Rhodoshop

Rhodoshop project aimed at assisting local public authorities and other stakeholders in small sized rural municipalities in Rhodope Region of Bulgaria in successful launching and implementation of sustainable energy projects. The project, with a budget between 100.000 and 1M€, focused on the creation of a pilot programme for financing investment by establishing the Rhodoshop Programme Development Unit (PDU) - a structure to act as central procurement agency on behalf of local authorities to undertake energy retrofitting works in their buildings and street lighting systems.

Rhodoshop PDU represented an innovative financing model of one-stop-shop replicated in Rhodope/Bulgarian context, focused on building investment project pipelines that combined/bundled suitable projects in the subscribed municipalities (currently six with the possibility to include others in the course of work) in order to gain critical mass and get better financing terms. After accomplishing the pipe-lines, respective public tenders were launched in compliance with Green Public Procurement principles in order to make the best choice of environmentally friendly, energy efficient and cost effective products and services.

During the pilots, six local authorities were involved. The project was a good example of commitment of local authorities to ensure investment in energy efficiency in public buildings and in street lighting, thus contributing to meeting their CO2 targets and ensuring better comfort and living conditions for the citizens.

Some concrete key performance indicators (KPIs) of the project included:

• Expected investment in energy efficiency measures: €7.7 million.
• Expected energy savings: 11.3 GWh/year
   

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  Countries impacted:
  

  Bulgaria
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  Geographical scale:
  

  Regional and Local
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  Energy poverty phase:
  

  Implementation

  Planning
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  Intervention type:
  

  Financial mechanisms

  Regulation

  Renewable Energy Integration
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  Professionals involved:
  

  Engineer

  Member of a local/national authority

  Student
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  Type of funding:
  

  European funds from the H2020 programme of the European Union
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  Website:
  Case website
• SDGs addressed: