Plan4Cold: Supporting South Europe municipalities in the definition of Sustainable Local Heating and Cooling Plans

Nearly half of the EU’s energy demand – and greenhouse gas emissions – stems from heating and cooling. In Southern Europe, cooling plays a larger role than in other European countries, and cooling needs will rise significantly due to the impacts of climate change.

This is why the project Plan4Cold will support local authorities, particularly pilot cities in Italy, Greece and Portugal, to develop local heating and cooling plans. These heating and cooling plans will include an analysis on how the municipalities can promote energy efficiency and renewable energy, but also comprehensively assess heating and cooling systems, considering each of the cities’ climatic, infrastructural and economic context.  

Pilot cities which will develop local and heating cooling plans within this project include: Udine (IT), Pordenone (IT), Ragusa (IT), Modica (IT), Vittoria (IT), Guimarães (PT), Funchal (PT), Évora (PT), Sétubal (PT), Sesimbra (PT), Ampelokipi-Menemeni (GR), Thermi (GR), Chania (GR), Heraklion (GR), Rijeka (HR) and Siero (ES).

On a larger scale, the project will be helping cities and towns comply with §25 of the Energy Efficiency Directive (EED). This directive obliges municipalities with more than 45,000 inhabitants to develop local heating and cooling plans. To inspire a profound local energy transformation, other municipalities with similar needs will be able to learn from these case studies and develop similar local heating and cooling plans. The experiences from pilot cities in developing local heating and plans will also feed into policy recommendations on a national, regional and local level.

INOVA+ is the leader of WP5 – Policy and performance evaluation, and will critically evaluate the Plan4COLD approach and identify best practices in the definition of SLHCP, define policy guidelines for regions and municipalities and monitor the impact of the action assessing the proposed KPIs in the participating countries and beyond.

Project duration: September 2024 – September 2027

Total budget: 1.632.120,88€ (co-funded by the LIFE Programme of the European Union)

Project Partners

Project Coordinator – Agência para a Energia, Adene (Portugal) – Website:  https://www.adene.pt/

Ambiente Italia (Italy) – Website: https://www.ambienteitalia.it/en/

Federation Europeenne des Agences et des Regions pour l’energie et l’environnement, Fedarene (Belgium) – Website: https://fedarene.org/

R2M Solution, (Italy) – Website: https://www.r2msolution.com/

INOVA+ (Portugal) – Website: https://inova.business/en/

Agenzia per l’energia del Friuli Venezia-Giulia, APE FVG (Italy) – Website: https://www.ape.fvg.it/

Agencia Regional Da Energia e Ambiente Da Regiao Autonoma Da Madeira, AREAM (Portugal) – Website: https://aream.pt/

Regional Development Fund of Central Macedonia, PTA CM (Greece) – Website: https://rdfcm.gr/

Centre for Renewable Energy Sources and Saving Foundation, CRES (Greece) – Website: http://www.cres.gr/kape/index_eng.htm

Centro Euromediterraneo per lo sviluppo sostenibile, Svi.Med (Italy) – Website: https://www.svimed.eu/website/en/

Fundcacion Asturiana de la Energia, FAEN (Spain) – Website: https://faen.es/

Climate Alliance (Germany) – Website: https://www.climatealliance.org/home.html

Regionalna Energetska Agencija Kvarner, Rea Kvarner (Croatia) – Website: https://www.reakvarner.hr/

Agência de Energia e Ambiente da Arrábida, ENA (Portugal) – Website: https://www.ena.com.pt//

Polytechneio Kritis, TUC (Greece) – Website: https://www.tuc.gr/en/home