The mountainous – agricultural communities could benefit from Renewable Energy Sources (RES) and Rational Use of Energy (RUE) applications based on their high RES potential as well as the increased energy and electricity consumption, as an inevitable outcome of their economical development. Scope of this project is the RES and RUE stimulation of four local communities of the European Union (EU), in a way that will ensure both the integrated and balanced evolution in the economical – employment, environmental, social and technological dimension of the sustainable development.

The current project will develop a Scientific Reference System that will be set up to enhance availability quality, completeness of information and data on new energy technologies and energy end-use efficiency options. This project will produce unbiased, validated, organised and scientifically agreed technical and economic information on renewable energy and end-use efficient energy technology. Moreover, comparisons with other clean energy technologies of comparable importance for sustainable development e.g., Fuel Cells, H2-vectors and Heat Pumps, will be done.

The general objective of the current project is to support the implementation of the energy strategy of the Russian Federation, through its Federal Energy Saving Programme and the newly adopted legislation on energy saving. In addition to this, the policy aim of this project is to reduce the barriers to the implementation of energy efficiency projects within the three regions of Arkhangelsk, Astrakhan and Kaliningrad and within the specific energy sectors activities within each of the respective regions.