SMEmPower Efficiency project has been very active in terms of capacity building for the energy efficiency improvement in all participating countries. Since the early stage of the project, SMEs have been reached in all 8 countries to get feedback on energy costs, barriers to energy efficiency and other important parameters. 213 SMEs have participated in this survey.
The results of the analysis were used to fine tune the project educational and training (E&T) courses, fully accredited in all 8 project countries with 5 ECTS. The SMEmPower E&T courses have common contents for all 8 countries, to highlight their pan-European feature. Also, a common Training handbook was developed by the project partners and is available in the project portal.
3 editions of the E&T courses have been delivered successfully in all the 8 project participating countries, attracting 946 energy experts from SMEs. For the practical action, 150 SMEs from different economic sectors have been selected and engaged in the practical action of the courses. For 140 out of the 150 engaged SMEs, extensive energy checks/energy audits have been delivered, proposing targeted energy efficiency measures, based on real data of received from the SMEs. Distance learning techniques have been exclusively used for the delivery of the E&T courses and the practical action, due to the COVID-19 restrictions. After the conclusion of the energy checks by the assigned working groups for the practical action, short, in-site trainings have been delivered, to present the outcomes of the practical action to the rest of the SMEs staff, attracting 558 people in the corresponding SMEs.
Energy analytics, M&T and M&V tools have been developed by the project. They have been used by the participants during the practical action to analyze and propose energy efficiency measures. These tools are fully available on the project portal, together with the project training material, allowing any energy professionals to have access.
After a follow-up carried out during the project, 78 of the engaged SMEs declared that they plan, commissioned, or implemented energy audits. Particularly, 26 of them have already implemented energy efficiency measures, 8 of them are in the commissioning stage and 44 of them declared that they are planning the implementation of energy efficiency measures in the short term, leading to investments of 7.7 m€, energy generation by renewables 15 GWh/year, 14.6 GWh/year expected energy savings and 8,900 tn expected CO2 emission reductions. From the outcomes of the energy checks performed in 140 SMEs during the practical action, the estimated energy savings triggered by the project is 24.75 GWh/year.
To enhance capacity building, 3 targeted workshops were organized per project participating country. Each one of the 3 workshops has a different topic, targeting (a) the identification of main barriers in SMEs prohibiting the implementation of energy efficiency measures, (b) financing opportunities, and (c) policy recommendations for energy efficiency in SMEs, with the participation of more than 700 people.
SMEmPower Efficiency dissemination and communication activities performed quite well. The web platform counts more than 40,600 unique visitors, 2,960,000 page hits, more than 1,043,000 page views, and a total of 830 registered users.
4 newsletters have been released and distributed, along with other dissemination material, such as press releases, flyers, pens, bags, banners and posters.
The SMEmPower has been also very active in the collaboration with sister projects, establishing a continuous communication with other 6 sister projects, attracting people as Advisory Board members, while also participating in the Advisory Board of some of them. This collaboration resulted in joint dissemination activities and scientific publications, sharing the knowledge and the good practices.
Moreover, the SMEmPower Efficiency project partners have developed communication channels with local municipalities to promote energy efficiency improvement in local SMEs, signing Memorandums of Understanding with 9 municipalities from the 6 out of the 8 project participating countries.
Finally, a well-structured sustainability plan has been developed based both on the continuation of the E&T courses via the Lifelong Learning programmes of the project academic partners and on the project platform with the available material and tools to act as a forum for interested stakeholders.
