Bjarti Thomsen, SECURE project partner from Umhvørvisstovan, explains that his organisation has organised many different regional stakeholder meetings and energy days since the beginning of our energy efficiency project.
One of the first stakeholder meetings was held last year at Klaksvík Technical School. It is remarkable that Klaksvík is the biggest city in the Faroe Islands next after the capital Tórshavn. The meeting was attended by around 70 young people 17-18 years old together with their teachers. Our project partner Bjarti Thomsen had a presentation focusing on energy efficiency and renewable energy options. The discussion afterwards concentrated on the opportunities and obstacles for the transition from fossil fuel to renewable energy in the Faroe Islands.
Another stakeholder meeting took place at the Environment Agency for all employees. That time, around 50 people attended the meeting. Bjarti Thomsen held a new presentation focusing on energy efficiency and renewable energy options. Furthermore, possible energy efficiency improvement and retrofit options of the Environment Agency office building were discussed.
The Environment Agency of Faroe Islands organised another stakeholder meeting in the village of Lorvik, with around 900 inhabitants and situated at a fjord in the northern part of the Faroe Islands. According to Bjarti Thomsen, a local initiative has investigated the possibility to convert the heating of residential houses and buildings from fossil fuel to heat pumps using the sea as the heat source. Consultant company COWI studied various heat pump solutions for the whole village, using either one heat pump per house or bigger heat pump at the sea shore and distributing the heat by a local district heating system. These solutions were presented and discussed at the meeting and the conclusion was that further studies need to be made. The meeting was attended by around 65 people form the village. "With the local initiative and the interest shown among the village people, Lorvik is seen as an interesting stakeholder group in the SECURE project", says SECURE's project partner.
During 2017, another meeting has been held at Umhvørvisstovan. "The official policy on the Faroe Islands is to reduce the dependency on imported oil. An obvious possibility on this track is to replace space heating oil burners by heat pumps", explains Bjarti Thomsen. There the installation of heat pumps are encouraged. Under the auspices of the SECURE project, Umhvørvisstovan (Environment Agency) has recently arranged a public meeting at the agency to inform about various available heat pump systems. "Information was given on the SECURE project and on energy efficiency measurements undertaken by the agency of various heat pump installations". Also the three major heat pump providers had a presentation each on the systems they provide and on heir experience on these systems. This meeting was very well visited by around 130 attendees.
Las month an energy fair took place in Tórshavn village, organised by a private company once a year. Our partner Umhvørisstovan participated with a stand, three presentations at the fair and one screen displaying information on cooperation within SECURE, the scope of the project and planned outcome. This gave the opportunity to inform visitor on activity at the Agency and to discuss energy efficiency matter and transition from fossil fuel towards renewable energy sources.