FINAL REPORT ON WEBINARS - BioVillbiovill.eu/wp-project/uploads/2016/09/BioVill_D7.2... · BioVill – D7.2 Final report on webinars 8 3. Seminars held in BioVill partner countries

FINAL REPORT ON WEBINARS

© SDWES-Skopje Project Title: Bioenergy Villages (BioVill) - Increasing the Market Uptake of Sustainable Bioenergy Grant Agreement N° 691661

Deliverable N° 7.2 Final report on webinars

Lead Partner: GIZ

Submission date: August 2018

BioVill – D7.2 Final report on webinars

3

This project has received funding from the European Union’s Horizon 2020 research and innovation programme

under Grant Agreement N° 691661

Imprint

This document is issued by the consortium formed for the implementation of the BioVill project under Grant Agreement N° 691661 by the following partners: GIZ - Deutsche Gesellschaft für Internationale Zusammenarbeit GmbH (Germany) WIP – Wirtschaft und Infrastruktur GmbH & Co Planungs- KG (Germany) KEA - Klimaschutz- und Energieagentur Baden-Württemberg (Germany) AEA – Österreichische Energieagentur Austrian Energy Agency (Austria) REGEA – Regionalna Energetska Agencija Sjeverozapadne Hrvatske (Croatia) SDEWES-Skopje – International Centre for Sustainable Development of Energy, Water and Environment Systems - Macedonian Section (Macedonia) GEA – Asociatia Green Energy (Romania) GIS – Gozdarski Institut Slovenije (Slovenia) SKGO – Stalna Konferencija Gradova i Opstina (Serbia) Lead Partner for the compilation of this document: GIZ - Deutsche Gesellschaft für Internationale Zusammenarbeit GmbH (Germany)

Contact: Deutsche Gesellschaft für Internationale Zusammenarbeit GmbH (Germany) State Office Saxony

Reichpietschufer 20 10785 Berlin

Mr. Jens Adler Tel: +49 3072614 460 Fax: +49 151 63390461 E-mail: [email protected] Authors of this report: Jens Adler and Jana Mastaller (GIZ) Copyrights: © 2018 by authors. No part of this work may be reproduced by print, photocopy or any other means without the permission in written from the main authors. Disclaimer: Neither GIZ nor any other consortium member nor the authors will accept any liability at any time for any kind of damage or loss that might occur to anybody from referring to this document. In addition, neither the European Commission nor the Agencies (or any person acting on their behalf) can be held responsible for the use made of the information provided in this document. Further information about the BioVill project on: www.biovill.eu

http://www.biovill.eu/


3

Content

List of Figures .............................................................................................................................................................. 4

List of Tables ............................................................................................................................................................... 5

Abbreviations and acronyms ....................................................................................................................................... 6

1. Introduction ........................................................................................................................................................ 7

1.1 The BioVill project .................................................................................................................................................. 7

1.2 Scope of the task/deliverable ................................................................................................................................ 7

3. Seminars held in BioVill partner countries ............................................................................................................... 8

3.1 Croatia ..................................................................................................................................................................... 8

3.1.1 Objective and content ...................................................................................................................................... 8

3.1.2 Target group and participants ........................................................................................................................ 10

3.1.3 Results and evaluation .................................................................................................................................... 10

3.1.1 Objective and content .................................................................................................................................... 12



3.2 Macedonia ............................................................................................................................................................ 16




3.3 Romania ................................................................................................................................................................ 19




3.4 Serbia .................................................................................................................................................................... 22




3.5 Slovenia ................................................................................................................................................................. 25




4. Conclusions ........................................................................................................................................................... 27

Annex ........................................................................................................................................................................ 28


4

List of Figures

Figure 1: First seminar, 24th July 2018, Krapina-Zagorje County (Source: REGEA) ....................................................... 10

Figure 2: Second seminar, 17th August 2018, Perušić (Source: REGEA) ........................................................................ 14

Figure 3: Participants of the seminar in Simanovci (Source: SKGO) .............................................................................. 23


5

List of Tables

Table 1: Agenda of the first seminar in the Krapina-Zagorje County .............................................................................. 8

Table 2: Agenda of the second seminar in the municipality of Perušić ......................................................................... 12

Table 3: Agenda of the seminar in the municipality of Kichevo ..................................................................................... 16

Table 4: Agenda of the seminar in Sanzieni .................................................................................................................... 19

Table 5: Agenda of the seminar in Simanovci ................................................................................................................. 22


6

Abbreviations and acronyms

e.g. exempli gratia(lt.); for example GIZ Deutsche Gesellschaft für Internationale Zusammenarbeit (GIZ) GmbH i.e. id est (lt.; it is kW Kilowatt Mwh Megawatthours NGO Non-governmental organization


7

1. Introduction

1.1 The BioVill project

BioVill is a three years project supported by the European Union's Horizon 2020 research and innovation programme with a budget of around 1.99 Mio EUR. The project started in March 2016 and is implemented by the Deutsche Gesellschaft für Internationale Zusammenarbeit (GIZ) GmbH in collaboration with 8 partners from the BioVill target partner countries Croatia, Macedonia, Romania, Serbia and Slovenia, as well as from Germany and Austria. Many South East European countries have high biomass potentials, but they are often not or only inefficiently used for local energy supply and regional economic development. Thus, the overall objective of the BioVill project is to support the development of regional bioenergy concepts and the establishment of bioenergy villages in Croatia, Macedonia, Romania, Serbia and Slovenia. This will be achieved by identifying suitable biomass value chains according to local and regional needs and transferring existing experiences in Austria, Germany and other European countries to the South-Eastern European partners. Thereby the market uptake of domestic bioenergy supply chains will be increased and the role of locally produced biomass as a main source of energy supply and added value for the local and regional economy will be strengthened. Core activities of the BioVill project include national and local framework analyses, technological and economic assessments of local bioenergy value chains, development of the institutional set-up and energy management concepts for the potential Bioenergy villages as well as capacity building on financing schemes and business models. As a key factor of success, the BioVill project uses a multi stakeholder approach fostering the involvement and active participation of the citizens and all relevant stakeholders in the planning and implementation process. Major results of the BioVill project will be the initiation of at least five bioenergy villages in the target partner countries up to the investment stage for physical infrastructure, the raise of public acceptance and awareness of a sustainable bioenergy production and its commercial opportunities as well as increased capacities of users and key actors in business and legislation to sustainably manage bioenergy villages and to enact national and EU legislation. Altogether the BioVill project will contribute to the expansion and sustainability of the bioenergy markets in Europe and the European Union.

1.2 Scope of the task/deliverable

The task foresees the development of project webinars, which inform about the implementation of bioenergy villages in the target countries to the target group of current and potential follower villages. The objective of this task is the dissemination of the project idea of setting up a bioenergy village by mobilizing the relevant stakeholders and decision makers in follower villages, the presentation of best practice examples of successfully implemented bioenergy villages, e.g. in Austria and Germany, and to give an insight into the existing procedures of the BioVill target villages in the partner countries. The participants should receive the information on the start-up steps towards a bioenergy village and its extension, the individual business models and feasible financing models. The objective was further to show how to prioritize and assess potential bioenergy village sites in Croatia, Serbia, Slovenia, Romania and Macedonia, and how to implement quality assurance for wood chips, pellets, briquettes and biogas by presenting practical examples and solutions. It is aimed at providing an information network for the follower community and to transfer the knowledge and experience the BioVill partner villages have gained so far. Each project partner ought to set up a 60-90 minutes webinar, which presents the general start-up of bioenergy villages as well as the national bioenergy village concept and possible business models. However, it was agreed by the consortium that the technical feasibility differs significantly between the target countries and a continuously high quality of the technical set-ups could not be guaranteed. Thus, the webinars were altered to an interactive seminar with attending participants, which could be included in citizen information events as an extra information day. The project partners held at least one seminar. Regarding the structure and content, the seminars were designed similar to the BioVill standard presentation with individual country chapters highlighting the concepts implemented in the respective target village as best-practice examples for potential follower villages. GIZ provided a template of a general presentation including the BioVill animation video, which was translated and could be adapted by the partners with national chapters.


8

3. Seminars held in BioVill partner countries

3.1 Croatia

3.1.1 Objective and content

The first seminar in Croatia was held in the premises of Krapina-Zagorje County, on 24th July 2018. Krapina-Zagorje was chosen for the seminar since REGEA has good long-standing cooperation with the county and also made prefeasibility studies for district heating systems in 6 towns and municipalities from Krapina-Zagorje County. Stakeholders and citizens from 6 municipalities (Donja Stubica, Bedekovčina, Klanjec, Stubičke Toplice, Jesenje, Radoboj) are interested in the development of their own regional district heating network. Krapina-Zagorje County is one of the founders of REGEA and is highly active in the field of renewable energy and energy efficiency. It is the first county that started with the supporting schemes for small scale renewable energy applications in households. It also started the program of replacement of oil boilers with biomass boilers in schools. The county continuously monitors the consumption of energy and water for all of it’s public buildings. With more than 40% of the county surface covered by forests, Krapina-Zagorje County is one of the richest counties with natural resources for implementing bioenergy projects. Furthermore, approximately 55% of the county inhabitants use wood as their only or primary energy source for heating but with old and unefficient technology. The meeting’s objective was to present stakeholders and potential follower villages, activities and goals of the BioVill project, explain which steps lead to the establishment of a bioenergy village and to discuss about perspectives of the set-up of a biomass-based CHP plant and a small district heating network in the Croatian target villages Lekenik and Perušić. Special emphasis has been put on examples of good practice of successfully implemented projects from Croatia and Europe that are closely related to the exploitation of biomass. The agenda of the event is given below.

Table 1: Agenda of the first seminar in the Krapina-Zagorje County

Time Programme

09:00 – 09:15 09:15 – 09:30 09:30 – 10:30 10:30 – 11:30

Welcoming speeches Mr. Željko Kolar, Prefect of Krapina -Zagorje County - Ms. Martina Krizmanić, REGEA Short oral introduction of the preliminary prefeasibility studies for district heating systems in 6 towns and municipalities in Krapina-Zagorje County - Mr. Željko Kolar, Prefect of Krapina -Zagorje County The BioVill project and the concept of bioenergy villages - Ms. Martina Krizmanić, REGEA Discussion

The presentation used for the seminar can be found in the annex.

The main objective of the seminar was to increase the trust of the follower villages’ decision makers in bioenergy

projects through the seminar which steps lead to a bioenergy village as well as to create a better understanding

for bioenergy village concepts.

The general discussions were very fruitful, with participants sharing their experiences and ideas for the future development of regional biomass supply chains in the Krapina-Zagorje County. Participants also pointed out the still underdeveloped biomass market, which is a main risk regarding the bioenergy projects. The representative of the regional authority additionally stressed the importance of a sufficiently informed and sensitized public, while other stakeholders highlighted the funding of bioenergy projects and investments as a potential risk. Another question raised during the seminar was: How to secure and provide financing of project documentation and biomass-based heating plant in the county. The lack of equipment (i.e. chippers and trailers) is perceived as a main obstacle amongst investors and consumers, while representatives of local, regional and national authorities consider also administrative challenges, and most importantly ownership structure and limitations regarding the amount of


9

resources as bottlenecks. All stakeholders see the public opinion on the use of biomass very positive given that many public buildings and households especially in rural areas use biomass (firewood and pellets mostly) but the investment in boilers is costly. There is also a well-recognized potential for the increase of production of forest biomass, specifically woodchips. Nevertheless, although the general opinion is positive because of the rising trends in the energy sector and recent developments in environment protection, some stakeholders stressed that the public should be further sensitized about this topic, especially addressing environmental concerns when it comes to the use of forests. Another key issue is also the traditional use of woody biomass for energy purposes, i.e. burning in stoves, which are not energy efficient.

Additionally, the BioVill animated film was screened during the seminar and copies of the brochure Concept of

bioenergy village (D6.1) were disseminated during the seminar.

Finally, all stakeholders from the county concluded increased utilization of biomass and bioenergy as a key aspect

to local and regional development, which also leads to numerus positive impacts such as increased local economy

and new employment, increased environment protection at local level and others. BioVill project is fully in line with

the overall policy and strategic documents of Krapina-Zagorje County and thus they are very interested in

cooperation and knowledge exchange with the Croatian target municipalities of this project, Lekenik and Perusic.


10

3.1.2 Target group and participants

The seminar was attended by the 22 participants, among others the county prefect and employees of the county as well as representatives of the council from 2 potential follower villages – Bedekovčina and Donja Stubica. This seminar was specifically targeting regional and local stakeholders which are actively involved in the development of a local biomass market in the county and they can influence and increase the utilization of bioenergy, with aim of stimulating local economic growth, local energy supply and environmental protection.

Figure 1: First seminar, 24th July 2018, Krapina-Zagorje County (Source: REGEA)

3.1.3 Results and evaluation

REGEA developed a short questionnaire to collect the anonymous participants’ feedback on the implemented seminar, distributed it to the participants and collected it at the end of seminar. All participants of the seminar completed the questionnaire, thus, the response rate was 100 %. The results of the evaluation were very good. The majority of participants declared that they were very satisfied with the seminar programme, presentations and information that they received. In general, the seminar was evaluated with the maximum of 5 points. In addition, 100% of the participants confirmed the successful achievement of the seminar objective and resumed that they gained a better understanding of the basic concept of bioenergy villages.

The seminar was very well received among the participants who have provided positive feedback to the speakers

after the seminar that can be summarized as follows:

- participants expressed interest in more information about project BioVill and its deliverables;

- participants proposed cooperation with REGEA on the set-up of bioenergy villages;


11

- participants confirmed that they have learned something new and they will communicate the topic on

bioenergy villages with other stakeholders in their communities.

Finally, it can be concluded, that REGEA consider role of Krapina-Zagorje County and its staff purely advisory and

consulting one, willing to support the dissemination of the project, and the National BioVill partner will help in

advising the Krapina-Zagorje County with its strategic decisions regarding the sustainable energy plans.


12


The second seminar was held on the 17th August 2018 outside of the Perušić municipality building. The village Perušić was chosen for the seminar since municipality have a good-standing cooperation with city of Gospić and with surrounding municipalities, which are potential follower villages. The main goal was to present to the surrounding municipalities (Brinje, Karlobag, Lovinac) and to the town Gospić up-to-date knowledge about the bioenergy village approach, best practice examples for existing bioenergy villages throughout Europe and experiences gained during the ongoing development process in the Croatian target villages Perušić and Lekenik. Most of the participants already heard about BioVill project from previous events and they expressed their interest in receiving more detailed information about sustainable bioenergy concepts and utilization of local resources. With the presentations and discussions during the seminar, the cooperation among the municipalities of the Lika-Senj county on the topic of bioenergy and the setting-up of bioenergy villages should be strengthened and public acceptance of renewable energy projects should be increased. The agenda of the seminar is provided below.

Table 2: Agenda of the second seminar in the municipality of Perušić

Time Programme

17:00 – 17:10 17:10 – 17:30 17:30 – 18:30 18:30 – 19:30

Welcoming speeches - Mr. Mihael Kurteš, Deputy Mayor of Perušić municipality Short oral introduction of the biomass potential in Perušić and in neighboring settlements – Why is Perušić involved in BioVill project? - Mr. Mihael Kurteš, Deputy Mayor of Perušić municipality The BioVill project and the concept of bioenergy villages - Ms. Martina Krizmanić, REGEA Discussion

The presentation used for the seminar is attached to the annex.

At the beginning of the BioVill seminar, the deputy mayor of Perušić introduced the main reasons why is Perušić involved in the BioVill project, which was followed by a more detailed description of the bioenergy village concept being implemented in Perušić. First, the representative of REGEA presented the most recent activities of the BioVill project and the main results achieved so far. Further, future steps were discussed in more detail in order to clarify the final outcome at the end of the project and its influence on the village Perušić and Lekenik. After this, an overview of the BioVill economic calculation tool was given. In the following discussion, it was agreed that REGEA will provide support for preparing techno-economic analysis for the renewable district heating system implementation in the surrounding villages, where there are already certain initiatives for such a project. Then, the financial and practical aspects of the project and plans to build a district heating network in village Perušić and Lekenik were presented. A representative of the municipality Perušić in charge of public tenders explained what documentation has to be prepared if the municipality wants to make public tender to seek for a private investor. There was also a discussion about all of the potential types of public private companies, which could be used in case of a district heating system in Lekenik and Perušić. The discussion was very alive while discussing best practices, especially the concept of cooperative district heating

projects. Especially important in planning of such a district heating plant are public / private relationship and the

involvement of residents who are potential consumers.

All participants presented high interest in a fuel switch from fossil fuels to biomass. In most of the locations, the preferred biomass source is wood products (chips, pellets, firewood, wood gas). Furthermore, the use of cohesion funds to finance these ideas was discussed. The participants highlighted the obstacle that currently no financing options exists for such a fuel switch and the possibility is depending on the political decisions at the government level. The attitude of the stakeholders from neighboring municipalities and citizens was very supportive and they have shown interest and willingness to support the establishment of bioenergy villages in their own villages. From


13

the discussion during the seminar, participants concluded, the more people are aware of the benefits, the higher are the chances to succeed in the realization of the planned biomass district heating system, and in the increased uptake of efficient biomass in-house heating systems for households. The local authorities from Perušić and Lekenik actively participated and exchanged ideas among each other, especially on topics regarding the financing of biomass district heating systems in Croatia. The participants also received the brochures Concepts of bioenergy villages in Lekenik and Perušić prepared by the BioVill project. The participants stressed the urgent need to valorize bioenergy villages in their communities (municipalities, cities) and they are highly interested in the cooperation and exchange of experiences with other target cities and municipalities within the BioVill project.


14


50 participants attended the seminar. Present were the Deputy mayors of Perušić and Lekenik and the members of local bioenergy working groups of both villages. Among others, representatives from the private and public sector from the target villages Perušić and Lekenik, stakeholders and citizens from other municipalities of the Lika-Senj county, e.g. city of Gospić, municipalities of Brinje, Karlobag and Lovinac participated at the seminar. Photos from the seminar are given below.

Figure 2: Second seminar, 17th August 2018, Perušić (Source: REGEA)


15


During the seminar, feedback questionnaires (anonymous) have been distributed and participants were asked to fill in and return them. From 50 participants in total, 35 fully filled questionnaires were received (response rate 70%). With the evaluation forms the participants could evaluate the program of seminar, the presenters and give their opinion regarding bioenergy villages in Croatia. To keep the time short for the completion of the questionnaire predefined questions and answers were used. In addition, for most of the questions and especially for the participants’ recommendations open space for additional answers was given.

It can be concluded that the majority of participants understood the basis concept of the bioenergy villages. Asked about concrete ideas of how to apply what they have learnt, all the respondents answered affirmatively, which means, they have concrete ideas for the future on the implementation of bioenergy project in their municipalities. Thus, it can be assumed that the objectives of the seminar were achieved, and the seminar might have a substantial impact on the further promotion of bioenergy villages in the region and beyond.

Most of the participants also expressed that they will communicate the topic of bioenergy villages with other

stakeholders. Asked about recommendations for future workshops, the majority of participants declared that they

would like to receive even more practical examples of business models how to implement and establish a bioenergy

village. Furthermore, it would be very helpful to have more seminars presenting projects already implemented in

Croatia. The atmosphere among the participants was excellent and the program of the seminar, the presentations

and the information provided in the seminar received the maximum rating.

The seminar in Perušić on the BioVill project and the concept of bioenergy villages can be summarized as successful and as an important step towards operationalization of the bioenergy village concept in Croatia. Presentations were elaborated and well distributed. The insight that participants got about the actual situation of the district heating system was also very important. Participation of major stakeholders also shows their support to the bioenergy village concept. In general, the participants’ evaluation provided a positive feedback that can be summarized as follows:

- Visitors learned something new about bioenergy concepts;

- The event and the brochure were very useful;

- The participants proposed intensified cooperation among the municipalities and villages on the set-up of

bioenergy villages;

- The participants expressed that they have received new information and they will communicate the topic

on bioenergy villages with other stakeholders in their communities.


16

3.2 Macedonia


The seminar in Macedonia was held on 11th May 2018 at the City Museum in the BioVill’s and Kichevo’s follower community, the municipality of Kriva Palanka. It was aimed at i) introducing the bioenergy village approach and presenting the BioVill project’s results to the local community, ii) exchanging knowledge and experiences gained from the BioVill project, iii) familiarizing with the local conditions and discussing future inclusion of the municipality in follow-up projects, iv) fostering a replication of Kichevo’s bioenergy village concept and creating an enabling environment among the local stakeholders, v) offering assistance with developing a concept for implementation of the bioenergy village approach in the local community. The seminar’s agenda is displayed below.

Table 3: Agenda of the seminar in the municipality of Kichevo

Time Programme

11:00 - 11:05 Welcome address - Natasha Markovska (SDEWES-Skopje)

11:05 - 11:10 Presentation of BioVill project’s animation video 11:10 - 11:50 Introduction to the BioVill project: Key facts and activities, key characteristics of the

bioenergy villages and best practice examples - Vasil Bozhikaliev (SDEWES-Skopje)

11:50 - 12:00 Coffee break 12:00 - 12:40 Implementation of the bioenergy village approach: Guiding steps, main achievements in

BioVill’s target villages and current situation in the Macedonian target community Kichevo - Vasil Bozhikaliev (SDEWES-Skopje)

12:40 - 13:00 Interactive discussion: Opportunities for replication of Kichevo’s concept in the municipality

of Kriva Palanka - Ljupcho Dimov (SDEWES-Skopje)

The seminars’ presenters and experts were members of BioVill’s project partner SDEWES-Skopje. The moderator of the interactive discussion, Ljupcho Dimov, is also a head of the unit for energy efficiency within the municipality of Karposh and president of the Energy Efficiency Network within the Association of the Units of Local Self-Government (ZELS) as well as an experienced technician in the field of heating systems based on renewables. The two-hour seminar was dived into 3 presentations (1 video and 2 oral presentations) and ended with a discussion. The two oral presentations from the seminar are compiled into one document given in the annex. Initially, the municipality of Kriva Palanka expressed its interest and applied to the open call for becoming the Macedonian target village through the Energy Efficiency Network, together with 7 other municipalities. At the time of evaluation of the submitted applications, 4 municipalites (Chashka, Delchevo, Kichevo and Kriva Palanka) were shortlisted and only one (Kichevo) was selected as a target community, while the rest as follower communities. Representatives of the target and follower communities have jointly participated in the training course on bioenergy projects for the financial sector carried out on 31st May 2017 in ZELS, Skopje. SDEWES-Skopje decided to further include the follower communities into the project activities by organizing the seminar in Kriva Palanka (Task 7.2) and similar upcoming events in Chashka and Delchevo (Task 6.4). These activities shall increase the impact of the BioVill project and contribute to a successful multiplication of the project objectives in Macedonia.


17


The target group of the seminar was the municipality of Kriva Palanka as a follower community as well as the local stakeholders and decision makers. Representatives of the unit of local self-government (municipality of Kriva Palanka) led by the mayor, the educational institutions (kindergarten, elementary and high school), the public utility for communal affairs, the Civil Centre for Sustainable Development – EGRI, the Mountaineering Sport Club “Ruen”, the Macedonian Information Agency and SDEWES-Skopje attended the seminar. The target group was fully met and information about best practice examples, steps to establish a bioenergy village and about the national pilot bioenergy village have been transferred. A list totaling 27 participants is presented in the annex.


Within the interactive discussion, the mayor and the municipality’s senior associate for energy efficiency and public lighting who is also a project manager in charge of applying for EU funds and implementing EU projects, expressed their gratitude to the BioVill project and SDEWES-Skopje for the seminar and the transferred knowledge and experiences, and shortly presented the current situation in the municipality of Kriva Palanka. A particular emphasis was placed on the utilization of renewable energy sources and application of energy efficiency measures. The mayor highlighted that the sustainable development is of a high priority for the local community referring to the municipality’s strategic documents, i.e. the Energy Efficiency Strategy and the Strategy for Local Economic Development. The latter, in a clause for protection of environment, prescribes a separate strategic objective 6 - Creating conditions for renewable energy sources. Furthermore, it was underlined that the forests in Kriva Palanka and the nearby region covering an area of 19,044 ha (51% state-owned and 49% privately-owned) have a great biomass potential. Firewood is the basic heating source in the local community, while the forest residues, despite being ample, have not been used for heating purposes yet. However, there is an urge of applying a more integrated and organized approach, such as the bioenergy village approach recommended by the BioVill project. The municipality is currently using the EU funds available through the Instrument for Pre-Accession Assistance (IPA) and collaborates with the neighboring Republic of Bulgaria in many cross-border projects. Technical and project documentation of numerous projects that support renewable energy sources and energy efficiency measures has been already prepared by the municipality. In fact, 8 small hydro power plants1, some of which were built upon a public-private partnership between the municipality and a private company, are already part of the renewable energy mix in the county. Several questions raised by the participants about the prospective value chain in Kichevo, the production and supply of woodchips, the production and distribution of heat, the individual business model, the contracts and agreements, the role of the municipality etc., enriched the discussion. Mr. Dimov of the municipality of Karposh answered the questions by explaining the Kichevo’s concept and the process of realization and operation of a woodchip-fueled district heating system in detail. As an involved expert, he also illustrated an example of a small woodchip-fueled individual heating system in a primary school situated in the municipality of Karposh in Skopje. Suitable model for the example in Karposh was found in a mutual agreement between the municipality and the Local Public Enterprise "Parks and Greenery" for providing waste biomass from city parks and greenery directly to the schoolyard (where the woodchips are produced and combusted), instead of transporting it to the city landfill "Drisla". The participants were satisfied with the answers and reacted positively to the elaborated examples. Many of them suggested to begin such project in Kriva Palanka with the public buildings as in Kichevo’s and Karposh’s case, in order to create a convincing pathway for the private owners and households. The municipality’s project manager already has an idea of connecting several public buildings into one district heating system, although as pointed out by Mr. Dimov, conducting an energy audit and calculating the heat demand of the buildings would be the first step to achieve. Thus, it was advised to follow the demonstrated examples, especially the further roll out of Kichevo’s concept, and ask for expert assistance to develop a future tailor-made concept in Kriva Palanka. Taking into consideration the template provided by the GIZ, SDEWES-Skopje composed an evaluation inquiry, so as to anonymously examine and measure the opinion of the participants and collect their personal feedback. It contains 5 questions, whereof 4 to be graded on a 1 to 5 scale and the fifth question left for additional comments and suggestions. The questions are as follows: 1) How satisfied were you with the event 2) How much have you learned 3) How much can you use the newly gained knowledge 4) How much can you forward the knowledge to your colleagues and citizens 5) What comments and suggestions have you got to improve such events. The inquiry in

1 http://www.ea.gov.mk/index.php?option=com_content&view=article&id=679&Itemid=124&lang=mk (Last accessed: 9.8.2018)

http://www.ea.gov.mk/index.php?option=com_content&view=article&id=679&Itemid=124&lang=mk


18

Macedonian language is provided in the annex. Summing up the results of the inquiry, the response rate went up to 63%, while respondents gave an average grade of 4.5, 4.3, 3.8, and 4.1 to the questions 1-4 respectively, which implies a seminar’s total average grade of 4.2. In the comment section (5th question) the respondents suggested: larger campaigns in public institutions, increased education of the citizens, involvement of experts, additional topics, presentations, events and workshops. A last comment describes the idea of the project as a very positive novelty for the region and its forests. After the participants received the presentation material via email, a teacher in technical education responded that she will use the provided material in several method units related to the topics “Using alternative – natural resources” and “Recycling of materials”, taught by her in a local elementary school. She would also like to see the onsite realization of the project in Kichevo. This seminar was covered by the local and national media.234

2 https://www.mia.mk/mk/Inside/RenderSingleNews/380/134261591 (Last accessed: 9.8.2018) 3 https://a1on.mk/archives/892870 (Last accessed: 9.8.2018) 4 https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=P27NVn4HN40 (Last accessed: 9.8.2018)

https://www.mia.mk/mk/Inside/RenderSingleNews/380/134261591

https://a1on.mk/archives/892870

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=P27NVn4HN40


19

3.3 Romania


The BioVill seminar has been organized in Covasna County for members of local authorities, young entrepreneurs, members of local councils and NGOs from Biovill follower villages. On the list of Biovill follower villages is the municipality of Sandominic where all public institutions are heated by natural gas so far and according to the mayor, is time to switch to biomass. At the Biovill seminar, a member of local NGO represented the village. Locodeni is another follower village where the buildings of Lia Fondation and Friedrich Wolter Fondation are heated by local woodchips while a micro biomass based district heating system is constructed for further 4 households with 300 m pipelines. At the Biovill seminar, the director of the Lia Fondation represented the village. The next follower village is Belin, where biomass boilers are already installed at local school and kindergarten, while the fuel is produced locally. At the Biovill seminar, the mayor of Belin and a few members of the local council were present. From Moeciu, Întorusra Buzăului, Fundata, Cernat, Bretcu, members of local council were also participating. The local stakeholders who had expressed the interest to learn more about the Biovill concept were invited on this event. The seminar was held on 26th July in Sanzieni, Covasna County, and it took place at the Center of Sanzieni’s Community. The event was organized jointly in collaboration with the Angustia Leader Office from Felső-Háromszék, which is part of Covasna County. From the micro-region, more than 20 stakeholders came to the Biovill Seminar, mostly young people interested in new business opportunities in rural area, and decision makers of the local authorities. At the seminar, the participants received detailed information on the BioVill concept. The core objective of Biovill seminar was to disseminate the Biovill concept and importance of the development of local energy supply systems, biomass value chain and the market uptake of sustainable and local bioenergy to the community of interested follower villages and their respective stakeholders and decision makers. Several best practice examples were presented from Austria and Germany, and practical experience gained from the Biovill Study Tours. In Sanzieni, predominantly young stakeholders from Biovill follower villages were invited, who are ambitious and open for innovative approaches. The achievements in the Biovill target villages were presented. By Green Energy Association, the involvement of local young decision makers was considered as key factor for a new generation energy supply. The agenda of the seminar consisted of two parts; the first part was allocated for the presentation of the Biovill approach and the main objectives of the project. The second part of the seminar was dedicated for the presentation of best practices, technical solutions, biomass boilers, bioenergy technology, feeding techniques, supply chain, etc. which were presented by the experts from GEA, Escorom Ltd., and Erpek Ltd., a producer of Biosistem boilers. The webinar presentation made by GIZ was also presented at the event (see annex).

Table 4: Agenda of the seminar in Sanzieni

Time Programme

10:30-11:00 Welcome, Registration

11:00-11:15 Presentation of the BioVill Project, and the webinar material about the two selected target villages - Tihamér Sebestyén, researcher at GEA

11:15-11:30 Biomass utilization for energy supply on local level - József Cseh, Mayor, Ghelinta Municipality

11:30-12:00 Developement and management of biomass supply chain - Boglárka Vajda, manager at GEA

Coffee Break

12:10-12:40 Technical solutions for biomass based heating system in Estelnic and Ghelinta - Dan Pogangeanu, Escorom Ltd.

12:40-13:30 Utilization of biomass boilers, experiences - Sándor Bartha, Erpek Ltd

13.30-14.30 Open discussion


20

The Biovill presentation was presented on national language by experts engaged in the Biovill project and domestic experts from Bucharest and Covasna County.


The seminar was attended by more than 25 participants from 7 different rural municipalities such as Estelnic, Ghelinta, Surcea, Cernat, Targu Secuiesc, Lemnia, Zabala and from Sfantu Gheorghe town. The seminar was also attended by representatives of the Escorom Ltd. from Bucharest and Erpek Ltd. from Bodoc, and further, the mayors and village managers also participated from the BioVill target villages. The Green Energy Association was focusing to invite as much young people possible as well as most relevant stakeholders from Biovill follower villages and from local authorities that can influence positively the implementation of the concept and initiate the implementation of the BioVill concept in different local communities. The list of participants can be found in the annex.


The participants were interested and very active in the discussions while a number of questions raised among the attendees. At the event, participants familiarized with the most important steps of setting-up a bioenergy village, including potential institutional and business models that ensure the realization of the bioenergy project and energy self-sufficiency concept under the Romanian local conditions. There were identified several barriers that could hamper the implementation of bioenergy projects and the establishment of energy self-sufficient communities in Romania. The questions raised at the BioVill seminar mainly included technical aspects, such as how to ensure the automatic feeding of biomass, costs of the installation and service and whether such a project can be realize in Romania without governmental support or not. Other points of discussion were the perspectives for biomass fuel production and the details of the local framework analysis regarding the availability of biomass potential in the region of the follower villages. This was discussed with the background that the price of the woodchips increased in last few years, therefore the cost of heating with biomass is now even more expensive in Romania than with natural gas. Another aspect of the bioenergy village approach was discussed, namely how the local inhabitants can be convinced to connect to the future biomass based district heating system. In addition, most of the participants asked for more information about wood chipping process and the advantages of biomass based heating systems. Since the heating price is one of the most important aspects for citizens to connect to a district heating network, it was explained, that on the one hand the heating price depends on the number of heat consumers, the more consumers the better. On the other hand, if the municipality can produce biomass fuel from cleaning of mountain pastures and forest management, the price for biomass and thus also for the heating energy could be influenced by the local authorities. The mayor from Ghelinta mentioned that municipality of Ghelinta has already won a small project for the procurement of a tractor, a trailer and a woodchipper. Mr. Lajos Vajda highlighted that since this is an interdisciplinary approach, the bioenergy projects will also help to solve other local issues such as environmental and social inclusion by creating new jobs. These aspects have to be taken in consideration as well. The mayors of the BioVill target villages explained, that they already started to find a solution how they can get financial support for the implementation of the bioenergy village concept. The mayors are open to establish a public company for heating service. Since at the moment there is no suitable financial support program for realization of biomass based district heating systems, the most realistic solution in small villages is to start the installation of individual biomass heating systems at the public building and businesses first. In the same time, the number of people who are willing to connect to a biomass based heating service is very low yet, therefore further dissemination and information sharing is needed in the local society. According to the feedback given by participants, the BioVill seminar was efficient and successful and the participants were satisfied with the content and the expertise they received. However, next time such seminar has to be organized in a more workshop style in order to be more interactive and less lecture likely. For a large number of participants the bioenergy concept was new, thus, know how transfer was realized by the seminar especially for the stakeholders from local authorities. The Green Energy Association together with the BioVill target villages and the Angustia Leader Office will continue the dissemination and information sharing of the biomass utilization in rural areas. GEA agreed with the participants from different follow-up villages that further dissemination and information sharing is needed, thus another meeting is scheduled to 7th September 2018 for the BioVill National Conference.


21

Newsletters information sharing on the bioenergy village concept will continue in the municipalities of Bretcu, Intorsura Buzaului, Belin, Bran and Sandominic.


22

3.4 Serbia

3.4.1 Objective and content The one day seminar for the representatives from local self-governments in Srem District (in Vojvodina Autonomous Province) on bio-energy villages and use of bio-mass for production of heat for domestic use was organized within the BioVill project on July 6th 2018. The seminar took place in the premises of Center for promotion, development and use of renewable energy in settlement of Simanovci, in the municipality of Pecinci. The event was organized in collaboration with the Regional Development Agency of Srem District for the members of their task force for energy efficiency and renewable energy sources. The objective of the seminar was to familiarize participants with possibilities and advantages of bioenergy village concept but also local barriers that could prevent realization of such a project in Serbian circumstances. The Srem District was chosen for the seminar since SCTM have good long-standing cooperation with the Regional Development Agency and have already implemented biomass related projects with the municipalities in the region in the past. Also, the Regional Development Agency Srem was involved in the very beginning of the BioVill project in phase when a target village was selected.

Table 5: Agenda of the seminar in Simanovci

Time Programme

12:00-12:30 The BioVill project and the of bioenergy villages concept - Miodrag Gluščević, SKGO

12:30-13:00 Techno-economic analysis for the establishment of a bioenergy village Example of a fuel switch in the district heating plant in Kostojevići - Prof. Dr. Dejan Ivezić, consultant for the BioVill project

13:00-13:30 Business models for bioenergy villages Example of the bioenergy village Kostojevići - Slobodan Jerotic, consultant for the BioVill project

13:30-14:30 Questions and discussion

The seminar was aiming to bring the topic of initiating bio-energy villages in the context and conditions of Southeast Europe through the example of Kostojevci village in Serbia. The seminar shed light on the process of the techno-economic analysis of a substitute energy source in the heating plant using tool provided by the BioVill consortium colleagues from the Austrian Energy Agency. The event further presented the concept of financing and management of the district heating system operated in the bio-energy village. In terms of financial options, three possibilities were presented: grants, credits or private financing. Regarding the management which implies the construction (reconstruction) of heat source, heating network, thermal substations, system operation, maintenance of system and internal user installations, and system improvement several options were discussed: the system managed by the Public Utility Company, the system run by an energy cooperative and an engagement of the ESCO company. The presentations were delivered by the project manager from the SCTM and two bioenergy experts engaged in the BioVill project from its very beginning. The main messages from the presentations were:

- Without increasing consumption, any investment in a biomass-based system is absolutely unsustainable - In Serbia there is no biomass market - before companies make an investment decision, the biomass supply

chain must be clearly defined, and the price of the cutter must be specified in case of Kostojevići biomass can be delivered from the National Park Tara, from domestic forest owners or combined

- The price of biomass should be defined in the long-term supply contract between the district heating owners and biomass suppliers

- For the acceptability of the bioenergy project, it would be useful for a district heating operator to be obliged to purchase a part of the biomass from local forest owners or at least from the district heating user


23

- Even a small percentage of investment subsidies should significantly reduce the return period and significantly improve the overall profitability of the project

- The lack of government subsidies for investing in a biomass production project (and other renewable energy sources) for the production of heat represents a significant obstacle to this type of project.

The presentations used during the seminar are in the annex.

3.4.2 Target group and participants Seminar was attended by 22 participants (including presenters) from 8 local self-governments, 7 from Srem District (City of Sremska Mitrovica and municipalities of Sid, Ruma, Indjija, Pecinci, Irig and Stara Pazova) plus the City of Sabac from the neighboring Macva District. The seminar was also attended by two representatives of the Regional Development Agency Srem, and one representative from the Mechanical Faculty of Belgrade University, the Center for promotion, development and use of renewable energy and the Consulting Company GFA SEE. The list of participants is in the attachment. The seminar was targeting communities in the Srem District as well as relevant stakeholders who can influence and initiate processes in local communities.

Figure 3: Participants of the seminar in Simanovci (Source: SKGO)

3.4.3 Results and evaluation In general, the seminar can be considered as successful in terms of the number of participants, the different local self-governments and other local stakeholders represented as well as in terms of the interest that was raised among the attendees. The participants were introduced to steps that should lead to a bioenergy village initiation including possible organizational and institutional, financial and business models that can support the concept under the local conditions. The question that were raised during the seminar mainly included financial aspects, like whether such a project under Serbian conditions can be feasible or not, what are the investment return periods, or what are the parities between heat produced from fossil fuels and from renewable resources. The main topic for the discussion after the presentations was about the actual costs per MWh of heat produced by the existing systems based on fossil fuels and the calculated costs for the new biomass-based system. One of the participants was arguing that biomass boilers are more expensive then the boilers based on crude oil, if investment, maintenance and transport costs are considered. In the discussion with the experts, it was concluded that this issue depends on the number of users and heat density, i.e., thermal utilization of the network, availability and price of


24

biomass, price of other fuels, investment amount for the new boiler and the selected financial model. Further in the discussion, it was pointed out that the bioenergy projects always have external factors and benefits for the environment, society and local economy, which should never be neglected. The conclusion was that the bioenergy village concept is applicable also for the Serbian conditions and that the example of Kostojevići proves it. Another topic within the discussion was about organizational models and the willingness of inhabitants of Kostojevići to participate in the project as owners of the process, i.e., their readiness to organize themselves in form of an energy cooperative. Unfortunately, in Kostojevići, such an initiative was not successful so far, but other examples in Serbia were presented which show already results in this respect. The very intensive discussions and the reflection at the end showed that the participants were satisfied with the seminar and the provided information. They especially liked what they learned about the new bioenergy village concept, about the possibilities for its implementation in Serbia and about the benefits that it brings to the local communities. The Regional Development Agency will on their behalf also continue to promote the concept of bioenergy villages through its regular work.


25

3.5 Slovenia


The main objective of the seminar was to present the concept of a bioenergy village, best practice examples and all important steps to implement it to interested stakeholders and decision makers, e.g. from potential follower villages. Moreover, the emphasis of the seminar was to send the important message that the establishment of a bioenergy village means strengthening the local economy. The seminar was held on August 27th 2018 at the premises of the municipality Žiri, which is one of the Slovenian follower villages. Representatives of the municipality and local stakeholders who are interested in bioenergy villages and already participated in BioVill activities (Primary school Žiri) were invited to the seminar. There were two presenters at the seminar, both from the BioVill project partner institution Slovenian Forestry Institute. At the seminar, Polona Hafner led the presentation and at the beginning, she presented BioVill project, objectives and challenges of the project, followed by a presentation of good practice examples and their transfer to the countries of project partners. Presented were all steps to establish a bioenergy village and advantages of bioenergy-supply chains as well as potential obstacles in their establishment. Specific attention was also dedicated to a discussion about the BioVill project and the establishment of the first bioenergy self-sufficient village in Slovenia - Dole pri Litiji. Darja Kocjan supported the presentation with an explanation of the events and progress of development in the target village Dole pri Litiji. The bioenergy village concept of Dole pri Litiji, which was created within the task 6.1, was also presented during the seminar. The presentation can be found in the annex.


The municipality of Žiri was selected as a Slovenian follower village, since the inhabitants and local decision maker expressed their interest to receive more information about the BioVill project as well as the establishment and operation of bioenergy villages (see also report on task 6.4 – to be published soon). Therefore, it was decided to conduct the seminar in the municipality of Žiri. Relevant decision makers and topic related staff from the municipality were invited as the target group. Nevertheless, due to the understaffed municipality administration and the high workload of the staff, the mayor decided that only he and the senior investment adviser of the municipality Žiri shall participate at the seminar. Citizens of municipality of Žiri will be invited to the BioVill national conference scheduled for October within the task 6.5 and to the information events which will be implemented in task 6.4. It was agreed with the mayor to hold another information event or seminar in the Žiri municipality for the citizens, including potential local investors, if necessary.


The seminar was divided into two parts: The first part was dedicated to the Power Point presentation (described in Chapter 3.5.1) and was led by the staff of the Slovenian Forestry Institute. The second part of the seminar was dedicated to an open discussion on the development of the municipality of Žiri regarding their local energy policy strategy and possibilities of transferring the knowledge generated by the project BioVill to the municipality. The mayor presented finalized and ongoing projects in the municipality related to the use of renewable energy sources, the provision of available renewable resources, increasing energy efficiency of public buildings and increasing the quality of the living environment. At the moment, the municipality works on investments regarding mentioned topics and is therefore really interested to receive information and learn about experiences on renewable energy projects. They pointed out two of their current projects:

- Arrangement of a joint boiler room and heating for 3 big municipal buildings, currently heated with 5 boilers. Heating on wood pellets is foreseen. The project will be co-financed by a private investor – the local company IKA (IKA, Trgovsko podjetje Žiri, d.o.o.).

- Construction of a low-energy multifunctional hall and the renovation of the old part of the primary school Žiri. The project will be financed by a municipality.

One great advantage that was pointed out by the mayor is that local entrepreneurs are willing to cooperate, e.g. in public-private investments. But the main disadvantage that has been highlighted (especially when it came to the discussion on European projects) was, that the acquisition of European funds is very complex and as such, very uninteresting for the local investors.


26

After an open discussion, the participants were asked to give an oral evaluation about the seminar. They said that they are very satisfied with the seminar and pointed out:

- They learned how individual “energy” projects can be connected to one story of the bioenergy village. They have not thought so much in this direction so far. They will think about their need on professional support in the future for feasibility studies, as presented on the case of Dole pri Litiji.

- It was very interesting for them to hear about good practice examples both from abroad and from Slovenia. As already mentioned they were not aware on BioVill concept or energy self-sufficient villages.

- The mayor pointed out that a lot has been done in the past to inform the local inhabitants about the possibilities and advantages of using local renewable energy resources and investments in modern heating systems. Recently, they have found that the local interest in energy projects has declined, since many locals in last decade have set up new individual systems - heat pumps, boilers on pellets or other (renewable) resources. On the other hand, the minimized interest also arises from the side of the municipality, since they realized that small private households are not interested in district heating systems. Municipality has bad experience from the past when private households disconnected from the district heating system which ruined the economy of such a system.

During the discussion, Loški Potok was mentioned (by a mayor) as a village where a district heating system was established. This village is another follower village of the BioVill project (already involved in BioVill events), which lead to the conclusion that information on bioenergy villages is already spreading in the region.


27

4. Conclusions

It can be concluded that the task of holding an interactive seminar to inform stakeholders and decision makers of (potential) follower villages about the concept of a bioenergy village was successfully completed by the BioVill partners. Overall, 148 participants were reached by the events. The objective of the seminar was to inform the stakeholders of the implementation steps towards a bioenergy concept in their villages, present some best practice examples and outline the procedures in the existing BioVill project target villages in the partner countries. All partners reported a (very) positive feedback from the participants and emphasized the vivid discussions followed by the presentations. The main focus of the discussions and questions raised concerned the topics about financing models, assessment of biomass resources in the regions and the implementation of quality assurance for wood chips and pellets as well as assurance of consistent heat supply. The bioenergy village concept could thus be introduced to a new potential follower community, and the significance of mobilizing the relevant decision makers and stakeholder along with the broad society of the potential follower village communities was pointed out. National and regional contexts were discussed in terms of potential obstacles. The participants throughout all countries showed their interest in further information and in the participation in future BioVill information events. As lesson learnt, it is discussable whether the form of a seminar serves as the best tool in the manner as performed, or if it should be further developed in a more interactive workshop-like format.


28

Annex 1. GIZ presentation template 2. Presentations Croatia 3. Participants lists of the seminars in Croatia 4. Evaluation results of the seminars in Croatia 5. Presentation Macedonia 6. Participants list of the seminar in Macedonia 7. Evaluation sheet of the seminar in Macedonia 8. Presentation Romania 9. Participants list of the seminar in Romania 10. Presentations Serbia 11. Participants list of the seminar in Serbia 12. Presentation Slovenia 13. Participants list of the seminar in Slovenia

Documents

FINAL REPORT ON WEBINARS - BioVillbiovill.eu/wp-project/uploads/2016/09/BioVill_D7.2... · BioVill – D7.2 Final report on webinars 8 3. Seminars held in BioVill partner countries