On 29th October 2020, CSSC Lab held its online kick-off meeting, serving as an opportunity to share the key facts of the project with its stakeholders.  To begin with, Team Leader Marko Čavar from North-West Croatia Regional Energy Agency, introduced the partnership and then outlined the main project approach.  After that, each representative from the four demo sites in Austria, Bulgaria, Croatia and Slovenia presented the principal elements of their respective site and the specific sector coupling and city storage solution to be tested. The event ended with a discussion, during with another demo centre in Romania reached out to the project team and proposed cooperation.  

The event therefore proved to be informative and interactive, reaching over 50 participants from Austria, Bosnia and Herzegovina, Bulgaria, Croatia, the Czech Republic, Germany, Hungary, Moldova, Montenegro, Romania, Slovakia and Slovenia. This indicates that sector coupling, and city storage are indeed topics, which resonate with a range of actors across Europe. In fact, attendees hailed from the public and the private sectors (NGOs, universities, agencies, ministries, municipalities among others) highlighting that the transition to cleaner and more energy efficient municipalities in Europe requires a concerted effort by all parties. 

Stakeholders can receive further updates by signing up to our newsletter. There will also be regular blogs on the setting-up and management of the demo sites. The first of these blogs is scheduled to appear on 16.11.2020 and presents the case of storing photovoltaic electricity in a rural municipality in Slovenia.