LSG MEETING IN HUNGARY
On Tuesday, 19th December 2017, the first LSG meeting was held in Community Centre of Lenti Town, under the project RURES jointly implemented by the Hungarian partners Zala County Government and the West Pannon Regional and Economic Development Non-profit Ltd..
Károly Szabó project manager greeted the persons present and gave a short overview on the planned LSG meetings to be organized by Zala County Government and informed the participants on the program of the meeting.
László Horváth mayor of Lenti town opened the meeting and introduced the involvement of the city in the topic of renewable energy sources and the energy efficiency. He mentioned some of their projects which are still in progress and talked about the renewal of their community buildings – such as nurseries, schools, etc.- and the implemented energy rationalization in these institutions. He introduced the main plans of the town concerning the domestication of the renewable energy use, spoke about their cycling development plans and the GreenCity Program.
Károly Szabó introduced the RURES project, informing the partners on the planned developments, the composition of the parthership and the budget. He explained the main aims, the target group of the project, and mentioned that it involves also the development of an online calculator and some pilots, which will be realized in the yard of the closed building of the school of Lentiszombathely. The final aim would be to establish an energy efficiency investment park that could be further developed in synergy with other projects in the future. The ideas, suggestions of the local stakeholders are welcome in this topic and also related to the operation of the park. Besides a feasibility study is going to be prepared in the framework of the project which includes also best practices in financing and energetics.
Miklós Kókai credit manager of Zala County Foundation for Enterprise Promotion spoke about the potential supports (from national and EU funds) which are available for the energetic developments. Among others he mentioned ESCO financing, spoke about Crowdfunding and gave some examples such as Windcentrale project, etc. Finally he explained a good practice on financing the energetic modernization of a block of flats with 25 apartments in Zalaegerszeg (Hungary).
Following the presentation the participants had a discussion on the other good practices in this topic and they recommended also some ESCO-type examples in Hungary.
Dr. Kornél Németh, associate professor Pannon University gave a snapshot concerning the renewable energies in Hungary and internationally. He highlighted that a strong competition is going on among the companies in the world and the competition came up even among the renewable energy using systems, which can be good for the consumers. Currently the wind- and solar energy industry is the leading sector within it. Nowadays the ratio of the renewable energy use is cca. 20% in the world, while it is only about 10% in Hungary.
He gave a wider view on the situation of using each renewable energy sources in our country and internationally.
Afterwards Tibor Polgár representative of West-Pannon Nonprofit Ltd. introduced the plans and ideas on developing an online calculator within RURES project and asked for the suggestions, ideas of the participants on finding the best solutions.
During the discussion some stakeholders offered their experiences and skills to this activity.
Finally following a working lunch, the participants visited the venue of the planned pilot activity in Lentiszombathely.
More information available in Hungary: https://www.zala.hu/rures/ and http://www.westpannon.hu/hu/hirek
