PraTLA – Assessing performance and potential is key to success
Many mayors would like to improve the energy efficiency of their city – if convincing solutions were at hand. This is one of the lessons learnt during PraTLA’s 2nd interregional meeting in Annecy on 3 Feb 2012.
PraTLA has found more than 30 students so far that carry out practical trainings in local authorities helping cities to assess certain aspects of local energy performance or to set up, update and even improve energy strategies. Steffi Hänig a student from Zittau/Görlitz university of Applied Science even assessed local CO2 balancing systems in an interregional comparison when she made an internship at the Energy Agency for South East Sweden in Oskarshamn. The different approaches of Smaland (Kalmar and Kronober)/Blekinge and Saxony that have been identified during her six months training could help to improve both calculations systems in various ways.
New energy efficient mobility trends from IAA motor show 2011
I have just come back from the Frankfurt Motor Show 2011 in another EU-project called Clean Drive.
It was very interesting to see that the focus of this year is on smaller and low-consumption combustion or electric vehicles. However, even though the car manufacturers have made significant progress in the development of hybrid technologies, the demand for large vehicles such as SUV is still growing in emerging markets, such as BRIC countries.
Energy efficiency: Using old mines as underground pumped storage plants as a promising approach?
One of the topics the participants discussed about during EnercitEE’s Component Seminar in Växjö, was what kind of innovative energy storages for energy from RES are currently being developped. The university of Duisburg-Essen in Germany’s densly populated Rhine-Ruhr area is investigating the potential to use abandoned mines in the Ruhr area as potential storages for water of underground pumped storage plants.
You can read about this interesting idea under the following link.
http://theenergycollective.com/erica-grigg/48639/underground-pumped-storage-plants-green-power-mines
EnercitEE poster exhibition informs Mid- and Eastern European energy experts
The Saxon University of Applied Sciences Zittau/Goerlitz welcomed more than 300 guests on September, 15-17th when opening the 2010/2011 Science Year and celebrating its 20th anniversary of the Zittau Seminar on Energy Economy in Middle and Eastern Europe.
