Demonstration of energy efficiency improvement practices and use of renewable energy sources in a pilot kindergarten building of Sevkar community of Tavush region (ARM/SGP/OP4/Y3/CORE/2010/09)

Project Details & Results

The project goal is to decrease the energy consumption in the buildings of educational sector through application of energy efficient (EE) techniques and use of renewable energy sources (RES). The project plans to incorporate installation of alternative energy (solar) heating and energy efficient appliances into the planned reconstruction works at the pilot kindergarten.
The project will result in increased energy efficiency of the building, reduced natural gas consumption, thus decreasing carbon dioxide emissions into the atmosphere.
In the meantime, cost savings from reduced energy (electricity and natural gas) consumption will contribute to the improvement of the community livelihood. In parallel, the project will strengthen the capacity of local authorities, educational institutions and other organizations involved in the educational sector.

Please see the project results at: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=aTM7Em5xMls (Armenian version)
and the project photostory at: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=SV3jrvhKOyM (English version)

Notable Community Participation
In-kind contribution to the project from local authorities and community members is one of the key criteria for selection of the pilot kindergarten building for the EE and RES demonstration activities. Furthermore, it is envisaged that the community members will be actively involved in the project implementation process and monitoring and evaluation activities as well.

Capacity - Building Component
The project will strengthen capacities of local communities, regional authorities and personnel of educational institutions of the Tavush region through demonstration of energy efficiency improvement and renewable energy use practices in pre-school educational institutions’ buildings as well training of modern and affordable energy efficiency technologies of buildings. Special training/demonstration sessions will be conducted on the provided BEEP-1 software, applied for planning of buildings energy efficiency measures.

Emphasis on Sustainable Livelihoods
The project aiming at EE improvement of the preschool educational buildings will have a positive impact on the well being of the community. At present, poor technical housing conditions of pre-school institutions make communities consume more natural gas, electricity and other types of fuel in order to cover the unnecessary heat losses.

Gender Focus
Over 50% of Sevkar project beneficiaries and stakeholders are women. In particular, the tobacco farmers/curers (mostly women) will benefit by using the produced hot water for taking showers on daily basis. Also, women constitute over 90% of the pre-school education staff.

Promoting Public Awareness of Global Environment
Press releases for mass media to be produced by the project will increase environmental awareness and sensitivity of the large public and information dissemination on project results. Moreover, project information materials and activities such as training and information provision, education, consulting, are intended to increase awareness of the certain target groups (e.g. population of communities, staff of local governments and educational institutions) on local concerns and global issues related to the climate change.

Policy Impact
The project activities imply from Armenia's commitment under the UNFCCC and are in harmony with the national strategy and policy on its implementation.
In line with the GEF strategic and national environmental and development priorities, the project will contribute to the climate-change mitigation and proofing, and promote sustainable energy use practices, providing a simple but thrift solution to local environmental and social problems. Moreover, the project idea well fits into the National Action Plans on UNFCCC and is in harmony with the Millennium Development Goals adopted by Armenia (Goal# 7, Target 7b/7.2).

Inovative Financial Mechanisms
The innovative financial mechanism will be deployed by pilot implementation model, enabling to involve credits and loans in increasing energy efficiency of educational buildings.
The project will also support a feasibility study on the “shared savings” concept, in which public buildings (e.g. schools, kindergartens) that reduce energy consumption are allowed to keep some of the funds saved as a result of application EE and RES.

Project Results
The project will produce the following outputs:
1. Incorporated EE solutions in the kindergarten building.
2. Solar heating system is installed and connected to the main heating system.
3. Training conducted for the staff of local governments, educational institutions on EE and RES practices.
4. Publication of strategic recommendations, lessons learnt, experience, project outcomes and dissemination throughout Armenia.

Initial state of the kindergarten building in Sevkar Community, Tavush Region	Kick-off meeting at Sevkar community 1_SGP monitoring visit_21.06.10	Kick-off meeting at Sevkar community 2_SGP monitoring visit_21.06.10	Kindergarten under renovation 1_SGP monitoring visit_21.06.10
Kindergarten under renovation 2_SGP monitoring visit_21.06.10	Installation of the solar collector system is in full swing - in parallel with reconstruction works 1_July 26, 2010	Installation of the solar collector system is in full swing - in parallel with reconstruction works 2_July 26, 2010	Kindergarten reconstruction works are in full swing 1_SGP monitoring visit_Aug 23 2010
Kindergarten reconstruction works are in full swing 2_SGP monitoring visit_Aug 23 2010	Solar system boiler unit 1_SGP monitoring visit_Aug 23 2010	Solar system boiler unit 2_SGP monitoring visit_Aug 23 2010	Solar system installation works are in full swing 1_SGP monitoring visit_Aug 23 2010
Solar system installation works are in full swing 2_SGP monitoring visit_Aug 23 2010	Solar system is fenced_SGP monitoring visit_ 27.09.10	Solar system boiler unit is fenced_SGP monitoring visit_27.09.10	Solar system is connected to the centralized gas heating system of the kindergarten_SGP monitoring visit_ 27.09.10
USAID-CHF signboard with project partners_SGP monitoring visit_ 27.09.10	Public solar shower 1_Nov 22 2010	Public solar shower 2_Nov 22 2010	Public solar shower 3_Nov 22 2010
PV panels installed next to the solar hot water system_11.08.2011	Project final monitoring_September 6, 2011