Today in Kaštela Morosini-Grimani, the awarding of contracts worth 3.2 million euros for four projects that were submitted to the Public Call for Grants from the "Energy and Climate Change" program of the Ministry of Regional Development and EU funds, and are co-financed by the Norwegian Financial mechanism and the Financial Mechanism of the European Economic Area.
The objective of the call was to support pilot projects and pre-investment studies for the installation of heating and cooling systems using heat pumps using sea energy.
Two projects relate to the County of Istria and the County Special Hospital for Orthopedics and Rehabilitation "Martin Horvat" Rovinj-Rovigno, and the Minister of Regional Development and European Union Funds, Nataša Tramišak, handed the contracts to Deputy County Commissioner Jessica Acquavita and Hospital Director Marinko Rade. The ceremony was also attended by the director of the Istrian Regional Energy Agency (IRENA), Valter Poropat.
The Deputy Prefect expressed her great satisfaction that significant funds from this Public Call have arrived in the Istrian County, and thanked IRENA for the work done in the preparation of projects, which are innovative and aimed at achieving energy efficiency.
The Istrian County project "Good energy - solar energy for the energy transition" will thus finance the realization of 4 integrated network photovoltaic systems, with a total nominal power of 200 kW, on school buildings founded by the Istrian County.
A total of 11 partners are involved in the project, and from the region of Istria, in addition to Istrian County and IRENA, the City of Poreč and the City of Pula participate. The City of Poreč is involved with the installation of 1 photovoltaic power plant with a nominal power of 60 kW, while the City of Pula will implement two photovoltaic power plants with a total installed power of 80 kW through the project.
The partners in the project, led by the County of Istria, work with the common goal of increasing energy production from renewable sources through coordinated activities on their territory. The project plans to implement investments in 22 integrated photovoltaic power plants, which will send a strong message about the importance of investing in renewable energy sources.
The total value of the project is EUR 1,372,762.73, of which 84.87 of the % amount, or EUR 1,165,073.99, is donor funds, and 15.13 of the % amount, or EUR 207,688.74, is national co-financing. The budget of the County of Istria is EUR 275,815.72, and that of IRENA is EUR 19,302.19.
The special hospital for orthopedics and rehabilitation "Martin Horvat" Rovinj-Rovigno, on the other hand, registered the project "Sea for Heritage Energy transition", with a total value of EUR 957,759.38.
Since the hospital building still uses heating oil for space heating, and the boilers are located in a dislocated machine room, the possibility of replacing the energy sources currently used for heating and cooling in the Hospital, using heat pumps using energy from the sea, will significantly contribute to reducing energy consumption. , and consequently lower energy costs.
"The project is the result of planning, strategy, partnership with IRENA and the Ministry of Regional Development and EU Funds, as well as responsibility towards patients," emphasized the director of Rada.

Minister Tramišak congratulated all the recipients of the funds for recognizing the importance of using renewable energy sources.
"What you will realize as part of your projects will certainly be demonstrative examples in your environment of how to achieve energy independence and efficiency. In the coming decade, we will have to focus even more on the issue of using renewable energy sources.
"The Republic of Croatia has all the predispositions to be a leader at the EU level, not only in the form of using solar energy, but also energy from the sea, a potential that Croatia has not used so far, as well as geothermal energy," said the minister.
The other two contracts were handed over to the Municipality of Medulin and the shipyard "Viktor Lenac dd".
Source: istrain.hr