EXCITE

The goal of the EXCITE project is to apply the well-established energy management scheme of the European Energy Award (eea) in Central and Eastern European municipalities, enabling them to become trusted partners to the investors and engaging local communities for deliberate climate action. This, on its end, will help attract new innovative businesses to the involved cities and municipalities and will intensify the local economies, supporting them in the surge for better living standard and sustainable energy transition. Through applying the eea methodology, the project will enhance the implementation of energy efficiency measures at local level through securing the necessary technical, economic and social conditions for attracting of private investors, promoting public entrepreneurship and successful leveraging of the scarce public resources.

As achievement this goal requires broad public support, the project will invest significant efforts in developing interface capacities for engagement with the civil society and incentivize local communities to proactively use the available opportunities, becoming a driving force in the European energy transition. The actions will also support the implementation of the Covenant of Mayors, enabling more municipalities to join the initiative and serving as major data input and result monitoring tool for the actual implementation of the Sustainable Energy and Climate Action Plans (SECAPs) of the involved municipalities. Last but not least, the embracing of the eea methodology will become the basis of an action-oriented peer learning platform, transferring experience and know-how from already well developed Austrian, Swiss and French municipalities but also enabling peer to peer learning between cities in Eastern Europe, gradually shifting to more sustainable practices in their economic and social development.

In Bulgaria, the EEA model will be piloted in three municipalities - Sofia, Gabrovo and Dobrich, which will receive technical and organizational support for participation in the European Energy Awards.

Partners: Center for Energy Efficiency EnEffect (Bulgaria), Austrian Energy Agency, Alternatives pour l'Energie, les énergies Renouvelables et l'Environnement ​ (France), Romania Green Building Council, Institute Energy Agency of Savinjska, Šaleška and Carinthia – KSSENA (Slovenia), Association "Energy Efficient Cities of Ukraine", Habitat for Humanity Macedonia, Salzburg Institute for Spatial Planning and Housing (Austria) and Brandes Energie AG (Switzerland). 

Brochures:

Project brochure
Social Energy Advisors
Best Practice - Vienna on foot
Austria - on the Road to Decarbonize the Building sector
The Art of making excuses

For more information: http://www.excite-project.eu/

This project has received funding from the European Union's Horizon 2020 research and innovation programme under Grant Agreement No 892034​.
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