Crete’s Clean Energy Transition Roadmap

The Regional Development Fund of Crete/ Energy Agency implements a systematic procedure of multi-stakeholder participatory dialogue and working plan for the establishment of a roadmap and an Action Plan for the Clean Energy Transition of the island of Crete. This procedure is based on the EU Green Deal and subsequent new EU targets as well as:

• the existing study for the regional energy planning, the existing municipal SEAPs and the ongoing ones and the new national priorities specified for the island of Crete;
• The Regional Climate Adaptation Action Plan;
• The RIS3 regional Smart Innovation strategies for sustainable energy, climate change and circular economy;
• Regional Operational – Community Support Framework;
• The new priorities for the programming period 2021-2027;
• Scenarios for the new electricity and gas interconnections to the mainland;
• The research and innovation sectoral and regional capabilities and priorities;
• The interests of the investors and the re-skilling of the engineers/technicians;
• The energy cooperatives and the energy-climate democracy;
• The social interests and the energy poverty.

The Regional Energy Agency of Crete is the regional coordinator of the Covenant of Mayors (CoM) and the Covenant of Islands for the whole island of Crete and member of the Regional Innovation Council, capitalising its long experience in energy and climate planning.

The island of Crete is the biggest one among the 26 pilot islands chosen in 2019 by the EU Secretariat for Clean Energy for EU islands. Therefore, the exercise for the Clean Energy transition of such a big island is much more complex and timeconsuming and the results will be of a particular interest. The structured and strategic dialogue, led by the Regional Energy Agency of Crete during 2020-21 with all relevant stakeholders, is also combined with horizontal assessment for sectoral works and implementation for renewable energy sources, energy efficiency in public and private buildings, bioclimatic public places, energy cooperatives, public lighting, virtual net metering in municipalities, sustainable energy education in schools, and projects related to circular economy.

The main ongoing and expected outcomes include:

• Build-up of a common strategic vision and consensus for a fair energy transition;
• Combine the island SECAP (SECAP-I) with the 24 municipal SEAPs/ SECAPS; Prioritising energy efficiency and energy savings in all activity sectors;
• Maximise the RES penetration in the insular energy system;
• Establish an efficient electricity management system, combining electricity interconnections
• and the local RES electricity production;
• Attract and support sustainable energy and energy efficiency investments;
• Combine the Smart Regional Specialisation of the Crete Region with pilot and innovative energy projects and the regional re-skilling;
• Mainstream and coordinate the projects and the different financial sources;
• Promote the social economy and the energy democracy;
• Design and implement a continuous and multi-faced communication – dissemination – promotion plan for the regional energy transition.

This best practice is issued from our publication Sustainable Regions in Action 2022. Read it now to discover many more best practices from FEDARENE members as well as an overview of our activities.