Digital Agenda Funding

Project Status: Live Project

Project Leader: Caitriona Strain

EU Programme: Northern Periphery and Arctic (2014-2020)

Project Budget: €1,842,591

Start Date: May, 2016

Finish Date: Apr, 2019

Project Website: http://secure.interreg-npa.eu

The aim of the project is to:

Transfer and implement innovative energy solutions for housing and public infrastructure across NPA regions with different maturity-levels.

Specific objectives are to:

Use transnational cooperation between higher and lower maturity regions to increase awareness of the technologies (including ICTs) and solutions for energy efficiency and renewables.

Donegal, Ireland
ERNACT Network(Lead Partner)
Lead Partner responsible for coordinating project management and communication workpackages, and providing support to all other partners.

Caitriona Strain
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Derry & Strabane, United Kingdom
Derry City & Strabane District Council(Partner)
Responsible for implementing energy services in Derry & Strabane district

Leo Strawbridge
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Donegal, Ireland
Donegal County Council(Partner)
Responsible for implementing energy services in County Donegal

Paddy Mullen
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Faroe Islands, Faroe Islands
Umhvørvisstovan (Environment Agency)(Partner)
Responsible for implementing energy services in Faroe Islands

Bjarti Thomsen
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Leitrim, Ireland
Leitrim County Council(Partner)
Responsible for implementing energy services in County Leitrim

Nicola Mc Manus
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North Karelia, Finland
Karelia University of Applied Sciences(Partner)
Providing energy efficiency and renewables expertise to project partners

Kaija Saramaki
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Nova Scotia, Canada

Ecology Action Centre (Partner)
Providing energy efficiency and renewables expertise to project partners

Emma Norton

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Västernorrland, Sweden

ALAV (Partner)
Responsible for implementing energy services in Västernorrland

Jennie Olofsson

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Create 5 Smarter Energy Communities
15 energy solutions applied which retrofit 24 houses
Increase efficiency by 5% in 3 buildings
Install alternative energy sources in 3 public infrastructures

The ERNACT regions focus on adapting and transferring services, approaches or digital knowhow between regions. Please examine the following table to see a list of specific items transferred over the past few years

Energy Efficient Essentials

Donegal - ERNACT Network

The SECURE project achieved success by concentrating on ‘energy efficient essentials’… simple and effective solutions that would provide an immediate reduction in energy use and a long-term economic saving. During the project fifteen energy...

The SECURE project achieved success by concentrating on ‘energy efficient essentials’… simple and...

Fuel Efficient Transportation: Eco-Driving

Donegal - Donegal County Council

Fuel efficient eco-driver training teaches employees to drive more economically, saving fleet fuel costs. It also helps to improve driving skills, which drive down insurance and vehicle costs. This allows for reduced fuel costs across the organisation, safer...

Fuel efficient eco-driver training teaches employees to drive more economically, saving fleet fuel costs. It also helps...

Improved Heating Efficiency

Donegal - ERNACT Network

Many of the public and community buildings in partner regions were found to be using inefficient heating solutions. Improving heating efficiency has been proven to greatly impact energy expenditure. Heating efficiency can be improved not only by more...

Many of the public and community buildings in partner regions were found to be using inefficient...

Incorporation & Storage of PV Sourced Renewable Energy

Donegal - ERNACT Network

Electricity produced by PV solar cells is clean and silent. This type of renewable energy does not use any fuel other than sunshine and does not contribute any emissions that act as pollutants within the environment. Implementations also do not deplete natural...

Electricity produced by PV solar cells is clean and silent. This type of renewable energy does not use any fuel other...

Local Authority & Community-Led Initiatives

Donegal - ERNACT Network

Informing communities and changing energy consumption behaviour is a practice that must be introduced over time. It involves creating an awareness amongst regional communities and encouraging a culture change at grass-root level. The implementation...

Informing communities and changing energy consumption behaviour is a practice that must be introduced...

Low-Carbon Heatpump Installation

Donegal - ERNACT Network

Heat pumps represent systems that ‘pump’ or move heat from one place to another by using a compressor and a circulating structure of liquid or gas refrigerant, through which heat is extracted from outside sources and pumped indoors. Pumping...

Heat pumps represent systems that ‘pump’ or move heat from one place to another by using...

Remote Building Management System Services

Donegal - ERNACT Network

Remote building management allows for continuous improvement of monitoring, proactive maintenance, improved occupant comfort, real-time alerts, real-time alerts, crowd sourcing and improved services. Full visibility of building operation can be...

Remote building management allows for continuous improvement of monitoring, proactive maintenance,...

SMART Meters for Energy Efficiency

Donegal - ERNACT Network

SMART meters improve awareness of energy consumption. By changing behavioural habits and informing decisions about energy use, they result in reduced energy consumption, reduced costs, reduced carbon emissions and less pressure on the electricty...

SMART meters improve awareness of energy consumption. By changing behavioural habits and informing decisions...

Agricultural Need for Sustainable Willow Effluent Recycling

Donegal - Donegal County Council

ANSWER is a good practice directed at citizens. It is a process whose purpose is to use of short rotation coppice willow for bioremediation . It is innovative because the result of the process produces, willow, a carbon-neutral energy source. It was produced by Donegal...

ANSWER is a good practice directed at citizens. It is a process whose purpose is to use of short rotation coppice...

Community Feed-In Tariff

Nova Scotia - Government of Nova Scotia

The Nova Scotia Community Feed-in Tariff (COMFIT) is a good practice directed at electricity generators. It is a programme designed to encourage community-based, local renewable energy projects by guaranteeing a rate per kilowatt-hour for the energy the project feeds...

The Nova Scotia Community Feed-in Tariff (COMFIT) is a good practice directed at electricity generators. It is a...

Efficiency Nova Scotia

Nova Scotia - Enterprise Cape Breton Corporation

This good practice is directed at citizens and it is Canada’s first energy efficiency utility. The purpose of this strategy is to reduce energy consumption in Nova Scotia. It is an intelligent Energy Planning Initiative and it is innovative because it has changed...

This good practice is directed at citizens and it is Canada’s first energy efficiency utility. The purpose of...

Energy efficiency external illumination

Västernorrland - ALAV

This good practice is directed at public infrastructure operators. It is a programme whose purpose is to to find a more energy efficient and profitable solution for the external lighting. It is innovative because its approach is to quantify the size of the task and...

This good practice is directed at public infrastructure operators. It is a programme whose purpose is to to find a more...

Energy Efficiency Service by Byggitrygd

Faroe Islands - Umhvørvisstovan (Environment Agency)

This good practice is directed at citizens. It is a programme whose purpose is to meet the governmental goal of reducing energy and transform 50% of the houses from heating by oil to renewable energy heating within 10 years. It is an intelligent Energy Planning...

This good practice is directed at citizens. It is a programme whose purpose is to meet the governmental goal of...

Exploring airtightness of a building

Faroe Islands - Umhvørvisstovan (Environment Agency)

This good practice is directed at buildings. It is an intelligent energy planning initiative whose purpose is to reveal the air-tightness of a building and identify where cold air may penetrate into the warmer inside of the building. It is innovative because the...

This good practice is directed at buildings. It is an intelligent energy planning initiative whose purpose is to reveal...

Ground source heat-pumps

Faroe Islands - Umhvørvisstovan (Environment Agency)

This good practice is directed at communities. It is an initiative whose purpose is to get heat-pumps that would replace oil burners and thus required heating energy is transformed from fossil fuel to electricity which is mainly produced by renewable resources. It is...

This good practice is directed at communities. It is an initiative whose purpose is to get heat-pumps that would...

Heat Exchangers by Defined Energy

Faroe Islands - Umhvørvisstovan (Environment Agency)

This good practice is directed at buildings. It is an energy initiative whose purpose is the recuperation of energy from wastewater. Warm water from showers passes through a heat exchanger, which feeds the reclaimed heat into the boiler. It is innovative because it...

This good practice is directed at buildings. It is an energy initiative whose purpose is the recuperation of energy...

The common territorial challenges tackled are the high cost and lack of competition in supplying power due to peripherality, low population densities, cold climate, high relative proportion of income spent on fuel and need to realise potential of renewable resources.

SECURE spans 7 regions - with a mix of maturity levels, climatic backgrounds and solutions - distributed across the 3 NPA zones including Faroe and Atlantic Canada. The partnership comprises 8 organisations, with complementary expertise and competence in housing and public infrastructure.

The main objective is to use transnational cooperation between higher and lower maturity regions to increase awareness of the technologies (including ICTs) and solutions for energy efficiency and renewables. The main change (result) will be increased energy awareness in communities and local authorities, evidenced by the following outputs: 5 Smarter Energy Communities, 15 energy solutions applied which retrofit 24 houses, increase efficiency by 5% in 3 buildings and install alternative energy sources in 3 public infrastructures.

The approach is novel because it packages solutions from energy higher maturity regions as services for delivery to other parts of the NPA, promotes sustainability by building up local authority expertise, concentrates initial effort in small communities to increase impact, and brings all stakeholder together using a quadruple-helix approach.