The Workshop for the tertiary sector in Greece was implemented with great success on the 4th of October 2016 at the Athens Chamber of Commerce and Industry. The event, titled “Financing Energy Efficiency projects through Energy Performance Contracts”, was co-organised by the Centre for Renewable Energy Sources and Saving (CRES) and the Renewable and Sustainable Energy Systems Laboratory of the School of Environmental Engineering, Technical University of Crete (ReSEL-TUC), in the frame of the HORIZON2020 European initiatives EnPC-INTRANS, EPC+ και TRUST-EPC-SOUTH.
The event, supported by the Union of Hellenic Chambers of Commerce and Industry (UHC) and the Athens Chamber of Commerce and Industry (ACCI), was promoted widely among the network contacts of all organisers and supporters, as well as on the BUILD UP European platform. As a result, it managed to attract more than 140 participants, among which SME businesses, owners/managers of tertiary sector buildings, ESCOs/EPC providers, financial institutions as well as policy stakeholders at national, regional and local level.
During the workshop, the actions of the three European initiatives were presented, as well as available innovative tools and examples of energy efficiency projects funding. Moreover, the national legal/regulatory EPC framework, the EPC basic principles, models, contracting steps and procedures, as well as good practices from Greece and other European countries were analysed, with the overall objective to build capacity for the implementation of EPC projects. In the discussion that followed, the participants sought solutions to overcome the challenges and barriers in the EPC market.
In the round table discussion that followed, there was a fruitful discussion about the considerations of tertiary sector businesses regarding EPC’s and about the experience of the financing sector in this field so far. Exchanges amongst participants followed about opportunities and synergies in private tertiary sector businesses (hospitality, health, other services) for their technical support in the context of TRUST-EPC-SOUTH’s pilot program, concerning design and implementation of energy efficiency projects through EPC.
