting on 11th December in Karlskrona

Information about renewable electricity for apartment owner associations

Energikontor Sydost works for increased production of renewable electricity. We therefore invite you to a meeting where the apartment owner association Taube 31 in Karlskrona tells about the experiences of its new solar cell system from the first ideas to the results after a few months of operation. We will also listen to a representative from the Affärsverken on their role in such projects.

Find the info in Swedish here.

Denmark: Common Purchase of Heat Pumps – Second Round

The 30th of October the first meeting out of four, about alternatives to oil furnaces was held in the village Brenderup, in Middelfart Municipality. The other three meetings are planned in Fredericia (31st of October), Kolding (5th of November) and Vejen (6th of November) Municipalities. Some of these municipality’s are associated partners in co2mmunity, and the collaboration is a witness of spreading, and sharing, experiences with Community Energy projects.

The goal of this campaign is to support citizens to change from a fossil fuel based heating solution to a heat pump, and by purchasing heat pumps collectively to reduce the investment cost.

The topics of the meeting in Brenderup were: Alternatives to oil furnaces, common purchase of heat pumps, energy renovations and heat pumps on subscription. The whole evening, experts were present and ready to answer any questions, the citizens might have.

For more information contact:
Morten Mejsen Westergaard (morten.westergaard@middelfart.dk)
Mareike Johannsen (Mareike.johannsen@middelfart.dk)

Finland: Second expert-driven RENCOP meeting in Lapua

Second expert-driven RENCOP meeting held in Lapua, South Ostrobothnia 24th of September 2018 in the premises of Thermopolis Ltd. – Energy Agency of South Ostrobothnia (Lassilantie 12, 62100 Lapua). Ten experts participated to this meeting and represented participants from municipalities, research and development organisations, educational organisations and financers with a link to the citizens. New idea came up for an open citizen-driven RENCOP process, which is to give inspiration and organize events for ordinary villagers in Aisapari Leader area (includes following municipalities: Kauhava, Lappajärvi, Evijärvi, Vimpeli, Alajärvi and Lapua) to promote renewable community energy in the village houses of the area.