No fewer than 90 participants turned up on Zoom when the camera was switched on for the webinar “Heat pumps in central heating: how it is installed and how much it costs”, an event in the Change Agents for a Green Society project. Nordic Folkecenter for Renewable Energy is the project manager and the webinar was for exchanging knowledge and experiences about heat pumps.
Great interest
The webinar is part of the Change Agents for a Green Society project, which is financially supported by The New Democracy Fund and the EU.
The target group for the webinar was locals and interested parties, energy managers, representatives of heat supply companies, central authorities and companies – and with 90 participants, the majority of whom were from Ukraine, it was clear that there is an interest in the possibilities of heat pumps in central heating systems, and it makes sense:
“Central heating is a very affordable way of supplying heat to densely populated communities. By using heat pumps in central heating, energy costs and the emission of greenhouse gases can be significantly reduced,”
says Tonny Brink, CTO from the Nordic Folkecenter for Renewable Energy. As project manager, he, together with Gunnar B. Olsen, head of the INFORSE-Europe Secretariat, welcomed those present, and then left the floor to the keynote speakers and participants.
The keynote speakers at the webinar were Pernille Hartmund Jørgensen and Nikola Botsov from consultancy company in renewable energy, PlanEnergi, who enlightened the participants based on the questions What are the technical characteristics and difficulties when using heat pumps in central heating systems? How much does it cost to install different types of heat pumps? And what examples are there of the implementation of heat pumps in central heating systems in Denmark?
The webinar was organized by Center for Environmental Initiatives Ecoaction, Renewable Energy Agency NGO – REA, Ecoclub, INFORSE-Europe and Nordic Folkecenter for Renewable Energy (project manager).
Change Agents for a Green Society
The Change Agents for a Green Society project has received funding from the New Democracy Fund.
The project was originally planned to engage young people to be green agents for a green society by influencing their local civilian population. However, due to the current situation in Ukraine, the original project objective is not relevant at the moment. Instead, the project has been revised so that the activities in the project deal with the development of proposals and assistance that can directly help people in Ukraine with an immediate problem, namely getting energy for heating.
With the project, the project partners want to help the Ukrainians in their current difficult situation, focusing on a specific problem; continue to be able to supply heat and at the same time make the heating more sustainable.
The New Democracy Fund
In 2021, the Danish Ministry of Foreign Affairs established a consortium which is behind the New Democracy Fund.
With a budget of 50 million for 2020-2022, the New Democracy Fund will strengthen civil society partnerships in Belarus, Ukraine, Moldova, Georgia, Armenia and Azerbaijan.
The New Democracy Fund works from six thematic areas of action: youth, media, culture, labor market organisation, climate and gender.
It is civil society partnerships that are the focus of the newly established democracy fund, which will promote democratic organization of civil society, the exchange of experience between peoples and the formation of regional networks between Denmark and the eastern neighboring countries.
