Ljubljana among most energy progressive municipalities
At the conference En.municipality & En.management 2019 the most energy progressive municipalities in Slovenia were announced. In the category of urban municipalities the City of Ljubljana was chosen as the most energy progressive.
How Ljubljana convinced the jury?
In the justification they wrote: The City of Ljubljana tires to be as innovative and open to new technologically advanced solutions as possible when planning new projects. The municipality is open to innovative approaches and solutions in the field of energy solutions as well as sustainable mobility, because, as they point out, these areas are very intertwined. Among examples of investments in new technologies, in addition to the mentioned EOL project, they listed the project for the assessment of the potential of shallow geothermal energy (GeoPLASMA-CE), the urban heat island project (UHI), the circular economy project (CLAiR-City), the sustainable mobility project – closing the city centre for traffic (CIVITAS ELAN), the sustainable energy solutions project (NEDO), the e‑mobility project URBAN‑E, the bicycle rental system BicikeLJ …
In the City of Ljubljana they are stressing that investments into new technologies and solutions will continue to play an important role in their future work.
As the president of the committee evaluating the municipalities, Dr. Boris Sučič, stated in the assessment, the presented cases of good practises in the City of Ljubljana clearly show that the quality of life of citizens and the quality of city services and infrastructure is one of key instruments for enhancing city competitiveness. In its development policies the city administration sees the competitiveness of the municipality as an important factor for its sustainable development.
Expert committee
This year the most energy progressive municipalities were selected by a committee comprised of the following members: head of education for energy managers in the EUREM programme at the »Jožef Stefan« Institute (JSI), dr. Boris Sučić, who is also the president of the committee; head of the SRIP Centre Smart Cities and Communities and director of the SRIP PMiS at JSI, Dr. Nevenka Cukjati; director of the Goriška Local Energy Agency GOLEA, Rajko Leban; director of the Local Energy Agency of Podravje EnergaP, Dr. Vlasta Krmelj; expert at the Local Energy Agency of Gorenjska LEAG, Črtomir Kurnik; head of energy solutions marketing at Petrol, Robert Ostrelič; and director and editor of Energetika.NET, Alenka Lena Klopčič.