The Nordic Energy Municipality 2011 Project

The Nordic Energy Municipality 2011 project highlights sustainable energy, green growth and energy-related climate efforts in the Nordic countries. The initiative particularly recognises municipalities having introduced special efforts to undertake innovative energy projects.

During the period October 2010 to January 2011, 44 Nordic municipalities forwarded an application to the Nordic Energy Municipality 2011 competition, each describing one cutting-edge energy project launched in their municipality.

Of these 44 applicants, 14 municipalities, representing nearly all Nordic countries and self-governing areas, were nominated for the award in March 2011.

The Nordic prime ministers met in Copenhagen on 31 October 2011 for the prime ministers' Globalisation Forum. As part of this event, Finland's Prime Minister, Mr. Jyrki Katainen, revealed that the Danish municipality of Albertslund has been appointed the Nordic Energy Municipality 2011. Moreover, both the Norwegian municipality of Drammen and the municipality of Lidköping from Sweden received a special recognition for their projects.

The winning project is named "The Albertslund concept – energy—efficient renovation of homes". It addresses energy-efficient renovation of prefabricated buildings from the 1960s and 1970s. The aim of the project is to develop and demonstrate standardized and prefabricated low-energy solutions on a large scale.

The organisation behind

This Nordic Energy Municipality 2011 initiative is based on cooperation between the Danish and Finnish Presidencies of the Nordic Council of Ministers for Energy. The Nordic countries' representatives within the Nordic energy co-operation (Nordic Committee of Senior Officials for Energy) constitute the project steering committee. In 2010, the Danish Energy Agency had the primary responsibility for the project coordination, while the Finnish Ministry of Employment and the Economy coordinates the initiative in 2011.