About XPRESS
XPRESS is a European project funded by the Horizon 2020 Program. The objective of the project is to support the collaboration between public authorities and SMEs through Green Public Procurement (GPP) encouraging the gradual adoption of RES (Renewable Energy Sources) in European regions.
Final Conference
In September 2019, the kick-off meeting of the XPRESS project took place at EURADA’s premises. After a journey of 3-years, XPRESS project’s partners came one more time to Brussels for the final conference. During this long journey, several activities were implemented as well as many useful tools have been developed. Unfortunately, Covid-19 influenced the project’s activities for more than one year, but the consortium easily adapted to the new normal routine and moved all the activities online. EURADA, as an umbrella organisation based in Brussels, was supposed to organise a number of meetings across EUROPE in order to collect best practices and facilitate the shared-on know-how among members, public authorities and SMEs involved in the energy sector.
The final conference of the XPRESS project was divided into two sections. During the morning session, the first three work packages (WPs) were discussed. Concerning WP1, Creation of the Framework, the outcomes and conclusions of the 20 different stakeholder’s café, and three policy co-creation workshops were presented. The lack of a legal definition of GPP and the inclination of public authorities towards the application of traditional cheaper solutions; together with complicated PP procedures and the difficulty for SMEs to invest in innovative RES solutions due to their lack of resources and uncertainty of returns after investing in RES, has been by far the minimum common multiple barriers identified in all events regarding the implementation of green solutions through PP.
During WP2, Platform Building and Data, an analysis was carried out in relation to the likelihood of (1) companies investing in eco-innovation in RES and (2) winning PP contracts based on different characteristics. Additionally, the different tools created to facilitate not only the connection between SMEs and public authorities (matchmaking tool) but also the search for specific tenders, were also presented. Lastly, the members of the consortium working on WP3, Analysis of the barriers, shared detailed knowledge about different deliverables regarding an analysis of the financial constraints SMEs face based on specific case studies.
During the afternoon session of the event, WP4, Assessment of Environmental socio-economic Impact of RES innovations was tackled. The session assessed how the volatility of fossil fuels markets influences renewable energy prices. There was also a discussion on how investments in renewable energies are suffering exponential growth, due to the current RePower EU strategy to achieve energy security/autonomy after considering Russia an unreliable partner due to its aggression on Ukrainian soil.
Ultimately, LOBA, in charge of WP5, Dissemination, displayed the creation procedure of the XPRESS Portal, image templates, videos, as well as promotional material.
It was a successful event where all the consortium had the opportunity to jointly share and discuss the results, achievements and challenges after 3 years of the project’s implementation, as well as a roundtable with insightful sister projects (W4RES, Greener, ProCirc, and Super-i). Moreover, it was a great opportunity to meet again face-to-face after too many months of online meetings.
EURADA’s work on XPRESS project is coming to an end after 3 years of involvement. However, new projects and horizons are expected and EURADA’s staff is more committed and united than ever to making regional development become a reality. In addition, the EURADA secretariat and its members are working diligently on the implementation of RES at the regional level in order to meet the climate-neutral strategy by 2050.
For any further information please contact Giacomo Frisanco, Nora Scantamburlo or Sara Hurtado Meseguer.
