Smolyan Municipality Energy Policy
The Energy policy of Smolyan Municipality builds on two main directions: efficient energy consumption and the use of renewable energy resources, reflected in the following strategic documents:
- Short – term program for the use of renewable energy sources and biofuels 2020 – 2023
- Sustainable Energy and Climate Action Plan 2021 – 2030
- Municipal short – term program to promote the impact of renewable energy sources and biofuels in Smolyan Municipality 2018 – 2020
- Municipal Development Plan 2014-2020
By this means, the Municipality meets the requirements of the European policy towards sustainability, competitiveness and security of supply, upgrading, and the implementation of other strategic documents and plans, and fulfilling parallel planning of other policies in the field of environmental protection, use of renewable energy sources and sustainable energy.
The efficient use of energy is set as number one priority, for the implementation of which the Municipality undertakes multifactorial role:
- To optimize its own energy consumption by disseminating and demonstrating successful practices and the capabilities of modern technologies;
- To open access to national and international programs and financial tools;
- To encourage investment in efficient and renewable energy projects by improving the investment environment and helping to remove bureaucratic obstacles;
- To cooperate with the energy suppliers in fulfilling their obligations under Directive 2012/27/EC for energy efficiency;
- To actively cooperate for achieving diversity of energy sources and resources;
- To research and disseminate information regarding potential projects, technologies, financial tools.
With this activity, the Municipality expects to achieve:
- Improving the indicators for efficiency of consumption on the territory of the municipality, reducing the losses, and thus energy costs;
- Reducing the energy dependence of the municipality by increasing the local production of energy of renewable sources, improving the security and quality of energy supply;
- Increasing the investment activity and the employment rate on the territory of the municipality;
- Reducing the greenhouse gas emissions and other harmful emissions in the atmosphere;
- Increasing the income and social status of the population.
Within the framework of the Global Covenant of Mayors, Smolyan Municipality shares the common 2050 vision for:
- Decarbonized areas to support the average global warming below 2°C from pre – industrial levels, in line with the international climate agreement reached at the COP 21 meeting in Paris in December 2015;
- More adaptable areas, prepared for the inevitable adverse effects of the climate change;
- Universal access to secure, sustainable and financially affordable energy services for all, in order to improve the quality of life sand to increase the energy security.
Smolyan Municipality has set a strategic goal to achieve energy independence for which it needs to discover and use the potential for energy efficiency in all sectors and technical structures:
Building sector;
- Household consumption;
- Outdoor lighting;
- Services sector;
- Logging and processing industry;
- Public and private transport;
- Distribution energy networks and others.
Key aspect of the Municipality Energy Policy is the use of renewable sources. The Municipality envisages increasing the local community activity in the use of renewable energy sources, whose potential in the municipality is significant:
- Waste biomass from logging and agriculture;
- Water resources;
- Solar energy for heating, water heating and electricity generation.
The sustainable energy development is strongly related to forest conservation, waste collection and proper treatment.
Smolyan Municipality is official partner in the EU Green Light program – a voluntary pollution prevention initiative that involves public and private consumers, committed to install energy efficient lighting technologies.
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