2011 winners of RES Champions League / No matter football, German and Italian cities take revenge with renewable energy!

Press release 1 June 2011

While Spanish and English clubs rule over the prestigious European football contest, the renewable energy champions are to be found further east

3,500 European local authorities representing 60 million people participated in the second season of the RES Champions League, a competition between cities and towns based on renewable energy. Cumulated RES data from participants amounts to: 3,000 MW photovoltaic, 1,900,000 m2 solar thermal, 1,100 MW biomass energy. Only solar and biomass energy is considered yet in the competition. Seven countries are part of this European Championship until now: Bulgaria, Czech Republic, France, Germany, Hungary, Italy and Poland. "We invite other countries to be part of this goal shooting for the environment", says Yannick Régnier, project coordinator.

On the 2nd of June 2011, the winners of the RES Champions League were honoured in Prague (Czech Republic), during a grand European green energy exchange held in the building of the Czech Parliament.

The European champions of 2011 season are by size division:

Overall result (generally small municipalities)
1st Kronprinzenkoog (Germany)
2nd Nagypáli (Hungary)
3rd Dobbiaco (Italy)

Municipalities from 5,000 to 20,000 inhabitants
1st Brunico (Italy)
2nd Szczawnica (Poland)
3rd  Chepelare (Bulgaria)

Cities from 20,000 to 100,000 inhabitants
1st Crailsheim (Germany)
2nd Jindřichův Hradec (Czech Republic)
3rd  Chambéry (France)

Cities with more than 100,000 habitants
1st Reutlingen (Germany)
2nd Bolzano (Italy)
3rd Bydgoszcz (Poland)

How are the champions defined?
In every country involved in the competition and every division, only one city, town or village is qualified among best-ranked municipalities in solar or biomass rankings to participate in the final of RES Champions League: therefore a European podium awards necessarily municipalities from three different countries.

European champions have been selected by a jury composed of partners of the action (energy experts, environmental protection NGOs, municipalities network, specialized journalists) on the ground of quantitative criteria (installed power in renewable energy) and qualitative criteria (personal implication of elected persons, sustainable energy policy, communication efforts, territorial dynamic).

The project is part-financed by the EU programme Intelligent Energy Europe.

Contact:

Yannick Régnier, RES Champions League coordinator
CLER Comité de Liaison Energies Renouvelables
Tel. +33-1-55868004, yannick.regnier(at)cler.org

Angela Hanisch, Climate Alliance / Klima-Bündnis / Alianza del Clima
Tel. +49-69-717139-12, a.hanisch(at)climatealliance.org

Read more about RES Champions League: http://www.res-league.eu