On April 3-4, 2025 we had the pleasure to co-organise a two-day event titled “Decarbonizing Heating: Scalable Solutions and Financing Pathways for Kozani’s Energy Transition” as part of the project Energopolis 2.0. The event was hosted by the Municipality of Kozani with the overall support of the Global Covenant of Mayors for Climate & Energy (GCoM) and Energy, delivered by Resilient Cities Catalyst and its implementing partner Climate Change Hub Greece Hub in cooperation with  Covenant of Mayors – Europe and the Cities Heat Detox.

Energopolis 2.0 aims at supporting  Kozani in its effort to identify suitable green energy solutions for its district heating and advance into building the roadmap for a comprehensive heating and cooling plan with a suite of possible scenarios stemming from comparable European cities. 

Workshop objectives:

• Policy Engagement: Convene Mayors, EU officials and the regional government to communicate the urgency of a clean district heating transition and challenge the reliance on natural gas as an alternative.
• Explore Proven Solutions:  Present successful case studies from European cities that have transitioned their district heating networks away from fossil fuels, offering insights relevant to Kozani’s specific challenges.
• Develop Adaptable Pathways for Kozani:  Provide practical and scalable strategies for Kozani to design and implement sustainable heating solutions,  
  particularly for its remote villages that lack district heating.
• Co-Design Solutions with Key Stakeholders:  Engage municipal leaders, EU representatives, technical experts, and funding institutions in a structured  
  process to define viable options for Kozani’s energy transition.
• Align Stakeholders Around Implementation Strategies:  Facilitate dialogue to identify the most promising pathways for Kozani’s transition, ensuring  
  coordination between the municipality, national policymakers, and EU climate initiatives
• Identify Financing & Policy Pathways:  Showcase available funding mechanisms and investment models that can support Kozani’s transition,  
  ensuring a just and economically viable shift to renewable district heating.
• Develop a Phasing Plan for Kozani: Co-design a roadmap for a sustainable and affordable district heating transformation, incorporating both technical
  solutions and financial models
   

All speakers from local and international entities as well as EU officials offered critical information, best practices, studies results and viewpoints upon the issue of decarbonizing heating in Kozani in order to facilitate the co-designing of Kozani’s energy transition. Representatives of local public and private organisations and institutions who attended the event showed great interest and active participation.

Day 1: Setting the Stage & Learning from Global Experience

Opening

Mr Giannis Kokkaliaris, Mayor of Kozani opened the event welcoming all guests and organisers, presenting the content of the workshop, and highlighting the overall goal of the event: to cooperate, exchange best practices, and collaboratively find viable and sustainable solutions for heating in Kozani and the surrounding region as it enters a new era.

“It is of vital importance to support our remote communities with innovative and tailored heating solutions, offering a path toward energy sustainability. In Kozani, a city with a long-standing tradition in energy, we understand the importance of innovation, leadership, and sustainability in order to ensure a better future and a decent standard of living for our citizens."

Mr Ioannis Sakiotis – Representative of the European Commission in Greece, mentioned that the total amount allocated for the Just Transition policy amounts to €19.32 billion at the European level. For Greece, approximately €1.6 billion is allocated, with implementation being promoted by the Special Service for Just Development Transition (EYDAM).

"The message from the European Commission is clear: all together for a just and green transition."
 

After the remarks of Mr Giannis Kokkaliaris, Mayor of Kozani, Ms. Konstantina Karydi, Managing Director Resilient Cities Catalyst Europe, VP Climate Change Hub (CCHuB) set the basis and the goals of the two-day workshop: 

• Examination of European solutions for the "decarbonization" of district heating in Kozani
• Examination of solutions to combat energy poverty in municipal districts and other municipalities in the region of Kozani
• Examination of financing methods, and implementation strategies for the energy upgrade of the private building stock
• Co-designing a roadmap for a sustainable and affordable district heating transformation
   

Mr Giorgos Alexandridis – Deputy Mayor of Kozani for Digital Transition, New Technologies, Planning, and Entrepreneurship highlighted at his introductory speech that district heating should continue being an affordable, reliable, and sustainable service for all the citizens of Kozani.
“Through this workshop, we aim to exchange views and seek solutions that will ensure the long-term future of district heating. We consider it very important that through participatory dialogue, exchange of opinions, and documenting of results, we can achieve meaningful work."
 

International Best Practices

At the section International Best Practices invited speakers presented useful examples throughout the European Framework regarding energy transition in heating.

Ms Allison Le Corre – Communications & EU Policy Officer, Covenant of Mayors Europe presented a Case Study about The Covenant of Mayors Europe and the Cities Heat Detox Campaign. The Covenant of Mayors Europe has operated for more than 15 years and is the largest movement of local authorities working on energy and climate issues in Europe counting over 11,000 signatories. Kozani has been a signatory since 2011. As she mentioned, the idea is to build a bottom-up movement of mayors committed to the EU’s energy and climate goals, developing concrete action plans to implement these targets.

In her speech she pinpointed that heating remains a major issue for climate change in Europe — 72% of heating systems still depend on fossil fuels. “Cities' Heat Detox encourages local authorities to cleanse their heating systems of fossil fuels for healthier, stronger, more efficient, and more secure energy systems. Decarbonization is not just good for the environment — it creates opportunities for economic modernization, job creation, and energy independence.”

Mr Jannis Beutel from Wuppertal Institute, Coal Regions in Transition Initiative participated through ZOOM presenting a Working Group on District Heating by Wuppertal Institute, which turned out to be quite successful, gathering valuable lessons learnt and building a strong peer-to-peer network among coal regions across Europe. The goal was to facilitate peer-to-peer exchanges between regions on the topic of district heating — sharing challenges, good practices, and strategic insights.

The lessons learnt from Slovenia were:

• It's critical to prioritize immediate, feasible actions while planning for mid- and long-term solutions.
• Timing measures appropriately is crucial — avoiding the "chicken and egg" dilemma about what to implement first.
• Breaking down complex decarbonization strategies into manageable steps greatly helps regional authorities.

He also added in the conversation the case of Amsterdam in which they concluded to a standout innovation. They repurposed old coal mine shafts — first for energy extraction, now for underground energy storage. This is a remarkable example of how former coal regions can reinvent themselves sustainably.

Mr. Greg Gebrail, Associate Director, Senior Energy Specialist, European Bank for Reconstruction and Development (EBRD ), joined the event from London through ZOOM. The goal of EBRD is to accelerate the green transition and ensure safe and stable energy supplies. Mr. Gebrail presented the cases of Pristina, Kosovo and Novi Sad, Serbia.

EBRD supports projects that use: 

• Biogas, biomass, waste-to-energy.
• Utility-scale heat pumps — extracting waste heat from sewage or data centers (a very promising model).
• Electric boilers — not new technology, but now used innovatively to complement grid balancing and take advantage of low electricity prices.
• Solar thermal plants with large-scale thermal energy storage.

Thermal energy storage ties all these technologies together, enabling seasonal flexibility.

In response to Kozani’s brain drain, he said that “no single project can replace the large-scale employment once offered by coal mining. However, new projects deploying multiple innovative technologies (thermal engineering, digital skills, electrical systems) can create opportunities for new industries. It’s about using opportunities to create alternative economic bases for the future."

In this section of the event the last speaker was Mrs. Marnie McGregor – Strategic Advisor, Global Covenant of Mayors for Climate & Energy. “We at the Global Covenant of Mayors work closely with the European Covenant of Mayors . Together, we represent over 13,700 cities of all sizes around the world. Our main goal is to elevate the voices of cities like Kozani onto the global stage .” She also added, “our focus is to enable national governments, financial institutions, and key players in the finance sector to directly support cities in implementing specific projects — not just general ambitions. We are particularly excited about helping Kozani access resources, draw on European and international case studies, and design a concrete path forward for its district energy transition.

The afternoon session of the event started with Mr Harris Biskos, Urbanist Expert, Associate of Resilient Cities Catalyst and the Climate Change Hub and his Comparative Report to Inspire Kozani’s Path to Clean and Affordable Heat. He presented the cases of Velenje, Slovenia, Heidelberg, Germany and Pamplona, Spain.

Panel Discussion: Projects and available financial instruments (hybrid)

One more hybrid Panel Discussion followed titled “Projects and available financial instruments” with invited experts from Greece and abroad.

Ms Eleni Gioti, Senior Advisor, European Investment Bank (EIB), presented all opportunities arisen through the EIB for energy transition such as the Climate Adaptation Plan since 2020, the fundraising instruments of EIB, the programme ELENA (European Local Energy Assistance) specially designed for the preparation of feasibility studies for energy projects, mainly in areas such as street lighting, energy upgrades, and district heating systems, the support offered for the 100 Net Zero Cities and the Public Sector Loan Facility (PSLF) . 

“Once a city receives the "Mission Label" , the European Investment Bank (EIB) works closely with the NetZero Cities network and the Climate City Capital Hub to support the implementation of the first projects. For these cities, the Bank has established a special loan facility of €2 billion , offering more favorable lending terms and priority approval .”

Mr. Georgios Ioulianos, City Finance Specialist representing Climate City Capital Hub works closely with Kozani in order to design green transition of the district heating system.  

“However, there is still uncertainty regarding the energy mix that will be selected, we have proposed:

• Conducting a needs and scenarios analysis,
• Collecting key information through questionnaires,
• Creating financial models in collaboration with the Municipality, to support decision-making.”

Ms Maria Tzanidaki, Principal Manager, Head of the Greek PPP Preparation Facility, European Bank for Reconstruction and Development (EBRD)  analyzed the operation of the PPP Preparation Facility in Greece since 2020 until 2028.

“We manage a significant fund that finances studies and support services for the preparation of bankable PPP projects, so they can enter the market in a mature state for financing—whether from the EBRD, the EIB, or other banks. All interventions are carried out in full alignment with the EBRD’s policies: the Green Energy Transition (Paris Aligned) and the Bank’s Environmental and Social Policy .”

Mr Apostolos Papadopoulos, Managing Director, FCNC spoke about “The role of PPPs in financing the energy transition” mentioning that the PPPs are a useful tool for cities aiming for a sustainable transition and concerning the case of Kozani he state that Despite the temporary agreement for the current operation of the district heating system, strategic decisions about the system’s future will need to be made very soon.

“I particularly emphasize the importance of the active participation of the local community in the transition planning. Without participation and consensus, any plan risks becoming unimplementable or facing delays.”  

Ms Maria Yerogianni,  European Commission - Senior Expert, Innovating Cities, DG Research & Innovation C1 - Strategy, policy coordination and urban transitions, spoke about “the EU Commission support to Zero Net Cities”. In her speech, she mentioned all the initiatives and programmes available by the EU to support Net Zero Cities in terms of funding, networking, and research. She highlighted that Kozani's involvement in the NetZero Cities Platform, the City Science Initiative, and the Driving Urban Transitions Partnership is crucial for accessing new tools, funding opportunities, and best practice sharing — all of which contribute to accelerating the energy transition. She concluded by saying: “Success in achieving climate neutrality requires not only technical solutions and funding, but also collective commitment, knowledge sharing, and public participation.”

Prof. Dr. Ing. Mr Spiros Alexopoulos spoke about the “The Neutron Project: Transforming Kozani’s district heating for a sustainable, carbon-free future”. Through the Neutron Project Kozani can achieve, 0% CO₂ emissions in the final operational phase of the project and reliable and secure supply of both heat and electricity.    To result that, the Neutron Concept for Green District Heating proposal suggests solutions such as: Photovoltaic systems and other renewable energy sources (RES), conversion of the generated electricity into heat via electric heaters, storage of heat in thermal batteries, use of a steam power cycle for combined heat and power (CHP) generation, integration of additional RES or purchase of electricity from the grid if needed and optionally, biogas to boost heat production when necessary.  
 

Moderated discussion with moderator Mr Giorgos Alexndrides, Deputy Mayor of Kozani

Mr Giorgos Alexndrides, Deputy Mayor of Kozani started the discussion posing one question and one concern: How can technical assistance support not only the maturation of projects but also the creation of local jobs? There is the issue of lack of own resources for conducting studies, especially following the loss of the local lignite resource due to the decarbonization process.

Mr Ioulianos answered that what is important now is the projects maturation, rather than the immediate funding. In the same end, representatives of Capital Hub highlighted the tool City Expert Support Facility (CESF) which funds consulting services to the cities.

Day 2 - Strategy Development

Opening

The second day of the Energopolis 2.0 Workshop started with the Opening Speech of Mr Giorgos Amanantides, Regional Governor of Western Macedonia. He pointed out that the design of a new model that will be more environmentally friendly, more attractive to citizens and businesses and economically sustainable is crucial but he added that it is important to secure consistent services to the citizens as well as stable prices. He closed how seech by saying: “Policy decisions must be based on technical solutions that are both feasible and beneficial for citizens.”  
 

Panel discussion: Setting the stage: current challenges and opportunities for the next day in Kozani

Me Pericles Aliferis , General Secretary of Kozani, said that Renewable Energy Sources are a positive development when integrated into a comprehensive plan that includes local communities. “The transition must be made by everyone, for everyone , with priority given especially to the most vulnerable. To achieve this, institutional enhancement and active public participation are essential.”

Mr. Stefanos Palantzas, President and Founder of the Hellenic Passive House Institute,  stated that a significant factor contributing to the energy poverty affecting many households in Greece is the poor quality of buildings. A passive building requires five times less energy to heat. Taking for granted that Kozani has a well-established teleheating infrastructure, he put emphasis on the rejected energy by the data centers, highlighting it as a key source to the energy transition strategy, and advocated for investment in creating passive buildings. He suggested that Local authorities must request the activation of  the European Directive 2012/27/EU by the European Commission and ensure that investments in thermal energy benefit society in return.  
 

Panel discussion: “Rethinking Energy Solutions for a Just and Sustainable Transition

Ms Konstantina Karydi, Managing director of Resilient Cities Catalyst and VP Climate Change Hub opened the discussion highlighting that when we talk about integrated approaches and investments, we don’t simply mean a large district heating project but combined, integrated interventions.

Mr Ioannis Liassis, mayor of Amyntaio, analysed the situation in the region of Western Macedonia mentioning the cooperation among the 3 municipalities: Kozani, Eordaia and Amyntaio and the need to make teleheating sustainable. He highlighted that the green transition needs to ensure social justice. “If there is no meaningful dialogue with the local community, if we do not jointly decide on the direction to take, and if the central government does not contribute to the energy upgrade of municipal and private infrastructure and businesses, we will not have sustainable district heating systems.

Mr Giannis Kokkaliaris, Mayor of Kozani spoke about the problems that the region faces geographically and strategically in terms of energy transition.     Our region is excluded — even in terms of spatial planning. “ We need to reduce energy losses by upgrading the buildings and make use of waste heat from data centers as a form of return to the local community. The plants are shutting down on December 31, 2025 , creating a huge gap — and we must determine how we are going to fill it.”

The discussion, moderated by Konstantina Karydi, was very impactful and highlighted many dimensions of the energy transition issue. The main focus areas were the potential for cooperation among the region’s municipalities in advancing the energy transition, and the involvement of citizens in the process — following best practices in Europe that promote this model through energy communities.

Interactive Session - Co-Designing Kozani’s Transition Roadmap

The last session of the two-day workshop closed with an interactive session titled Co-Designing Kozani’s Transition Roadmap. At the interactive session the participating stakeholders from the region, Greece and abroad were divided in three working tables under the topics: 1: District Heating Transition Strategy, 2: Private Buildings’ Retrofits and 3: Addressing Energy Poverty and Rural Isolation

Three major cross-cutting conclusions emerged across all groups:

1. Citizen-centric design is essential: Without active community participation, neither technical solutions nor financial mechanisms will be sustainable.

2. Integration of sectors is vital: District heating decarbonization, building ren- ovation, and rural revitalization must be planned as an interconnected system, not isolated tracks.

3. Kozani must lead with flexibility and innovation: A rigid, “one-size-fits-all” approach is doomed to fail. Success requires strategic flexibility, diversified funding strategies, and bold political leadership.