In industrial and service sectors, energy efficiency investments are often not implemented due to combination of factors and barriers faced by the actor involved. Even for enterprises that are subject to mandatory audits, the recommendations are often not implemented due to those factors and barriers. The IMPAWATT project aims creating a staff trainings and capacity building programmes to enhance corporate policy towards energy efficiency, energy culture and sustainable supply-chain initiatives. All actors will be targeted. This program will be developed as an online toolbox with resources for capacity building and staff training. The toolbox targets in priority the energy manager of the company. He will use it for its own training but also as a resource for training the other actors of the company. For small companies without energy manager, the auditor can take the role of the energy manager and organise trainings for company staff. The resources will be available in several formats as for example webinars, factsheets and energy efficiency measures database. The platform will also allow companies to exchange energy efficiency related experiences and to benchmark their energy efficiency. Finally, the platform will also give access to an energy monitoring portal where companies can enter and follow their main energy consumptions and energy efficiency measures.

The aim of SET4H2 is to provide organisational, logistic and secretarial support to the newly formed Implementation Working Group on hydrogen under the revamped SET Plan. This includes refining the IWG’s mission and identity, finalising the Implementation Plan and exploiting synergies with the activities of other SET Plan stakeholders and relevant European and international hydrogen initiatives. The new IWG can build on the results already achieved in the ERA pilot initiative “Agenda Process on Green Hydrogen”, a comprehensive pan-European strategy-building process involving 30 European countries, and thus can achieve faster progress in implementing the Strategic Research and Innovation Agenda. The CSA supports the IWG in applying an integrated, systematic and interdisciplinary approach to address research needs, while considering the different starting conditions of European countries in the energy transition. Furthermore, the CSA will contribute to enhancing cooperation and synergies among Member States and SET-Plan countries, ensuring their active involvement in decision-making and implementation of the IP’s activity fiches as well as facilitating mutual coordination of R&I programmes. The consortium of SET4H2 consists of eight members having the necessary experience both in the field of hydrogen and in the context of coordination within the SET Plan. Consortium members have worked together in several contexts and are involved with IWGs including the new one on hydrogen. The annual work plan enables priority-setting in all six work packages, with WP2 leading the thematic focus and consolidating the findings from analytical work in WP 3, 4 and 5 and from regular exchange with the hydrogen IWG members, other IWGs and hydrogen initiatives. WP6 serves to develop and carry out tailored communication and outreach activities, while WP1 ensures the targeted and efficient implementation of the CSA as well as the exchange with the European Commission.

In order to implement the EPBD systematically and thereby reach the EU's energy and climate targets, building owners, constructors and municipalities should be aware of how energy saving measures have to be planned, applied and monitored. The buildings being built or renovated now, are the building stock of the future. Therefore, it is important to pay attention to the quality of work on construction site. Construction errors are responsible for most of poor energy performance of buildings in practice. Reasons for this are often lack of awareness of workers on construction sites making relevant parts of the building envelope or the HVAC systems regarding the complexity of nearly zero emission buildings. This is because of the very limited availability of further education in the construction sector in many countries around Europe especially with the focus on mutual recognition. Furthermore, actual offered courses in the building sector do not cover topics like cross craft understanding, lifelong service approaches, continuous controlling and monitoring or BIM-tools which are very important for the construction and maintenance of nZEBs. In addition, quality control also lacks in many cases. NEWCOM addresses challenges of raising building quality that supervisory authorities are facing today in order to achieve the European and national climate protection targets for 2020 and the implementation of the nearly zero-energy buildings standards. NEWCOM focuses on the development of missing qualification and certification schemes for blue collar workers and building professionals who inspect and control the most relevant qualities with a specific focus on mutual recognition. By the project “NEWCOM” the number of blue collar workers and building inspectors with special nZEB competence will be increased, the quality of buildings (focus energy efficiency) raised and the market recognition of well-skilled professionals across the building sector in European market boosted.

The overall objective of BioVill is to develop regional bioenergy concepts in Slovenia, Serbia, Croatia, Macedonia and Romania up to the investment stage in order to become “bioenergy villages”. This will increase the market uptake of bioenergy on the basis of cooperation with partners from countries with established bioenergy markets (Austria, Germany). The following specific objectives and activities will contribute to the overall objective: (1) 5 villages have developed the institutional set-up and energy management concept for becoming a bioenergy village up to investment stage for physical infrastructure with at least one bioenergy village in Serbia, Croatia, Slovenia, Romania and Macedonia. The local market uptake of bioenergy value chains are to be proven by signing of letters of commitment. (2) Mobilization of 62 GWh/y heat and power based on solid biomass in at least 5 target villages. The individual biomass value chains will include the production and distribution of heat and electricity. The concepts include technical and non-technical aspects for each target village. (3) Increase public acceptance of sustainable bioenergy and raise public awareness on commercial opportunities for farmers, foresters and the bioenergy value chain as a whole by means of public participation. This will be realized by ensuring the public participation of the inhabitants (5,000 households) in the target regions for setting up at least 5 villages across the 5 implementing countries. (4) Capacity Building of users and key actors in business and legislation to manage the bioenergy villages in a sustainable way and be able to either enact the EU based national legislation or make full use of the opportunities that these new markets create for them. In the set-up of bioenergy villages along the bioenergy value chains it will involve at least 500 participants in order to have a critical mass of key actors.

The National Fund “NFOSiGW” supported by KAPE and partners seek to replicate the financing scheme, systems and procedures developed for private and public sectors under the Latvian Baltic Energy Efficiency Facility’ “LABEEF”. The Fund will structure demand and execute the financing scheme of a pilot project through the existing online platform SHAREX. Partner organizations in Austria, Slovakia, Romania and Bulgaria will be replicating in their countries. The public funding will work as a leverage for ESCO to take on new projects without the need to wait for the repayment of already implemented projects. Therefore, their funds could be reinvested faster. The standardisation of procedures, expert verification of archived savings and increased amount of investments will motivate the financial sector to support energy efficiency and environmental protection projects. The standardisation and scaling up the number of investments in energy efficiency and environment protection will increase the trust of banks, increasing their involvement on the market. The support from public funds will aim at already implemented, successful projects assuring the repayment of invested public money in a long-term, providing the leverage effect in increasing the number of projects carried out by ESCOs and making the public funds available in the future for reinvesting. The stimulation of the ESCO market will help to utilise the potential for energy efficiency in the SME sector. The solution will work as a guarantee for energy savings and environmental effect which will be furtherly verified with the unified procedures implemented in the mechanism. Types of buildings and infrastructure included in the project (might be different in different countries): - multifamily private and municipal buildings, - public buildings, - individual residential buildings, housing communities, cooperatives.