The STEP-IN second Summer School was successfully held from July 6th to 7th 2020 with the support of Greek STEP-IN partners NTUA and RAE. Due to COVID-19 restrictions, the meeting originally planned in Metsovo (the Greek Mountain Living Lab), took place online.
The main objective of this second Summer School was to provide those working in the fields of energy efficiency, building renovation, energy policy, and land-use planning (mainly engineers, architects, land-use planners, geographers, etc.), with information about the energy poverty challenges. In total, 32 participants attended the Summer School, which covered a wide range of topics.
On the first day, the Summer School opened with an overview of the STEP-IN project by the project coordinator, Roderick McCall, and then covered both theoretical as well as practical issues related to energy poverty, such as: definitions and indicators used – in Greece and other European countries – for measuring energy poverty and identifying energy vulnerable consumers, energy poverty alleviation measures, ICT tools as a means to tackle with energy poverty and energy efficiency interventions in residential buildings.
The second day started with a presentation by the Energy Advisors of the Mountain Living Lab who shared experiences with the participants on how to engage with people, how to communicate and share energy advice, etc. The next presentations provided the participants with the main economic tools and methods used in assessing energy efficiency investments and the main behavioural barriers and obstacles that result in the so-called ‘energy efficiency paradox’.
The Summer School was completed with practical applications related to energy efficiency and their financial feasibility and a wrap-up discussion. Both the organisers and the participants were happy with the success of the Summer School, which was the first one dedicated on energy poverty issues in Greece.
