"Vale Douro Norte" is a sub-area of "Trás-os-Montes and Alto Douro", situated in the North of Portugal, bordered by Douro River in South and by "Alvão" and " Marão" mountains in the North. Its area is of approximately 1 204 Km2 and it has around 112 786 inhabitants, which corresponds to a population density of 93,7 inhabitants/Km2.

Between 1987 and 1990 the VALOREN Programme allowed considerable financial incentives in the area of heating in schools. In fact this intervention contributed significantly to the installation of firewood equipment.

However, the lack of info and instructions of how to operate this type of equipment, the lack of maintenance by specialised companies and the lack of wood supply, contributed to the problems with the performance of the equipment installed. In fact, there was an incomplete study of the power of equipment to be implemented in different kinds of the buildings, contributing to the underestimation of heating demands.

The project was developed in the Portuguese region of "Vale Douro Norte" in close partnership with the local Municipalities. The main objective of this project was to study all the issues related to the heating process in schools and purpose new ways of heating systems implementation. 

This project contributed to substitute the traditional fuel (wood) by briquettes (cleaner fuel, with greater calorific power and more simple to handle), contributing thus to the implementation/emergence of the biomass market, energy efficient heating equipment was implemented in schools taking into account the following criteria:

This project contributed to the development/implementation of new concepts and ideas and an adaptation of the market to the new technologies. A special attention was taken in order to promote the use of biomass (instead of other fuels, like electricity and gas) in heating systems, contributing thus to the energy conservation/rational use of energy and to reduce the associated environmental impacts.

Through the use of an alternative fuel (briquettes) and the isolation of buildings, the Municipalities saved around 800 tones of wood/year.

This project totalled around 670 000 Euro of investment, receiving a financial incentive through the following Portuguese Programmes:

Regional Energy Agency of "Vale Douro Norte"
Phone: +351 259 30 97 31
arevdn@amvdn.pt

01/01/2001

case

Urban Policy > Urban environment > Environmental sustainability

Energy efficiency