NetZeroHero

Gabrovo is one of the leading Bulgarian cities in the field of energy and climate policies. It is also one of the two Bulgarian cities that are part of the EU mission “100 Climate-Neutral and Smart Cities.” The city stands out with innovative projects, such as the first integrated street lighting system, the demonstration zone for energy efficiency, and the first energy community in the country, as well as numerous international and national accolades, including the European Green Leaf Award in 2021. With its vision to become the first climate-neutral Bulgarian city, Gabrovo is an inspiring example of sustainable development.
However, challenges remain, as despite numerous projects in public infrastructure, achieving climate neutrality brings to the forefront the need to engage residential and commercial building owners, attract enterprises, and transform the urban environment.

In this context, NetZeroHero offers a possible solution: direct pilot actions that unite multiple individual projects, achieve visible results, and provide benefits for all local stakeholders. This way, the frustration from fragmented actions taken by national authorities in recent years is overcome.

Specifically, the activities of NetZeroHero will be implemented in a pilot zone, which includes 30 multi-family residential buildings, 2 kindergartens, 1 nursery, 1 school, and several commercial establishments. Within the project, a comprehensive analysis of the zone will be conducted regarding the possibilities for energy renovation of residential and public buildings, and the need for specific investments will be assessed. The idea is to provide conditions for the use of financial instruments and assistance in creating public-private partnerships for energy communities through the development of models for deep energy renovation of multi-family and public buildings.

The planned activities include:
⦁ Training and capacity building: for municipal experts and builders.
⦁ Development of a carbon neutrality strategy: data collection on the energy consumption of the pilot zone; modeling zero-carbon emission scenarios through a combination of EE and RES; consultations with the local community.
⦁ Implementation of demonstration/pilot projects for: deep energy renovation of 3 multi-family residential buildings; installation of photovoltaic panels and highly efficient heating systems (heat pumps); creation of energy communities.
⦁ Working with citizens: creating joint solutions.
⦁ Monitoring and evaluation: of the achieved results.

More about the project can be found here:
https://netzerocities.eu/gabrovo-pilot-activity-netzerohour/
https://gabrovo.bg/bg/article/21564

Poster

NetZeroHero is funded through the NetZeroCities initiative, which supports the EU mission “100 Climate-Neutral and Smart Cities,” part of the Horizon Europe program. The project lasts 24 months (September 1, 2024 – August 31, 2026) and is being implemented in partnership between the Gabrovo Municipality and the Center for Energy Efficiency EnEffect.