Models to encourage investments in energy efficiency were presented during a workshop at BCCI

At BCCI, a workshop on theme “Encouraging Energy Efficiency Investments in the Services Sector” was held. The event was organized in cooperation with the Renewable and Sustainable Energy Systems Laboratory at the School of Environmental Engineering of the Technical University of Crete (TUC), Greece in the frame of the “H2020 Trust EPC South Europe” initiative, with the support of the Association of Balkan Chambers and the Union of Hellenic Chambers of Commerce.

Nikolay Minkov, Executive Director of Srednogorie Industrial Cluster, opened the event. He stressed that Crete is currently a European center in the field of energy efficiency and underlined the existing excellent opportunities for cooperation with Bulgarian companies in the field of energy efficiency. The activity of Srednogorie Industrial Cluster was also presented. The companies in the Cluster form 7% of the country’s GDP, and accounts for 15% of the exports and 20% of the industrial energy consumption. In Bulgaria there is tremendous potential for development of the energy sector, Nikolay Minkov said, expressing hope that partnership within this initiative would grow into real projects.

George Astonitis, Advisor – EU Affairs at the Union of Hellenic Chambers of Commerce also welcomed the participants. He pointed out that Sofia is a dynamic partner and the Greek side is willing to develop the partnership.

Stavroula Tournakl, Senior Expert, European Project Management at the Renewable and Sustainable Energy Systems Laboratory of the Technical University of Crete, gave a presentation on theme “Encouraging Energy Efficiency Investments in the tertiary sector through Energy Performance Contracting”.

The workshop continued with presentations by Prof. Theocharis Tsoutsos, Director, Renewable and Sustainable Energy Systems Laboratory of the Technical University of Crete. The presentations were dedicated to “Understanding the Energy Performance Contracting (EPC) model and process” and “TRUST EPC South benchmarking and assessment tools for energy efficiency investments”.

Maria Aryblia, Research Associate, Renewable and Sustainable Energy Systems Laboratory of the Technical University of Crete presented case studies from the South European tertiary sector.