Local Energy Agency of Lyon mentoring in PROSPECT Learning Cycle 1

The Mentor ‘Local Energy Agency of Lyon (FR)’ and Mentees ‘City of Utrecht (NL)’, ‘Lisboa E-Nova (PT)’, ‘City of Vilnius (LT)’, ‘Bruxelles Environment (BE)’, ‘Ecotransfaire (LU)’, ‘City of Zagreb (HR)’, ‘MatosinhosHabit-MH (PT)’ of the Learning Group for Private Buildings participated in the online session on the 11^th of July 2018. +Mentors' Corner

The Local Energy Agency of Lyon presented the ‘Ecoreno'v program’, one of the most successful programs in France, related to the energy refurbishment for condominiums and private houses. Greater Lyon has made a political commitment to invest 30 M€ in 6 years (2014-2020) into energy refurbishment of the housing sector.

Moreover, ‘Toits en transition’ (Roofs in transition) is a citizens’ led association aiming at developing citizens’ investments in renewable energies in the Greater Lyon area. The Agency is hosting this association and has been involved in its development for last 3 years. The money for investment (320,000 €) was gathered from different sources: A call for interest for investments in renewable energies by the Regional council; investments from Greater Lyon and other local authorities; investment from local citizens; and a part of the investment is borrowed from a bank. This will be reimbursed in 25 years by selling the electricity at the feed in tariff to electricity company EDF. Interests will be paid after 10 years to citizens-investors.

During Step 2 of the Learning Programme, a second online session took place on the 19^th of September 2018. Mentees presented a number of energy efficiency projects related to private buildings. Specific needs to be addressed by the mentor were discussed as well during the visit.

Mentees visited Lyon to learn about EPC in public lighting

The physical meeting between Mentor and Mentees took place on the 13^th-14^th of December in the city of Lyon. The participants were warmly welcomed by Eric Berges from the Local Energy Agency of Lyon, who handed over to his two colleagues and hosts for the two days, Chloé Spitz and Thomas Dubertret.

Some of the highlights of Thomas’ presentation included the communication pamphlets providing step-by-step instructions if you are part of a condominium.

The hosts Chloé and Thomas in action

The Lyon Confluence model

The meeting participants during presentation

Apartment block during renovation, Lyon

During the meeting all mentees presented in detail their projects and posed a good amount of relevant question to the mentor.

The Local Energy Agency of Lyon presented the different financing schemes that it leverages for funding energy-saving endeavors: (a)Energy Performance Contracting (EPC) for project bundling or pooling. This is realized by setting up of a Public, public-private or private ESCOs (Energy Company, Operator, Aggregator, (b) Third party financing (e.g. loans from financial institutions, private investors), (c) Citizens finance (cooperatives/crowdfunding) and (d) funding from European projects : H2020, Interreg, ELENA etc. This meant that the mentees learned a lot about the ways Ecoreno'v deals with the legislative infrastructure of France, specifically in regards to renovation of condominiums.

In the afternoon, the group was hosted by Etienne Vignali who works for the Lyon confluence Société publique locale (local public redevelopment company) which has been set up to operate until 2025.

After the theoretical introduction the group went on a walking tour in glacial conditions to see some examples of renovation work currently being carried out within the neighbourhood.

Replication/Transferability: Sharing proved practices for funding in Private Buildings

During the 4th step the Mentor and Mentees of the group participated in the transferability and evaluation session on the 12^th of February 2019. At the meeting a transferability analysis was conducted outlining the mentees’ point of view for the conditions of success of possible future endeavors funded by the financing schemes adopted by the mentor. The mentees provided their point of view regarding the conditions of success inspired by the newfound experience and methods form the previous steps.

Evaluation of the learning activities and process - Key Take Aways from some of the Mentees

The Municipality of Utrecht:

• ''A one stop shop approach is key to stimulate house owners or condominiums to take action in sustainable renovation.''
• ''Upscaling of a renovation activities increases efficiency for construction companies and thus reduces price per house or building.''
• ''The whole process from providing information to actual implementation of the sustainable renovation measures takes time.''

The Municipality of Zagreb:

• ''Eco Renov project as the first step to support owners has introduced an energy information center, which is applicable to our project. Furthermore, they apply the rule that they have a special contractor for each measure recommended by the Agency, which has been well demonstrated in their practice. This part is also a good example for replication to our model. There is valuable information on employee platform pricing so that they can determine the required startup resources as well as basic resources for platform operation. An example of developing scenarios with the implementation of energy efficiency measures and scenarios without implementation of EE to give owners accurate financial indicators and the viability of investing in energy reconstruction of the building is a great way to make the owners make the right decision. A specific website developed is also a good support to owners when calculating costs.''
• ''The study tour of Lyon Confluence is an excellent example that every neighborhood can be revitalized if it is involved in city strategies and climate plans.''
• ''INFINITE Solutions Project and examples of "one stop shop" as well as discussion on this subject gave a good foundation for the development of such a concept. I would point out the idea that it is not only a platform for energy reconstruction of private homes, but also to include the other infrastructure needed for ECO DISTRICT. In addition, the inclusion of a social element such as energy poverty is very important in assisting the most vulnerable citizens.''

Lisboa E-nova:

• ''The learning process carried out under PROSPECT was very inspiring for the development of future financial schemes and other innovative solutions for energy renovation in the city of Lisbon. During the study visit in Lyon, I highlight the lessons learned with Ecorenov project which is a platform to support the refurbishment of private residential buildings. In this project it was relevant to understand the framework developed by ALEC and Greater LYON to engage the owners demonstrating the benefits obtained from energy buildings renovation through the development of previous studies and simulations. Another important aspect for Lisboa E-Nova as the Energy Agency of Lisbon was to learn about the role performed by ALEC in overall process.''
• ''The one stop-shop concept shared by Energy Cities gave an overview of several best practices and about the state-of-art across Europe.''
• ''Finally, I also emphasise the local visit to Lyon Confluence that was a very good opportunity to learn in practice about retrofit interventions and their impact in the social and economic transformation of that historic neighbourhood.''