In Budapest, on the 4^th May the annual information day of the project COACH BioEnergy was held, with participation of about 70 people; local government decision-makers, professionals and company representatives.

After a little overlook of the newly presented National Energy Action Plan of Hungary, the Ministry of National Development explained that the creation of a Sustainable Energy Management law is in consideration following Germany’s example.

Norbert Kohlheb from the Szent István University in Gödöllő introduced the conclusions of the renewable energy strategy plan in Szada created in the framework of the Coach BioEnergy project with high the involvement of the local residents. After analysing the energy demand and potential further steps were proposed to the municipality for reaching the objectives.

In case of municipalities, the main question is always financing possibilities. The Hungarian Energy Centre is the attendant organisation of the state support funds on the energy efficiency. 8 tenders were presented in the framework of the Green Economy development programme; some of them are targeted to biomass projects.

4 best practice examples were presented by the investors or the municipalities, for the use of biomass or solar energy in public buildings. A modernisation project of a district heating system with biomass heating plant was also presented, based on the large amount of forestry waste available locally as fuel.

The most interesting presentation was about the the financial benefits of the modernisation of the heating system of the Abbey of Pannonhalma, and of the fact that 40% of the biomass used comes from waste produced at the abbey, such as grapevines, lavender straws, and excess produced at the arboretum, facilitating handling the large amount of biomass waste that had been previously hard to deal with. They are installing a photovoltaic system on top of the heating plant in the following weeks, thus part of the electricity need of the abbey will also be satisfied from renewable energy sources.

As closing act of the conference the Award Ceremony of the Hungarian Renewable Energy Sources Champions League took place. The winner towns and cities of the Solar and Biomass Championship were presented, and the professional sponsors gave out their special prizes. 146 municipalities competed in this year’s championship in three categories. 3 municipalities were awarded by the Suncrown Council consisting of professional partners, where local governments showed exemplary activity in energy efficiency projects and are involved in renewable energy sources as well.It was an important aspect how municipalities could inform locals about energy efficiency projects.

This year, the first Biomass Championship was organised. 21 local governments with sustainable, decentralised biomass instalments based on the local heat demand competed to be the champion.

Before cutting the Biomass and Suncrown cakes, awarded municipalities presented their realised investments and spoke about further plans of their respective municipalities.