ENTRAIN ...so far

Have you just met the ENTRAIN project? Or are you coming back after a while and you want to catch up with it? Maybe you’d simply like a summary of what we’re being doing so far? Then this is the best read for you!

The activities for ‘making the change’ at local level made a big step forward in the last months, with the preparation of 5 action plans for the pilot regions, describing in details the actions foreseen for fostering the diffusion of RES DH networks. These plans are ‘living documents’ to be further enhanced throughout the project thanks to the feedback from the regional stakeholders’ groups.

On the basis of such plans, the regions started working on local spatial and heat planning and in some of the areas, for example Neckar-Alb (Germany), 8 RES DH projects have already been selected and initiated, also thanks to the support of coaching partners from Austria. Also in Friuli Venezia Giulia (Italy) 10 pre-feasibility studies have been developed.

To enhance the spreading of high-quality RES DH through these actions, the documents regulating the Austrian quality system “QM Heizwerke” were translated in English and in the project national languages (DE, HR, IT, SL, PL). This set of tools was then completed by the planning guidelines for small DH, also prepared in English and in all the project national languages.

The project training activities are continuing, with the organization of both the second Train-the-trainers session on Funding, economics and financing (also available on YouTube) and the first round of local trainings in the pilot areas, reaching a total of 115 plant operators, investors, municipalities, planners and energy agencies.

Six more RSAG (regional stakeholder advisory groups) meetings were organized in our five target regions, involving more than 60 stakeholders, mainly for developing the action plans introduced above.

Finally, all these activities were intensely and constantly spread through the project website, newsletter and Twitter account. In this project period, furthermore, common dissemination activities were performed thanks to synergies with some ‘twin projects’, namely WeDistrict, Solarthermalworld.org, Legno Energia Nord Ovest, Hotmaps, REWARDHeat, KeepWarm, REPLACE and CELSIUS Initiative.

Keep following us! Let’s ENTRAIN - Enhance renewable heat planning for improving the air quality of communities - together!