Energy cluster CENTROPE

Fresh input for energy co-operation in CENTROPE

A wide range of energy production possibilities as well as a diverse and innovative energy research and entrepreneurship sector are assets for the CENTROPE economy. However, strategic partnerships are vital to attain critical mass in the search for sustainable energy resources and technologies. These and many other questions were addressed at a one-day CENTROPE Capacity workshop.

Stakeholders from three CENTROPE countries with an interest in energy efficiency, cluster building and creating partnerships across the region assembled at a thematic workshop held on 7 June at Technologiezentrum Eisenstadt. The participants, which ranged from public institutions to private enterprises dealing with innovative technologies on a daily basis, all expressed the need to co-operate in the long run and on a wider scale.

Co-operation on energy-related topics already exists in CENTROPE. Thus the Intelligent Energy project (ITE) co-funded by the EU unites partners from Slovakia and Austria. Its main implementation output is the Energy Cluster CENTROPE, a voluntary interest association created in late 2010 between the Trnava Self-Governing Region and the Federal Province of Burgenland. The organisation strives to assist companies and institutions in the field of renewable energy sources to create synergies and support the competitiveness of these enterprises. Building on this initiative, one of the main topics of the workshop dealt with the enlargement of this bilateral co-operation on a CENTROPE-wide basis.

Identifying the core issues

All experts agreed that expanding the energy cluster co-operation to include partners from the Czech Republic and Hungary and aligning the cluster initiative with the overall CENTROPE development perspective constitutes one of the best ways to assure a future for the cluster. A structure of this kind needs to be organised so that all partners can benefit from its existence, while contributing to the CENTROPE project as a whole.

Secondly, a network of partners supported through a cross-border, region-wide energy cluster would be the best instrument for addressing such issues as the use of renewable energy sources for energy production, the development of e-mobility and its impact on infrastructure and logistics or energy efficiency in buildings.

From basic preconditions to innovative project ideas

A number of projects that are already underway yet still open to new partnerships as well as brand-new project ideas were introduced at the workshop. They ranged from projects dealing with energy generation through renewable and local energy resources – e.g. the Burgenland biogas production/distribution initiative using innovative gas grids – to bilateral e-mobility projects between Austria and Slovakia or Austria and Hungary. One of the projects presented was HolzSchaBe, a cross-border venture uniting partners from Burgenland, Vienna and Slovakia in the common goals of developing highly innovative building materials and finding new ways of more energy-efficient construction. The pilot product of the partnership is a new type of material consisting of wood chips, foam and concrete and primarily characterised by its high insulation quality. This sort of lightweight brick could revolutionise ecological and low-energy buildings, since its components can be produced using local resources.

All these initiatives inspired great interest in the participating experts. By the end of the event, it was clear that the main workshop topic – reviving co-operation at cross-border level and building partnerships among relevant stakeholders across the region – had been well chosen, as many co-operation perspectives began to emerge on the spot.