Locarbo energy efficiency project

About the Project

This European partnership project started in April 2016 and is due to run until March 2021.

The objective is to improve EU policy and therefore funding relating to energy efficiency. The first 30 months involved learning exchange across the partnership and developing an action plan, with the following two years monitoring the success of the action plan. Local and national stakeholders are engaged throughout the project.

Funded through the Interreg Europe programme, the project is worth a total of 257,126 Euros to us (of which 85% is funding by European Regional Development Fund, and 15% by us).

The project is led by the Municipality of Potenza, Italy and involves partners from Italy (Basilicata Region), Hungary (Mi6), Lithuania (University of Kaunas), Romania (Alba Iulia Municipality), Portugal (Municipality of Vila Nova de Gaia), and the UK (Durham). 

The Locarbo project is just one of our current European Partnership Grants funded projects.

Our involvement in the project

Our involvement in the project is being led by the Low Carbon Economy Team, who will particularly focus on projects in areas that have established business energy efficiency projects. We do this in order to enhance the effectiveness of the existing European Regional Development Funded (ERDF) project we manage called BEEP (Business Energy Efficiency Project).

Durham has identified a potential link with a successful Small & Medium sized Enterprises (SME) project being established by the Hungarian partner Mi6. During Phase 1 of the LOCARBO project we formed a 2-way exchange with Mi6 in Hungary in order to enhance the success of the Durham Business Energy Efficiency Project (BEEP) scheme. During Phase 2 we will transfer the learning from this exchange into the County and further afield.

Our action plan focuses on influencing policy and delivery on energy efficiency at a local and national level.

For more information about the project, visit the Locarbo project website.