The Birstonas Community |
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| The Birstonas development area. |
 View the whole picture |
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Palanga Municipality as observer
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| 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
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| 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
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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
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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
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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.
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PROJECT AND SUBCOORDINATORS |
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