«Integration of Renewable Energy Sources (RES) Technologies in the community of Agricultural University of Athens (AUA)»

The project regards the implementation and integration of RET in the community of AUA. The proposal was submitted for funding to the Centre for Renewable Energy Sources (CRES) –as Operating Responsible– and after review it has been chosen to be funded from the EEA Grants program (http://eeagrants.org/, www.eeagrants.gr,  http://eeares.cres.gr/index.htm) with scientific responsible professor George Papadakis and the technical support of the Technical Service Unit of the University.  The project started on October 1^st, 2015 and will end on April 30^th, 2017. The project budget is 831138.90 EURO.

The sub-projects of the project are:

• Subproject 1: Supply and installation of a stand-alone photovoltaic (PV) system of nominal capacity of 100 kWp on the roof of AUA’s library building.
• Subproject 2: Supply and installation of a biomass heater of a capacity of 30 kW for heating the library building of AUA.
• Subproject 3: Supply and installation of a) stand-alone PV installation of nominal capacity of 5 kWp and b) 12 pillars with LEDs for the lighting sports fields of AUA (two tennis courts, one basketball court and one volleyball court.
• Subproject 4: Supply and installation of a) electrical vehicles (electric mini bus and 10 electric bikes) and b) stand-alone PV installation for charging the vehicles.
• Subproject 5: Supply and installation of the monitoring equipment for the Subprojects 1,3,4.
• Subproject 6: Provision of special services for the scientific monitoring, the training and dissemination activities of the project results.
• Subproject 7: Supply and installation of the monitoring equipment for the subproject 2.
• Subproject 8: Development of bilateral relationships between AUA and partners from the donor countries in the field of renewable energy under the scope of EEA Grants.

The buildings and the areas which have been selected for the above interventions are been visited daily by hundreds of people which come to AUA through various ways (busses, cars, metro).

The interventions:

• Satisfy lighting needs with the installation of modern and environmentally friendly lighting systems at the sports fields.
• Make easier the access to AUA campus with the use of an electric bus which will carry students / employees / visitors from the nearest metro station to AUA.
• Ease transportation inside the AUA campus with the use of the electric bikes.
• Reduce the (conventional) electricity and thermal energy consumption and also the emissions of CO₂.
• Operate the project systems as pilot and demonstration installations for replication from other universities of Greece.

Benefits form the project:

• Reduction of the energy cost of AUA.
• CO₂ emissions’ reduction.
• Improvement of the quality life at the AUA campus.
• Upgrade the educational and research activities.
• Development of green consciousness as the project provides the possibility to students and staff to be informed and participate in a green model of development.