Active knowledge exchange and inspirational site visits are key for interregional cooperation and learning in the RESINDUSTRY – Policies for Renewable Energy Sources in Industry project. The project aims to increase the proportion of renewables by improving regional policies. Besides LAB University of Applied Sciences from Finland, partners from the Czech Republic (Lead partner), Spain, Estonia, Poland, Austria, and Malta form the partnership. RESINDUSTRY is supported by the Interreg Europe Programme funded by the European Regional Development Fund (ERDF) and co-financed by the participants.
The RESINDUSTRY 5th interregional workshop in Badajoz, Spain was organized on 14-15 September 2021 and hosted by the Extremadura Energy Agency. The hybrid meeting enabled two partners to join the meeting online, as the COVID-19 restrictions impacted the possibility to travel. The meeting brought together project partners and their stakeholders, representing both the public authorities and companies.
Supporting Action Plan Development
On the first day, the discussions were directed on the selected policy instruments in partners’ regions and possible effects related to the next programming period EU 2021-2017. The main objective of the workshop was to support the action plan development. Designing regional action plans, which will boost the integration of renewables, are the main project’s outputs. All partners presented planned actions that were then peer-reviewed by the participants. Active discussions, shared experiences and tips inspired the partners in better formulation and focus of the actions.
Renewables Installation in Practice
The second day of the workshop began with a Steering Committee meeting, where the ongoing and upcoming project activities were discussed. Also, great emphasis was put on project communication issues, both on the future and achieved so far. After that, two inspirational site visits representing renewable energy applications in the industry followed.
First, the partnership visited BA Glass, one of the biggest glass containers producers in Europe destined for the food and beverage industries in Villafranca de Los Barros, Spain. In 2019, the plant built the largest installation of photovoltaics in Iberian Peninsula. The company has installed more than 85,000 m2 of photovoltaic panels on the factory’s roof, and thus saves 5 000 tonnes of CO2 emissions per year. (RESINDUSTRY 2021.)
The second site visit led to one of the good practices identified in RESINDUSTRY, the family winery Cave San José. The company uses a 1500 kW biomass steam boiler utilizing the residues of processed grapes as well as accepting other biomass, such as olive stones from local enterprises. In addition, a 400 kW rooftop photovoltaic system provides renewable energy for self-consumption. As a result, the winery saved around 80% and decreased the carbon footprint by 859,6 tonnes of CO2 emissions per year. (Interreg Europe 2021b.)
Renewable energy sources installation is linked with high investments, therefore, both above-mentioned companies opted for phase installation. In both cases, the funding for the investments was private. This is mainly due to long application processing time, lack of resources and awareness or misinformation.
Author
Katerina Medkova who works as an RDI specialist at LAB University of Applied Sciences and is a Project & Communication Manager in the RESINDUSTRY project.
References
Interreg Europe. 2021b. Project Good Practices: Good practice: Biomass boiler + rooftop PV plant in a winery “Bodegas López Morenas”. [Cited 7 Oct 2021]. Available at: https://www.interregeurope.eu/policylearning/good-practices/item/4692/biomass-boiler-rooftop-pv-plant-in-a-winery-bodegas-lopez-morenas/
RESINDUSTRY. 2021. DOSSIER 5th RESINDUSTRY MEETING, Badajoz, Spain, 14 – 15 September 2021. [Cited 7 Oct 2021]. Available at: https://www.interregeurope.eu/fileadmin/user_upload/tx_tevprojects/library/file_1632909187.pdf
Links
Link 1. Interreg Europe. 2021a. Project Summary. RESINDUSTRY. [Cited 6 Oct 2021]. Available at: https://www.interregeurope.eu/resindustry/
Pictures
Picture 1. Rico Sánchez, B. 2021. RESINDUSTRY project partners and their stakeholders at the 5th interregional workshop in Badajoz, Spain. RESINDUSTRY. [Cited 8 Oct 2021]. Available at: https://www.interregeurope.eu/resindustry/news/news-article/13017/resindustry-team-visits-extremadura/
Picture 2. Rico Sánchez, B. 2021.Safety measures while visiting BA Glass factory. RESINDUSTRY. [Cited 8 Oct 2021]. Available at: https://www.interregeurope.eu/resindustry/news/news-article/13017/resindustry-team-visits-extremadura/
