The Regional Development Agency of Murcia Region (INFO), as the Coordinator of the Covenant of Mayors within the Murcia Region, is currently in charge of developing the so-called ELENA Fuensanta Project at regional level.
ELENA (European Local ENergy Assistance) is part of the EIB’s broader effort to support the EU’s climate and energy policy objectives. This joint EIB-European Commission initiative helps local and regional authorities to prepare energy efficiency or renewable energy projects.
ELENA facility covers up to 90% of the technical support cost needed to prepare the investment programme for implementation and financing. This may include feasibility and market studies, programme structuring, energy audits and tendering procedure preparation. ELENA helps local authorities to get their projects on the right track and make them bankable. To that end, there is a technical team working full time and truly committed to the project success and entirely at disposal of regional and local authorities.
From the kick start of the project in 2014 to now, more than 33 M€ investments in renewable sources and energy efficiency have been carried out thanks to the assistance provided. The investment programme has been focused on the following sectors: street lighting, public buildings, solar thermal collector for swimming pools, PV roof-top plants for self-consumption and sewage pumping stations.
Since INFO Murcia is also partner of CITYnvest project, those two projects-ELENA Fuensanta and Citynvest have been running in parallel and synergies have been identified and implemented. CITYnvest has explored possibilities and new formulas of funding energy efficiency in buildings owned by the regional government by organising exchanges between experts at local and national level, feeding in the energy efficiency strategy in buildings managed by Energy & Industry department in the Murcia region). Elena has supported energy efficiency in buildings owned by local municipalities.
When it comes to the building sector, Elena-Fuensanta has accomplished up to 1.8€ million investments in the energy renovation of the following public buildings:
• Municipality of Bullas; improvement of energy efficiency in Swimming Pool using a biomass boiler
• Municipality of Yecla, improvement of energy efficiency in Swimming Pool using a biomass boiler
• Municipality of Yecla "Las Herratillas School", improvement of energy efficiency using biomass boilers and LED technology
• Municipality Archena Swimming Pool, improvement of energy efficiency in Swimming Pool using a biomass boiler
• Municipality of Fuente Álamo, improvement of energy efficiency in most of Public Buildings installations using ESCO model
- Municipality of San Javier Public Buildings, improvement of energy efficiency in Swimming Pool using a more efficient technology.
- Municipality of Las Torres de Cotillas; LED technology renovation in Town Hall Building
- Municipality of Ceutí Public Building, improvement at Miguel Indurain Sport Centre
- Municipality of Los Alcázares Public Buildings, improvement of energy efficiency in most of Public Buildings installations using ESCO model
- Municipality of Cieza, full renovation including façade of two buildings: Town Hall and Court Building.
- Municipality of Alhama de Murcia, improvement of energy efficiency in Swimming Pool using a more efficient technology.
At the end, 61 public buildings (251.000 m2) have been audited with ELENA Fuensanta project support and many projects are still on the desk to be implemented soon. Not only do local authorities have to face longer pay-back periods than in public lighting renovation investments, but also to count with technical expertise to define the investments. This is why municipalities in our Region claim for financing tools and technical assistance to be able to fulfil their commitment with Climate & Energy.
Written by: Ana Cord ón Molina
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