Parentium, Croatia

Parentium will develop new and viable financing models for energy retrofits in historic public buildings by means of integrating community-owned renewable energies.

Context

For many Croatians, historic buildings represent an important part of their cultural identity. Nowadays cultural heritage and ancient public buildings do not only host museums or other cultural activities, they sometimes even serve as schools, hospitals or even kindergartens. Energy refurbishments and the integration of renewables in ancient public buildings has so far been supported by the government through co-financing, but those funding streams will soon disappear. This will obviously make it harder for local authorities to reach the requested energy targets in public buildings. 

For the refurbishment of the chosen buildings and the integration of renewables, Green Energy Cooperative (ZEZ) will come up with an innovative scheme that allows local citizens and the city to participate.  Through the collaboration between ZEZ and the municipality of Poreč – Parenzo, this pilot will provide replicable and scalable community engagement practices, as well as innovative financing models for the urban revival of numerous Croatian cities. 

GOALS

Goal Number 01

Create a replicable model for citizen participation in renewable energy and energy efficiency projects

Goal Number 02

Educate local citizens on the subject of energy communities and the role they can play 

Goal Number 03

Develop and test the applicability of citizen participation through a ‘voucher model’

Goal Number 04

Retain value and returns gained by the community members through vouchers at the local level by promoting their utilisation for local public services