Gdynia is a city located on the Baltic Sea coast in the Pomeranian region, in Poland. It is a young city, which only received the town status in 1926.
Nowadays, the city has a population of about 250,000 and is an important centre of maritime business (shipyards, harbours), international trade, science and academic education as well as culture and tourism.
The city authorities are committed to pursuing the priorities set out in the Gdynia Development Strategy, designed to meet the strategic goal, which is to achieve sustainable, socially acceptable and environmentally sound development to help the city meet European standards.
The Gdynia city energy policy is set out in the project entitled ‘Assumptions for the Plan of Supply Heat, Power and Gas Fuels for the City of Gdynia’. The second aim is to implement the Sustainable Energy Action Plan (SEAP) adopted on 26 September 2012. Gdynia signed up to the Covenant of Mayors (CoM) initiative in 2011. Its main aim is to undertake action that will exceed the 20-20-20 EU energy targets.
Targets
· 20% reduction of greenhouse gas emissions from 2012 to 2020 : no less than 12,100 mg of CO2e reduction (about 1,510 – 1,515 mg of CO2e per year)
Examples of local initiatives
· Thermo-modernisation programme which has benefited 17 schools
· Installation of smart grids for public lamps and changing of 5,000 mercury lamps to sodium ones
· Social houses constructed with a hybrid system of solar collectors and a gas boiler in order to heat water
· Electric public transport modernised by replacing old trolleybuses and extending the trolley network
· Participation to the SEGMENT Project, which aims to examine and test the use of consumer market segmentation techniques in persuading people to change their travel behaviour and use more energy efficient modes of transport
· Coordination of the TRISTAR project, which is supposed to revolutionise road traffic within the Tri-City conurbation