FESTA: Public buildings

Location: Policoro and Matera, (Basilicata)

Population: 77,766 [Combined population]

Climate: Mediterranean

Sector: Building

Funding sources: EU

City networks: Covenant of Mayors

Savings: The electric energy savings triggered by the project within its duration are equal to 11,977 GWh/year.

Solutions: The implementation of different activities to promote local energy investments in public buildings.

Multiple benefits: Energy and CO2 savings.

The province of Matera, in partnership with the University of Basilicata and with the Healthcare Centre in Matera, was the winner of the Call launched by the European Commission project “Fostering local energy investment in the Province of Matera” (“FESTA”). The proposal aims at enabling investments of € 7.5 million in the energy retrofitting of seven schools (Matera Municipality) and one hospital (Policoro Municipality) in the Province of Matera through the use of EPC contracts through the ESCO.

Objective – To foster local energy investments on public buildings (primarily in schools, a significant target in Italy for energy efficiency and to spread the Public Private Partnership (PPP) approach also through the innovative, for the context, Energy Performance Contracts (EPC) in Convergence Regions.

Solutions – The FESTA project compromised primarily four activities: a feasibility study of energy investments; a business plan of the investment project and its bundling in a bankable package; PPP assessment, EPC scheme and preparation for tendering procedures; Communication, Dissemination and Exploitation [source].

Funding – The funds came from the EU and amounted to EUR 498,157.

Innovation – In the region Basilicata, EPC is a new financial scheme, therefore this project produced an innovative solution for the area.

Success factors – The business plan allowed for drawing up a unique bankable business plan of the four investments to create the conditions to obtain a financial commitment from banks and to develop a financial and technical structure coherent with banks. The political commitment of the province favored the development of this project, as it aims at achieving that all schools in the area become “climate neutral” by 2020.

Significant outcomes:

• Energy savings equal to 11,977 GWh/year;
• Regarding the current electricity, diesel and natural gas consumptions (2016 baseline), the project will allow respectively the following percentages of savings:
  • 66% of electric energy savings;
  • 100% of diesel savings;
  • 55% of natural gas savings;
• Given the expected savings, it has been estimated 62 % of CO2 reduction.

Synergies with local policies:

• The New Energy Plan 2010 for the Basilicata region aims at achieving self-sufficiency in power supplies during 2020, by boosting the renewable energy capacity by more than fivefold to about 1,600 megawatts.

Political alignment:

• Italian National Renewable Energy Action Plan (NREAP) 2010, Directive 2009/28/EC has a target to bring the total share of renewable energy in the final total energy consumption to 17% by 2020. In order to reach the objectives, there must be a consistent increase in the mobilisation of resources available within Italy, and particularly the use of renewable energy sources for heating and cooling and the use of biofuels in the transport sector;
• Energy Efficiency Action Plan 2017, contains a summary of the energy efficiency targets set by Italy for 2020;
• National Energy Strategy 2017, sets a 10-year strategy to make the national energy system more competitive, more sustainable, and more secure;
• The Budget Law 2018 confirmed the tax deduction scheme (Ecobonus) to incentivize energy renovation of the existing building stock.

Marketability:

Through Communication, Dissemination and Exploitation it is possible to ensure the widest outreach of the results of the proposed Action through the development of a detail divulgation system, local and European dimension. It complements the goal of sharing the lessons learned with other MLEI European partners.