The project


Home

The project
    The Høje Taastrup Community
    Key figures for Høje Taastrup Community
    The Kortrijk Community
    Key figures for Kortrijk Community
    The Birstonas Community
    Key figures for Birstonas Community

Partners

Project results

Pictures and videos

The Concerto initiative


CONCERTO





The Birstonas Community


The Birstonas development area

The Birstonas development area.
View the whole picture

Palanga Municipality as observer

Palanga municipality is an associated community to the ECO-Life project connected as an observer, preparing own plans for local climate actions, and improvement of the building stock. Palanga is learning from and following the work and achievements of ECO-Life as a twin to Birstonas in a close and mutual inspiring work process.


Background

Birstonas is a very attractive recreational resort 80 km from Vilnius. The surroundings are great as the most of the area of Birstonas Municipality (82%) is in the territory of the Regional Park of the Great Nemunas Loops. The overall area of the municipality is 124 km2. Birstonas town is 13 km2. The municipality consists of Birstonas town and Birstonas elderate. Over 5,300 inhabitants live in Birstonas Municipality. The major part of the inhabitants, i.e. 3,200 live in the town, whereas the rest live in 46 villages of Birstonas elderate.


Intelligent integration - optimisation and interaction

Birstonas municipality like all other Lithuanian cities faces rather challenging problems related to the rapidly growing energy prices and climate challenges. It is estimated that the main option is to reduce the energy consumption of buildings by introducing energy-efficiency measures and renewable energy resources. Despite the fact that renovation processes in Lithuania were started a few years ago, still there are a lot of institutional and technical barriers to overcome. Lack of "know how" and best-practice examples is obvious, and it is the aim of this project to overcome some of these obstacles.

Furthermore, the introduction of renewable energy promotes Birstonas to be recognised as a sustainable green city. These tasks are consistent with the main services provided in the city - sanatoriums and mineral water production. Close and sustainable interconnection between nature and urban areas makes this place perfect for developing professional wellness and recreational services.


Energy efficiency and savings in buildings

The project involves an area of 35 ha, which has been designated the new recreational part of the city. The area already includes around 25,500 m2 of living space within 13 multi-flat buildings (wall construction from bricks). Currently, these buildings, which were constructed from 1967-1979, have a low standard and poor energy-efficiency performance, and hence renovation is needed. The ECO-Life project will allow the planned renovation of the residential area to be carried out at a high energy standard.

Additionally, the project involves 3 non-residential buildings: office building, school of art, health care centre. Gross area of these buildings accounts 2585 square metres. As the residential buildings, the non-residential ones have poor thermal insulation and large heat losses. It is planned that non-residential buildings will be refurbished and modernized in 2010-2011.


Renewable energy solutions

Currently, heating to the community buildings is supplied by the DH company, which uses two types of fuel: natural gas and biomass (wood waste). Heat generation from biomass accounts for approximately 60%, and the rest is covered by natural gas. The installation of an additional 2 MW heat generation capacity based on bio fuel has been planned. This will make it possible to reduce CO2 emissions and encourage the use of local, renewable fuel resources.

Having the majority of the heat produced by burning biomass, additionally, a flue gas condensation unit will be installed at a later stage in order to improve energy generation efficiency. In the buildings, solar collectors and heat pumps will be installed to cover the energy needed for DHW.



The project in Birstonas includes the planning and research part but will not include the demonstrations as co-financing eventually was not possible.

To Top




  PROJECT AND SUBCOORDINATORS

If you have any questions about our project, please contact:




Reto M. Hummelshøj
Project coordinator (DK)
E-mail: Reto M. Hummelshøj

Phone: +45 5640 2766

Ilse Piers
Local coordinator (BE)
E-mail: Ilse Piers


Jolanta Žaltkauskiene
Local coordinator (LT)
E-mail: Jolanta Žaltkauskiene

  LINK TO MUNICIPALITIES

Høje Taastrup Community
Kortrijk Community
Birstonas Community