Energy Festival in Karditsa

EVENT DATE: 24 – 25 June 2022.

The Energy Festival marks the launch of the 2ISECAP Living Lab in Karditsa and is a joint event with the H2020 BECoop  project (2020-2023), which aims to provide the necessary conditions, technical as well as business support tools, for unlocking the underlying market potential of community bioenergy.

Energy Community of Karditsa (ESEK) 

ESEK is a partner in the BECoop project and is a profit citizen energy cooperative established in 2010 to fulfil the vision and reward the efforts of more than 350 members. 

The main purpose is to foster renewable energy in the region. In 2019, according to the provisions of the law 4513/2018 and following the unanimous decision of the General Assembly, the Energy Cooperative was converted into an Energy Community. Nowadays more than 400 people are members of the community (an estimated 8% rate is comprised by municipalities, SMEs, associations etc.)

pROMOTING RES IN THE Thessaly REGION 

ESEK operates in Thessaly, an area with strong agricultural production. The continuous expansion of the local fossil fuel network threatens the uptake of RES heating solutions such as biomass boilers. At the same time, the region has a great biomass supply chain potential through agricultural, forestry and wood processing industries that can easily support the uptake of bioenergy technologies. The main activity of the Energy Community is related to the management of a biomass plant for the production of solid biofuels to generate energy for heating (or cooling) purposes. The first phase of the investment project has accomplished, an Energy Community with a solid biofuel plant which can set up the value chain for the local community.

A manufacturing unit for processing and standardizing local biomass and converting it into a commercial form, such as pellets, has been created. The raw material for pellet production consists of industrial residuals (sawmills) such as sawdust woodchips and logging residues such as branches, tops and stumps, coming from Forest Cooperatives. Partnerships with local authorities allow the Energy Community to expand the supply chain with plant biomass coming from Municipal waste (branches and tops of city trees).