“Green Energy for Smart Cities”, SmartGreen, No. PA-GRO-1575

Project name:

“Green Energy for Smart Cities”

Project abbreviation and number:

SmartGreen / No. PA-GRO-1575

Lead partner:

Daugavpils city municipality, Latvia

Partners:

- Vanersborg municipality, Sweden

- Orkustofnun, National Energy Authority, Island 

Project implementation time:

5/12/2022 - 5/12/2023 (12 month)

Financed by:

Nordic-Baltic Mobility Programme for Public Administration

Nordic and Baltic Mobility Programme for Public Administration is aiming to facilitate the harmonization of more efficient working methods in the public sector. The overall goal is to increase the global competitive power of the region.

The Nordic-Baltic Mobility Programme for Public Administration is administrated by the Nordic Council of Ministers' Office Estonia.

Project's aim and activities:

The project aims to increase capacity of public administration at regional and local level of the participating cities in order to adapt more efficient working methods for reaching strategic goals by getting an insight into best practices in the Nordic countries, more specifically regarding the smart solutions, green energy.

Activities:

• Increasing the capacity of Daugavpils municipality employees in the implementation of the areas of the European Green Course;
• Learning good practices and experiences of Nordic municipalities in the areas of green and smart urban development (smart street lighting system, energy efficiency in public buildings, heating system of public buildings, renewable energy policy, sustainable transport, solutions for electric vehicles, smart cities, etc.)

Press releases:

1. IMPLEMENTATION OF THE PROJECT “SMARTGREEN” (1st visit to Vanersborg, Sweden)

Events:

Within this project Daugavpils is cooperating with partners in Nordic countries – Sweden and Iceland. In April this year a project activity took place in Vänersborg (Sweden), where representatives of the Daugavpils City Municipality participated in the project partners' meeting and seminar "Best practices and Nordic municipalities' experience in the field of green and smart urban development: smart street lighting, energy efficiency in public buildings, heating in public buildings, renewable energy policy, sustainable transport, electric vehicles, smart city solutions”. Participants had the opportunity to get acquainted with the strategic goals and planning documents of the municipality of Vänersborg, as well as to learn more about the use of solar panels in Sweden, their production, the development of the heating system, and the planned smart street lighting system. Participants of the seminar learned about the use and production of biogas, the development of a regional airport, the construction of smart public and private buildings using environmentally friendly materials, and sustainable transport in urban environments. The SmartGreen project also visited the municipality of Vänersborg, where the meeting was held with the city leaders, as well as the municipality of Trollhättan, a solar panel manufacturing company, an innovation science centre, a heating company, the biogas plant "Bralanda" and the regional Trollhättan - Vänersborg airport.

It should be noted that cooperation between the municipalities of Vänersborg and Daugavpils has been ongoing since 2018 and several projects have been successfully implemented, including in our educational institutions.

In October 2023, the SmartGreen meeting took place in Reykjavik (Iceland). During the meeting, representatives of the Daugavpils City Municipality participated in the seminar "Best practices and experience of Nordic municipalities in green and smart urban development: smart street lighting system, energy efficiency in public buildings, heating system in public buildings, renewable energy policy, sustainable transport, electric vehicles, smart city solutions" and visited the Icelandic National Energy Agency "Orkustofnun", as well as attended a meeting at the Reykjavik Municipality. Participants had the opportunity to learn and discuss about various topics in the field of green energy and smart solutions - gaining knowledge about Iceland's renewable energy policy, Nordic-Baltic cooperation opportunities, the development of energy communities in Europe and Iceland, the use of heating systems and geothermal energy in Iceland, the urban and economic development of Reykjavik, its work on renewable energy and innovation. During presentations and discussions, SmartGreen participants learnt more about the use of smart solutions and the digitalisation of services provided by the Reykjavik municipality, the use of electric vehicles in both public and private sectors, the use of geothermal energy in Iceland and worldwide, and clustering in the energy sector.