The Green Deal announced by the European Union in 2019 provides for substantial changes in the current economic operations. The climate neutrality is in the centre of the European Green Deal.
The European Union has, as the first continent, committed to achieving the climate neutrality by the middle of the century. In order to fulfil this commitment, active action will be needed on all levels of administration of a member state - on the national level, as well as the regional level and level of local governments, to achieve that all the stakeholders, namely, the public sector, entrepreneurs, residents, use resources efficiently and the impact on the climate and environment is reduced.
Many challenges for achieving the climate neutrality will be in the energy sector in the next years. Considerable financial aid provided by the European Union will be available for power generation from renewable resources, improvement of energy efficiency, clean (i.e. low and zero emission) vehicles, as well as energy storage and transmission.
Although the climate change is an issue presenting concern for many and also relates to Latvia, until now a small part of the society has got involved in particular actions.
Within the scope of Vidzeme Innovation Week 2022 we will look at one of the possible actions or opportunities for households, in particular, the concept of the renewable energy community.
Within the scope of the event, we will try to find answers to questions which are not clear yet thinking about energy communities.
How production technologies using renewable energy resources can be introduced successfully?
How can it be achieved that the local community supports more extensive use of renewable energy resources?
How can residents be involved in the production of renewable energy?
How can cooperation between residents, the local government and local entrepreneurs be promoted?
What benefits can it provide to the stakeholders of the local community?
Although renewable energy communities as a concept is new to the society, the first pilot projects of renewable energy communities have been implemented in Latvia and there are many best practice examples in Europe worth learning about and examining in more detail.
Being aware that energy communities able to share produced energy can serve as an efficient tool or solution for co-living in the current challenging circumstances when the increase of energy prices causes new risks of energy poverty.
What is Smart Living?
The workshop is organised within the scope of Interreg Estonian-Latvian cross-border cooperation project “Practical solutions for smart use of energy resources” (Smart Living). The project is aimed at promoting the public awareness of the environmentally friendly way of living and considerate use of energy resources in Latvia and Estonia by combining the know-how of both countries and competence of partner organisations. The project is implemented by the Cluster of Green and Smart Technologies in Latvia and by Tartu Regional Energy Agency in Estonia. The above referred information in this publication presents the author’s view and the lead authority of the Estonian-Latvian program is not responsible for the possible use of information contained therein.
