CE Partner Agreement
An important output of the Co2mmunity project is a transnational community energy partner agreement which is a contact template for community energy (CE) project partners. It is an important resource for new projects throughout the Baltic Sea Region. Please find the document as well as the current status of signed partner agreements below.
To help facilitate these partnerships, Co2mmunity has established RENCOP’s. A RENCOP is a Renewable ENergy COoperative Partnership. RENCOP coordinators connect local communities with experts in the field to help facilitate and accelerate the development and installation of CE projects.
Transnational RENCOP Meetings
To get a better understanding of these partnerships, Co2mmunity sat down with Toivo from Estonia and Kristaps from Latvia. They shared their experiences so far with CE projects and collaborating with Co2mmunity partners.
Co2mmunity in Denmark and Latvia
In the framework of transnational exchange, our project partner Riga Planning Region has produced a video about Co2mmunity in Denmark and Latvia. To find out more about experiences with our project, watch this video in which two municipalities, Middelfart in Denmark and Mārupe in Latvia, give insights into their Co2mmunity involvement.
Co2mmunity in Finland
Video summary: Take a glance at the four sites we have visited.
Housing company Asunto Oy Tampereen Pohjolankatu 18-20, Tampere: Chairman of the housing company, Pertti Vesterinen, presents the actions taken in this innovative housing company. They have invested in solar energy, heat recovery, geothermal heating, two-way district heating and many other things. Discover, how they became negative on carbon dioxide emissions in terms of heating, as the first housing company in Finland.
Hietakorpi farm, Vimpeli: Farm owner Tuomo Latvala presents us their on-farm biogas plant. He explains what made him to invest in biogas and how everything was done in practice. This first on-farm biogas plant in the region of South Ostrobothnia inspires with their story – not only other farmers, but all of us.
Jeppo Biogas, Jepua: Kurt Stenvall, CEO, gives us information about the large biogas plant and how everything started in the first place. This is a model example of community energy and how local people can make a difference, together. On nearby industries, oil consumption is substituted by biogas, thanks to this unique biogas plant.
Lähdesmäki Ltd., Ilmajoki: We hear how Juhana Lähdesmäki, CEO, has invested in solar energy in his company and how he started a joint purchase of solar panels in his home town. Nowadays, in Ilmajoki, solar panels are widely in use. However, there are some wishes for political decision makers to make the conditions for solar energy use better.
Get on board and get inspired!
Co2mmunity in Sweden
The Swedish RENCOP has focused on Housing cooperatives. These are existing structures often with an interest in environment, climate and energy. Their buildings often have roofs suitable for solar-PVs and the economic conditions are favourable making this a good investment over time. In this film we visit a housing cooperative in Växjö, a town in the middle of South Sweden. It is not known to be a very sunny place, but also here solar-PVs are a clever choice.
CE Partner Agreement
This working paper summarises the activities conducted under work package (WP) 3.3 in the Co2mmunity project. The main aim of the report is to give an overview about the working on transnationally further developing RENCOPs with the goal to carve out tandem systems between frontrunners and followers forming transnational CE partner agreements in the field of community energy. Special focus is on having a look on the specific challenges and conditions in the partner-regions (SWOT-Analysis) as a base to identify suitable partners for CE projects and develop suitable tandems. In the appendix of the report you can find a template for the Declaration of Partnership and Cooperation.
So far, the following partner agreements have been signed or are in preparation:
- Sweden (Energy Agency of Southeast Sweden) and Estonia (Tartu Regional Energy Agency TREA), status: signed
- Germany (Heinrich-Böll Foundation Schleswig-Holstein) and Latvia (Riga Planning Region and City of Marupe), status: signed
- Estonia (Tartu Regional Energy Agency TREA) and Finland (Green Net Finland, Regional Council of Ostrobothnia, Thermopolis Ltd – Energy Agency of South Ostrobothnia), status: signing in preparation
- Lithuania (Kaunas Regional Energy Agency) and Denmark (Middelfart municipality), status: signed
Latvian and German Partners visit projects in Schleswig-Holstein
From the 18th to the 20th August 2021, delegates from Riga City, Riga Energy Agency, Mārupe Municipality and Riga Planning Region (Latvia) joined representatives from the Heinrich Böll Foundation, Kiel City and Kiel University (Germany). The team from Latvia travelled to Schleswig-Holstein in Germany to take part in a three-day pairing meeting. Watch the video below.
Transnational Pairings at Final Energize Co2mmunity Conference
As part of our final conference in Denmark from the 22nd to the 23rd September 2021, the six project teams held three transnational pairing meetings. Previous activities and achievements were celebrated, and future possibilities for collaboration and knowledge-share were explored. Have a look at the three videos below, to get a feel for the discussions and subsequent visualisation exercises.
Hybrid Meeting in Finland – Husulanmäki Housing Project