16.04.2013 -
Keywords: energy efficiency in buildings. Goal: retrofitting,
innovating, and inventing solutions to make existing buildings
"greener". This is the framework for the European project
EMILIE (Enhancing Mediterranean Initiatives Leading SMEs to
innovation in building energy efficiency technologies),
which officially starts for the kick-off meeting
of its partners at Trieste's AREA Science Park on 16 and 17
April.
The project, funded by the "Mediterraneo" transnational
cooperation programme, aims to support the growth potential and
capacity for innovation of SMEs in the field of energy efficiency
in buildings in the tertiary sector at the transnational level, in
order to actively contribute to growth, competitiveness, and
employment in the Mediterranean area. On the one hand, it supports
innovation through the identification, testing, and dissemination
of new products and technologies, and on the other the development
of a plurality of activities to support SMEs. The project will
organize technical workshops for the presentation of new
technologies that have been mapped at the European and global
levels, and tested in regional and local administrations in charge
of managing public buildings, and especially public contracts for
building construction and renovation.
Additionally, the project will carry out pilot actions, one for
each project partner: demonstrative workshops/plants open to
private firms. In particular, a solar cooling plant will be built
in Italy, a technology that consists of combining thermal solar
panels and a refrigerating machine. The goal is to use a heat
source to produce cold, in the shape of refrigerated water or air
conditioning. Solar cooling takes advantage of the hours with
maximum solar exposure, which in summer coincides with peak demand
for air conditioning in buildings.
EMILIE is an outgrowth of MARIE - Mediterranean Building
Rethinking For Energy Efficiency Improvement, a strategic project
funded by the "MED" European transnational cooperation programme,
which represents the response of regions in Mediterranean
Europe to the demand for improved energy efficiency in buildings,
with a special focus on private firms working in this sector, in
order to support their innovative processes.
The project involves five countries (Spain, France, Slovenia,
Croatia, and Italy), and six partners: AREA Science Park
(coordinator), IAT (Andalusian Institute of Technology); CIRCE -
Centro de investigación de recursos y consumos energéticos -
Zaragoza; Capenergies Energy Cluster; Jože Štefan Research
Institute, Regional Energy Agency Kvarner (Rijeka).
Associate partners are: the Piedmont Region, the Friuli Venezia
Giulia Autonomous Region, the Basilicata Region, the Italian
CONFAPI confederation of small and medium enterprises; the Ministry
of Town and County Planning and Sustainability -Government of
Catalonia, the Andalusian Energy Agency, the Andalusian
association of promoters and producers of renewable energy; Region
PACA (Provence-Alpes-Côte d'Azur), the French Riviera Chamber of
Commerce; and the Chamber of Commerce and Industry of Slovenia.