Project REACH has come to an end on February 28, 2017. All of the project partners met at one final meeting on February 24 in Zadar, Croatia during which we discussed what we have achieved in the three years that the project lasted. We have also made all of our publications in all languages available […]

On 23 February we organized an all-day event dedicated to energy poverty in coastal areas. The event was held at the City library in Zadar, Croatia. Since all of our research, pilot-projects and recommendations so far have dealt with energy poverty in continental areas, the goal of this event was to inform on the specifics […]

On February 15th, DOOR employees trained their new volunteers for visits to energy poor households. After a short introduction concerning the project REACH itself and the issue of energy poverty, volunteers were given a presentation on statistics about energy poverty in Croatia and SEE and they could hear more about the results of previous visits to […]

After discussions with decision-makers and other interested stakeholders, project REACH partners have launched their policy recommendations for tackling the problem of energy poverty in South-East Europe. The recommendations first focus on the importance of defining energy poverty as a challenge which needs to be addressed. Next, the document presents the specifics of energy poverty in […]

An article about REACH project was published today on the European Commission / EASME web pages, titled “Energy-inefficient homes hit household budgets: why tackling energy poverty is important.” The article gives an overview of the project, explains how it has helped to tackle energy poverty in the pilot areas and stresses out some of the […]

The article titled Energy Poverty: Practical and Structural Solutions for South-East Europe and written by Lidija Živčič, Tomislav Tkalec and Slavica Robić was published in an international peer-reviewed journal Sociology and Anthropology. All three authors are part of the REACH project team. Focus of this article is put on the issue of energy poverty in South-East […]

The conference “Energy Poverty in South East Europe” was held today at the European Parliament in Bruxelles. Sixty participants from institutions and organizations dealing with energy and social issues (members of the EU Parliament, scientists, energy poverty experts and representatives of civil society) gathered together for the conference. It is estimated that in Southeast European […]

“My first time visiting energy impoverished homes in Sisak-Moslavina county was in the Roma settlement Capraška poljana where we met a population which has a very specific culture. Apart from energy poverty, we encountered a plethora of other problems which aroused my interest as a sociologist. At the end of the energy visits and during […]

A conference ‘Energy Poverty in South East Europe’ will be held in the European Parliament on 1st of June 2016. It is estimated that in South East European countries more than 30 % of households struggle with energy poverty. Regional differences play a significant role in its prevalence and characteristics. The conference will bring these […]

The simple water and energy saving measures implemented in energy poor households encompassed by the REACH project are: LEDs, draft proofing measures, heat reflective panels and tap aerators. LEDS Light emitted by LEDs (light-emitting diode) is a result of electron movement in semiconductors. LEDs consume up to 9 times less energy than incandescent light bulbs. One 13 W […]

Electricity itself, transport of electricity and tax. And  the ratio of these three components of the bill differs from country to country. Take a look and compare: Making-sense-of-your-electricity-bill. Compliments of Eurelectric.

Focus is expanding REACH project (Reduce Energy Use And Change Habits) to Bosnia and Herzegovina, Montenegro and Serbia, with financial support of Know-how Exchange Program (KEP) Austria within the Central European Initiative (CEI).   Together with our REACH CEI project partners, CEE from BiH, Green Home from Montenegro and Fractal from Serbia, we have organized […]

Today was the last visit of the second round of visits to energy poor households in Croatia, in Sisak-Moslavina County. Together with 28 volunteers DOOR visited all the households mapped in the first round of visits and installed LED light bulbs,  draft proofing bands, reflective panels behind radiators and aerators in 304 of them. Photo by: […]

The second round of visits to energy poor households in Croatia is still in progress. REACH team of volunteers is now installing LED lightbulbs, draft proofing bands, reflective panels behind radiators and aerators in these households to help them save energy and improve living conditions. What does a REACH visit look like in Croatia? New REACH video takes you […]

Training for Energy Advisors was held in Zagreb from 19th till 22nd January 2016 by DOOR for partners from Srbia, Kosovo, FYR of Macedonia, Albania, Montenegro and Bosnia and Hercegovina with whom DOOR collaborates on South East Europe Sustainable Energy Policy (SEE SEP) project. During the Training the participants were introduced to energy poverty and energy auditing and they […]

Slovenian Ministry of Infrastructure, Ministry of Environment and Spatial Planning, Eco Fund and Ministry of Social Affairs are implementing a nation-wide program for addressing energy poverty in households. It includes visits in energy poor households all over Slovenia with the support of the network of energy advisers ENSVET. More in this video:  

After successfully completing the first part of energy advising visits in Zasavje region, we have started with activities in Pomurje region as well. Cooperation with our regional partner LEA Pomurje is a great help to us, as they took over most of the activities related to communication with households and mentoring of the students. 12 […]

On 29th – 30th September 2015 the 3rd regional conference Energy. Development. Democracy. was organized in Podgorica, Montenegro. The lead question was How successful policy dialogue can ensure sustainable use of energy and climate protection in South East Europe? One of the conference panels tackled the issue of energy poverty in South East Europe region. Dr. […]

We have made short videos about project REACH for every pilot country. In this videos you can find key information about energy poverty and activities we are going to undertake. Most project partners have organised educational energy poverty and energy advising trainings for volunteers that are going to use their newly acquired skills while visiting […]

From November 2014 onwards high school students are implementing visits in energy poor houeholds in Slovenian Zasavje region. Region includes three municipalities: Hrastnik, Trbovlje and Zagorje ob Savi. There are various stakeholders included and active in this project: all three municipalities, three Youth Centres, three Social Work Centres and Technical and Vocational High School Trbovlje […]

Project REACH has been selected among the finalists in the competition for best promotional project on EE / RES, organized by Finance Business Academy in Slovenia. We have already informed you about that. On 21th of April, on the the conference ‘Energy Days 2015’ in Portoroz (Slovenia), awards were given for best projects submitted to […]

Project REACH is nominated for best promotional project on EE/RES in Slovenia. The competition is organized by Business Academy of Daily Finance and the prize will be awarded at the 17th Days of Energy (April 21 to 22 in Portorož). Voting is open until 13th of April. Please vote here for Focus.

One of the success stories so far in REACH is that in Slovenia the government started to finance and implement visits to energy poor households at national level. The development of the national level program was triggered by an official from the Ministry of Infrastructure – Directorate for Energy, who previously worked on energy poverty […]

Identifying the right households, accessing channels to reach them and engaging the right actors is an important challenge. The local situations differ and this is why each of the targeted areas needs a proper exploration. REACH partners teamed up with the local actors to find out what works best for each of the pilot regions. […]

If you need more information about the project and in formats, that are useful for communicating REACH to wider audiences, here the communication tools can be downloaded: project presentation in English, Macedonian, Croatian, Slovenian and Bulgarian project information sheet in English, Bulgarian, Croatian, Macedonian, and Slovenian local communication tools for: Plovdiv area, Sisačko-Moslavačka county, Skopje area, […]

Data availability for the field of fuel poverty is a challenging issue in all countries covered by REACH. Situation analysis is either not available or is out of date. For this reason REACH partners started their work by collecting data in Bulgaria, Croatia, Macedonia and Slovenia. They looked into figures for general poverty, unemployment, difficulties […]

In order to share the knowledge and skills for energy advising among the partners of REACH and build their capacity to deliver training at national level, a one-day training was organised in Ljubljana on 25 April 2014. The training was also opened to the persons, mainly coming from EU accession countries, who expressed interest in participating […]

Between 50 and 125 million citizens of the EU (about 10 – 25%) are estimated to be energy poor. The situation is even more severe in Eastern Europe: more than 30 %  of households are struggling with energy poverty. EU is working on addressing energy poverty, but some important elements are still missing such as workable definition […]

Energy poverty in Europe: situation and solutions marked the kick-off of project REACH. This event, organized on 24 April 2014 within the framework of project REACH aims at exchanging information, know-how and experience from the field of energy poverty at EU level with focus on some of the new Member States. The day before the event […]