Investment Axis: Clean Energy
Aradippou Smart City
Aradippou Municipality has started the implementation of its strategy in order for the town to become a “Smart City”. The first action facilitates the installation of photovoltaics at large scale for the whole town.
The concept of a “Smart City” is presented at the web site: https://ec.europa.eu/inea/en/horizon-2020/smart-cities-communities
Aradippou will be actively contributing to the protection of the Environment by reducing carbon dioxide (CO2) emissions. It is expected that by implementing this first action, Aradippou will be relieving earth’s atmosphere from 18,000 tonnes of carbon dioxide per year that would otherwise be emitted, while full implementation of its strategy is expected to be reducing emissions by more than 37,000 tonnes of carbon dioxide per year.
Covenant of Mayors – European Association of Cities “Energy Cities”
The implementation of the strategy of Aradippou Municipality was started in year 2014 when Aradippou joined the European Association of local authorities in energy transition “Energy Cities”http://www.energy-cities.eu/ .
Energy Cities lead the Covenant of Mayors Office, in close cooperation with Climate Alliance, CEMR, FEDARENE and EUROCITIES. Aradippou remains the first and the only one Municipality in Cyprus member of Energy Cities.
Partnership between Aradippou Municipality and the Cyprus Pedagogical Institute
This pioneering effort of Aradippou Municipality in collaboration with other European Cities is rich in educational content. For this reason the Cyprus Pedagogical Institute http://www.pi.ac.cy/pi/index.php?lang=en is a key partner to the effort as it prepares educational actions within the Smart Cities framework specialized in the theme of “Environmental Entrepreneurship in Education”.
The combined actions resulting from the partnership between Aradippou Municipality and the Cyprus Pedagogical Institute aim to the multiplication of the social benefit that results from the project and to the development of Innovative Programmes for the whole Europe. For this reason the Cyprus Pedagogical Institute is in close collaboration with Aradippou Municipality for the preparation and submission of proposals to be submitted to respective European Programmes.
Investment action: “Soft-Loans for Photovoltaics”
Within the context of its “Smart City” strategy, Aradippou Municipality in cooperation with the Cooperative Central Bank http://coopbank.com.cy/en/ and the Larnaka Chamber of Commerce and Industry http://www.larnakachamber.com.cy has prepared a pilot programme aiming to provide loans with more favorable terms for the installation of photovoltaic systems on homes. This pilot programme has secured 1 million euros for loans with favorable terms for the installation of photovoltaics on 100 homes. Details about the programme will be announced soon to all citizens.
Through its efforts the Municipality has managed to get connected to European Investment funds aiming to Social Welfare and Economic Development and to Environmental Protection. Following the successful implementation of this pilot programme, Aradippou will apply in order to receive additional funding from European Investment funds that will exceed 50 million euros.
In addition to protecting the Environment, these investments will strengthen the local economy as it is expected that each household that will install a photovoltaic system will be having a reduced electricity bill through the net metering programme.
It is also expected that the investments will strengthen the local businesses operating in the photovoltaics industry and create new jobs.
One source for these investment funds is the European Fund for Strategic Investments (EFSI – “Juncker plan” http://www.eib.org/efsi/index.htm). The investment programme “Smart City Aradippou” has been selected by the Ministry of Finance of Cyprus and is being promoted to the EFSI.
http://www.aradippou.org.cy/index.php/en/euro-programs/aradippou-eu-smart-city#sigProId046170906e