BioSolESCO project focuses on energy service companies (ESCo) for expansion of the use of biomass and solar energy to heat larger buildings in private and public sectors. The project is financed within the framework of IEE (Intellegent Energy Europe) program and participants are 13 institutions from eight European countries.
The project coordinator is North Karelia University of Applied Sciences, Finland, and project participants from Croatia are Energetski institut Hrvoje Požar (EIHP) and HEP ESCO. ESCO projects which include the use of renewable energy sources (RES) are relatively rare in the EU, so that this model is not known enough in the general public. For this reason, the objective of the project is to analyze the key issues of ESCO projects: investment models, contract types, etc. about which the information is limited and not brought together at the EU level.
The project will point to the barriers that ESCOs face and propose measures to overcome these barriers in practice. At present, the perceived risk and uncertainty decrease the potential use of sustainable methods of RES production and use. It is expected that primarily by understanding and managing these risks ESCO model will bring change in the perception of potential users.
As part of the project, in each of project partner country, a demonstration ESCO project will be executed which will include heating and/or preparation for hot water consumption in larger buildings, kindergartens, hospitals, hotels etc., using solar and biomass energy.
The final goal of the project is to increase the use of heat produced from biomass and solar energy in public and private sectors through: Better understanding of ESCO model, promotion of the company’s business philosophy and transfer of the knowledge acquired to potential users and biomass and solar heat industries in the EU. Informing the broader public about the examples of state-of-the-art energy services in the use of biomass heat, solar heat or combined use of biomass and solar heat in project partner countries.
