City Profile Gdynia
Introduction Gdynia is a city located on the Baltic Sea coast in the Pomeranian region, in Poland. It is a young city, which only received the town status in 1926. Nowadays, the city has a population of about 250,000 and is an important centre of maritime business (shipyards, harbours), international trade, science and academic education as well as culture and tourism. The city authorities are committed to pursuing the priorities set out in the Gdynia Development Strategy, designed to meet the strategic goal, which is to achieve sustainable, socially acceptable and environmentally sound development to help the city meet European standards. The Gdynia city energy policy is set out in the project entitled Assumptions for the Plan of Supply Heat, Power and Gas Fuels for the City of Gdynia, and approved by the Gdynia City Council in 2002. This document is currently being updated and will be confirmed in 2012. The second aim is to implement the Sustainable Energy Action Plan (SEAP) adopted on 26 September 2012. Gdynia signed up to the Covenant of Mayors (CoM) initiative in 2011. Its main aim is to undertake action that will exceed the 20-20-20 EU energy targets. The Gdynia City Planning Office is in charge of both SEAP and Assumptions for the Plan of Supply Heat, Power and Gas Fuels for the City of Gdynia. Another department engaged in climate policy is the Department of Environment, which is coordinating the renewable energy programme in Gdynia. Energy-Efficient Buildings and Districts The Buildings Department of Gdynia city is responsible for a thermomodernisation programme in Gdynia. Today, 17 schools are already more energy efficient (their energy efficiency has been improved by 50%). This year, three other schools will be renovated. The Roads and Green Areas Management Department installed smart grids for public lamps and changed 5,000 mercury lamps to sodium ones. They have raised the number of lamps from 10,000 to 16,000 and also managed to reduce electricity consumption from 3,000 MWh to 2,600 MWh. The city of Gdynia also promotes green energy. The Model Energy House was opened next to the City Hall. The building is equipped with a wind turbine, solar panels, solar collectors, a recuperation system and a heat pump. It illustrates that modern buildings can be energy independent. Moreover, the city carries out educational programmes on ecology and energy safety in Gdynia s schools. The activities were welcomed by the Polish National Energy Conservation Agency, with Gdynia being was awarded first place in the competition entitled The Most Energy-Efficient Polish Municipality in the category for municipalities with over 100,000 inhabitants. December 2012 1
Renewable Energy Sources and Distributed Generation The Buildings Department has built seven new social houses with a hybrid system of solar collectors and a gas boiler, which are used to heat water. Next year, the city will start the thermo-modernisation of three schools with heat pumps to reduce the energy consumption of the heating system. The Buildings Department will build three playgrounds with special lamps that run on solar batteries. The district heating company is modernising the city s heating system by means of modern, pre-insulated pipelines and boilers which will be connected to the new heating installations. Many of these activities are financed in co-operation with a private partnership. Energy in Urban Transport Regarding climate policies in urban transport, Gdynia s main aim is to modernise electric public transport. 25 old trolleybuses have been replaced by new ones, which are able to cover a distance of 5 km without recharging. These new buses do not need energy from the traction power network. The city is also extending the trolley network. They established new electric substations and modernised five old substations. Gdynia s part of the project amounts to PLN 98,000,000 (approx. 23 million), of which PLN 55,000,000 ( 13.3 million) is funded by a regional programme. In addition, Gdynia has 14 CNG (compressed natural gas) buses and is going to raise this number to 40. Eventually, they are going to be converted into BioCNGs. Traditional public transport will be modernised through the purchase of modern buses which will conform to high emission standards. Furthermore, the city of Gdynia is involved in the following three projects: SEGMENT The city of Gdynia is currently realising a three-year-long SEGMENT project within the framework of the Intelligent Energy Europe 2007 2013 Programme. It aims to examine and test the use of consumer market segmentation techniques in persuading people to change their travel behaviour and use more energy efficient modes of transport (www.segmentproject.eu). The project is based on the concept of turning points in life: The major idea is that individual mobility behaviour could be easily affected in situations where general living conditions change (i.e. relocation, change of job). In such situations, people could be inspired to choose, for example, low carbon transport options. The project makes use of market segmentation in order to increase the impact of marketing campaigns focused on mobility management. The following target groups were chosen: first form pupils and their parents, people starting a new job and parents with new-borns. Gdynia s share of the project s costs amounts to PLN 161,384 (approx. 40,000), of which around 70% is funded by the Intelligent Energy Europe Programme. December 2012 2
TRISTAR The city of Gdynia is currently coordinating a partner project called TRISTAR, which is supposed to revolutionise road traffic within the Tri-City conurbation. In this project, more than 60 video cameras will be installed at over 140 crossroads and pedestrian crossings to constantly monitor road conditions. The system will allow traffic lights to operate properly so that cars will be able to move at a constant speed instead of getting stuck in traffic queues during peak hours, which will significantly reduce the time needed to pass through the conurbation s arteries. The system will be managed from two centres located in Gdynia and Gdansk and will include, among other things, a traffic offence recording system. Special screens will inform drivers of road traffic of the expected time to get to certain points in the Tri-City and of free parking spaces. The screens installed next to bus stops will display the virtual departure time, whereas the road signs will give warnings of weather conditions and indicate the corresponding speed limits. The costs of Gdynia s share of the project amounts to 15,000,000, of which 12,750,000 is financed by the Infrastructure and Environment Programme. TROLLEY Based on its wide experience, Gdynia has developed a solution by converting old diesel buses into trolleybuses. The costs for such a converted trolleybus are only 25% of the costs of a new trolleybus. On the basis of an analysis of the rolling stock in Gdynia and a subsequent comparative study on technical and operational readiness and energysaving potentials of other Central Europe fleets, a handbook on bus conversion will be put together. The project will result in increased competitive conditions of trolleybus systems for other trolleybus operators, in particular in Central Europe, and will provide know-how to those who are thinking of introducing trolleybuses. The cost of Gdynia s part of the project amounts to 100,000, 85,000 of which is financed by the European Regional Development Fund (ERDF). Financing Gdynia s climate protection activities are mainly financed by European funds (i.e. Intelligent Europe Programme, Infrastructure and Environment Programme, European Regional Development Fund, CIVITAS TELLUS, CIVITAS II PLUS DYN@MO, and Norway Funds). On the one hand, those December 2012 3
programmes have great significance for the modernisation of Gdynia s infrastructure. On the other hand, private partnerships in the residential sector as well as its own resources (i.e. transport, city lighting, housing stock) are of major importance for financing these activities. Future Visions and Expectations In order to meet the obligations of the Covenant of Mayors, Gdynia has adjusted the municipal organisational structure by creating the position of a person responsible for energy, environmental protection and the implementation of CoM provisions. Furthermore, Gdynia is going to create a power engineering group. Assuming that greenhouse gas emissions (measured in CO 2 equivalents) will be reduced by 20% in relation to the base year, the level of emissions in the year 2020 should not be higher than 115,610 mg of CO 2 e. This means that the reduction of greenhouse gas emissions from 2012 to 2020 would have to be no less than 12,100 mg of CO 2 e (that is, about 1,510 1,515 mg of CO 2 e per year). The prioritised areas of action include improving public transport, and educational, construction and renewable energy sources in residential construction. December 2012 4
Doeppersberg 19 42103 Wuppertal GERMANY City of Gdynia Poland www.cascadecities.eu CASCADE is an EU-funded project led by EUROCITIES which aims to design and deliver large-scale networking and mutual learning actions on local energy leadership among members of the EUROCITIES network. The CASCADE consortium is composed of: EUROCITIES, Wuppertal Institut, Koucky & Partners and the following cities: Amaroussion, Amsterdam, Birmingham, Burgas, Edinburgh, Eindhoven, Gateshead, Genoa, Gijon, Malmo, Mannheim, Milan, Nantes, Stockholm, Sunderland, Tampere, Terrassa, Venice and Warsaw. The CASCADE project is co-financed by the Intelligent Energy Europe Programme. The sole responsibility for the content of this report lies with the authors. It does not necessarily reflect the opinion of the European Union. Neither the EACI nor the European Commission are responsible for any use that may be made of the information contained therein. December 2012 5