‘Energy transition’ indicates the shift from using non-renewable energy sources, like oil, natural gas and coal, to renewable sources, such as wind and solar, with the help of technological advancements and energy conservation techniques. The concept is part of the European Commission’s broader strategy to make the EU’s economy more sustainable, or rather the European Green Deal.

Following this Europe-wide effort to tackle the existing global climate and environmental challenges, Interreg Baltic Sea Region priotises a resource-efficient growth by, among other things, investing in renewable energies and in the decarbonisation of energy systems.  In fact, reducing energy-related CO2 emissions in the region is the area where there is wider room for improvement; as shown by a recent study of the Council of the Baltic Sea States (CBSS) and the Nordic Council of Ministers. 

Interreg Baltic Sea Region has supported transnational initiatives that create durable policy instruments for a more coordinated energy planning in the region. The Programme brought together public and private actors to improve the production and distribution of renewable energy from natural resources. It has facilitated a transition towards energy efficient and low emission cities. In practice, 14 projects have tackled a variety of energy related topics, from regional planning strategies, efficient urban lighting through better energy efficient buildings, using biomass for energy production to supporting offshore electricity grids. They proved how collaborating across borders can bring meaningful results, like in the case of the projects LowTEMP, Baltic Integrid, and Area 21. 

“All these countries face a similar challenge, and they need to develop solutions. Of course, it's good to do this jointly,” explains Britta Schmigotzki, project manager of the lead partner team of LowTEMP. “However, it was not only about exchanging experiences; it was also important to support and motivate each other when implementing pilot solutions.”

LowTEMP worked on reducing energy waste from district heating systems in nine countries around the Baltic Sea. A district heating system is a centralised network that provides heat to residential and commercial areas; such systems are largely widespread in the Baltic Sea region. However, they are often technically outdated causing unnecessary energy waste. To solve the problem, LowTEMP implemented and promoted the installation of a more sustainable district heating supply which reduce heat loss. In fact, thanks to these systems, the heat is distributed at optimally insulated pipes with smaller diameters, allowing also the use of renewable energy sources.

The project partners compiled data on existing energy supply systems in the region in an online platform. They also developed comprehensive training material contributing to the capacity building in municipal and regional authorities to plan, finance, install and maintain low temperature district heating systems. Within the extension stage project, the partners keep working on the training package to adapt it to national conditions and languages. Now, authorities, heat suppliers, planners, engineers and energy agencies get an easy access to the training material. “We managed to raise awareness but also to spread valuable know-how to key actors, which are those deciding on how to further develop the local heat supply.”

Another good example of how cooperation can bring innovative solutions to accelerate the energy transition process is the Baltic Integrid project. The project is carrying a flagship stamp of the EU Strategy for the Baltic Sea Region in the Policy Area Energy, which focuses on ensuring competitive, secure and sustainable energy in the Baltic Sea region.

“Offshore wind has achieved remarkable cost reductions over the past years and it is a very important pillar in the low carbon energy system that we need to see in the future,” said Anika Nicolaas Ponder, the communication manager of the lead partner team of Baltic Integrid. 

Offshore wind energy has great potential in the region due to the special characteristics of the Baltic Sea (i.e. lower wave height, less pronounced tides and shorter distance to the shore). However, in 2014 only 1.1 GW were installed out of the potential 12.2 GW by 2030. As a response, Baltic Integrid offered a cooperation platform to system operators and policymakers specialised in energy and climate. It helped them to meet, exchange ideas and plan strategies on offshore wind energy development in the area.

“When it comes to energy, it's still very much nationally determined. So, it's important that everybody has a seat at the table and gets to explain what their national context is like. Working as a transnational team allows to consider different national perspectives and increases thus the likelihood of success of a project.” Together, they created a visionary roadmap on the necessary steps to plan, implement and operate a meshed offshore wind grid in the Baltic Sea region by 2050. In such a grid, offshore wind farms are connected to more than one national transmission system. This concept was tested and verified in two pre-feasibility studies, covering a potential meshed grid between Poland-Sweden-Lithuania and Germany-Sweden-Denmark.

Project partners also established the Baltic Offshore Grid Forum for authorities and experts to continue the discussion on the offshore wind energy and grid development in the region even after the end of the project. 

Moreover, when talking about possible future developments, Anika added “We are also looking forward to perhaps integrating the idea of offshore wind electricity to hydrogen, which is a very new and cool upcoming technology. It's been in the pipelines for a while and now the European Union has a strategy for the development of green hydrogen. What you need to create green hydrogen is lots of green electricity. So, that's perfect for offshore winds. We hope that we can somehow integrate that in a follow-up project.” 

Great pictures inspire, great pictures encourage reflections and make others relate to the topic more easily. Great pictures help reflect on the achievements and illustrate even most complex matters. This year, the projects submit their great pictures in four categories: “Cooperation”, “Your project in one picture”, “Your project result in use” and “30 (years of Interreg)”.

Out of 73 submitted pictures, the jury of the Managing Authority/Joint Secretariat (MA/JS) selected one best picture in each category. In parallel, all pictures submitted in the photo competition were shared with the Programme followers on Facebook for public voting. 

Best picture in the category: "Cooperation"

What are the challenges for Baltic LINes?

Planning the national sea area is a complex task where the different sectoral interests need to be carefully weighed against each other. For example, it requires finding balance between the economic interests of the shipping industry, the offshore energy industries and fisheries, and the space needed for environmental protection or recreational uses. Coherent planning across borders and aligning national maritime spatial plans to ensure an efficient and optimal use of the sea space was a key challenge tackled in the Interreg Baltic Sea Region project Baltic LINes. Throughout its activities, the project stressed out the importance of up-to-date transnational data; it analysed trends and developed future scenarios for shipping and energy sectors. Quite importantly, it also established criteria and tools for the stakeholder involvement. 

One of key activity areas for Baltic LINes was developing solutions for coherent planning of linear infrastructure, such as cables and pipelines. The project concentrated on the identification of planning mismatches between shipping and renewable energy sectors in border areas and collected methods how these could be avoided or solved. For example, ship corridors can have different widths in one country as compared to its continuation in the next bordering country. This might result in major planning mismatches in the future.

Matthias Maluck: Everyone knows about ship wrecks, sunk for example by an accident or a battle. But underwater cultural heritage includes also underwater landscapes, like in Estonia or in Germany, where the coast line was shifted by a couple of hundred meters over the past thousands of years. Maritime cultural heritage also includes cultural heritage on land that has to do something with the sea: harbours, lighthouses, fishing villages, or Viking age trading settlements such as the one in Hedeby in Schleswig-Holstein which is 30 km inland but connected to the Baltic Sea.    

Matthias Maluck: The challenge is to make maritime cultural heritage a part of spatial planning of the sea. All the countries around the Baltic Sea are supposed to prepare maritime spatial plans to manage the different human activities in the sea. Currently,  when planners decide on shipping routes, fishing or aquaculture grounds or wind park locations, maritime cultural heritage is not taken into account at all. This is where we start. We now try to integrate maritime cultural heritage locations into the plans: We have wrecks and underwater landscapes, and we need to put them in the maritime spatial dimension and connect them with the legislative rules so that planners have means to deal with the heritage. We also need to look at what is interacting with the cultural heritage in a negative way, i.e. what potentially damages the heritage, but also in a positive way, i.e. economic opportunities. This is where blue growth comes in as tourism is one of the sectors that can use heritage.

Matthias Maluck: Cultural heritage does not stop at the borders - it often transcends borders. When you have an important underwater landscape in Germany extending into Danish or Polish waters, it needs to be acknowledged as protected on both sides of the border, not only on one. Otherwise it may be damaged. What we need is to find common grounds for evaluating and characterising our cultural heritage across countries in the Baltic Sea region so that we can provide the same recommendations to our planners. 

Matthias Maluck: I am an archaeologist by training, and I found out that if you want to protect and preserve cultural heritage, you need to make people interested in it. If nobody cares about cultural heritage, nobody wants to protect it. And you need to address those, who can use or affect heritage as soon as possible - not when the damage is already done. The best way to do that is to go to the spatial planners because they are the ones who decide what people can do where in and at the sea and what they can’t. 

BalticRIM has been selected as a project under the European Year of Cultural Heritage 2018. Congratulations! What does it mean to you? 

Matthias Maluck: It is a great honour that we are part of the European Year of Cultural Heritage and it fits very well to our idea of this common heritage. The Baltic Sea is one of the regions in Europe that has very strong and very important shared heritage.