Rhodoshop: a One-Stop-Shop on energy efficiency for the Rhodope’s municipalities
Energy efficiency is a key area for public action to reduce energy consumption and cut greenhouse gas emissions. However, this requires significant investments, including by local public authorities. These authorities sometimes have difficulties in identifying sources of funding, especially in small rural municipalities. In Bulgaria, the Rhodoshop project aims at increasing the capacities, skills and knowledge of local authorities from the Rhodope region to identify and use the funds that are available for energy efficiency.
A One-Stop-Shop to centralise information on energy efficiency
In order to improve energy efficiency in the rural municipalities of the Rhodope mountains, the Rhodoshop project created in 2018 a One-Stop-Shop dedicated to all energy efficiency initiatives in the region. This One-Stop-Shop informs local public authorities of existing legislations in terms of energy efficiency in buildings and street lighting (which are the two main fields of action for municipalities in terms of energy efficiency) and of the possible financing solutions to apply these legislations at local level.
The team of Rhodoshop’s One-Stop-Shop consists of local experts with experience in projects led by local and regional public authorities. These experts work in cooperation with the six pilot municipalities (Banite, Devin, Zlatograd, Nedelino, Smolyan and Chepelare) to support them in planning investments and implementing projects for energy savings.
Their mission is to identify suitable funds to finance investments in energy efficiency in the region, such as Engineering, Procurement, and Construction Contracts, bank loans, national funding sources, resources from the European Energy Efficiency Fund etc. In the framework of the project, a training in green public procurement was also organised to inform local authorities of these rules.
The Rhodoshop’s One-Stop-Shop also encourages the exchange of project ideas to create a pool of potential projects in energy efficiency. This way, it helps to aggregate different projects, to find resources and to reduce some of the costs related to the preparation of projects.
Impacts and energy savings
Since the start of the project in 2017, about € 3.8 million were invested in energy efficiency projects in 14 municipal buildings of the Rhodopes (like community centres, schools, nurseries, kindergartens, cultural buildings like the Planetarium in Smolyan, etc.) and in 35 street lighting systems. In total, these investments enable to make 4.5 GWh of energy savings per year and to save 592 tons of CO2 annually.
Moreover, in terms of socio-economic benefits, the Rhodoshop project stresses that such investments also contribute to creating jobs in the energy sector in the region.
