A pilot-project for energetic efficiency and promotion of the renewable energy   Solar systems in a boarding school and in a nursery school in the municipality of Jegunovce   Katerina Bogoeva Proactiva, both theoretically and practically, approaches new ways of energy saving to the residents of Jegunovce e citizens’ organization Proaktiva from Skopje at the end of May started the realization of the pilot-project for energetic efficiency and for promotion of the renewable kinds of energy in Tetovo municipality of Jegunovce. Using the positive experiences they have gained so far, the members of this organization are going to work on the improvement of conditions in three central elementary schools – “Aleksandar Zdravkovski” in Jegunovce, “Shemshevo” in the villge of Shemshevo and in “Simche Nastovski” School in Vratnica. During the planned renovating, in these schools, as well as in the Boarding school for children with special needs in Vratnica and in the nursery school in Jegunovce, all the windows in the classrooms and in the offices are going to be isolated with silicone tapes, and broken glasses and faucets are going to be replaced.   The nursery school is getting a solar system   In the Boarding school a solar system of 10 meters square is going to be placed, and in the nursery school in Jegunovce, the existing electric heating system is going to be replaced with a gas heating, with two gas fires. The nursery school, in front of which there is an impressive storks nest, is going to get a solar system of 4 meters square. In all of the five objects it has been planned to install energetically effective devices (energetically effective lights, sensor floodlights, as well as springs for closing the doors). The municipality of Jegunovce is also going to get 100 energetically effective light bulbs which will be placed on candelabras for street lighting as well as 5 photo relays for plugging the street lighting. At the same time, 10 volunteers for each of  these objects should be trained to apply the techniques of energetic efficiency and to construct the solar systems. The practical training starts at the beginning of May and we had a chance to see the theoretical presentations.   Theoretical training in Jegunovce   “The direction of the energetic development in Macedonia has a large influence on the national economic growth, environment protection and the living conditions of the citizens. The use of fossil fuels, mainly in the energetic and transport sector, causes more and more pollution of the atmosphere with the greenhouse gases. On the other hand, for a large number of Macedonian households, the monthly expenses for energy are the highest rate in the family budget, after the food rate. In the country there is insufficient education of the population about energy saving. The municipalities in Macedonia can no longer count on the state ministries to pay for the local expenses and now they have a new and expensive responsibility to manage their own consumption energy. Macedonia has limited sources of commercial energetic resources and in the future it will depend more and more on import of energy. Taking measures for energetic efficiency can lower the pollution of the environment and moderate this dependence, lengthen the lasting of domestic resources and postpone the need for investments in a new energetic infrastructure which would use fossil fuels” – point out the people from Proactiva, who, inspired by the current situation in the country, have decided to cooperate with the completely rural municipality of Jagunovce, which consists of 17 inhabited places, with about 10 800 inhabitants, 53 % of which are Macedonians, 43% - Albanians, 2% Serbs, and 2% from other entities.   The school of “Simche Nastovski” in Vratnica   In front of the interested citizens from the municipality, its representatives, representatives of the school of “Aleksandar Zdravkovski” and of the parents’ council, the members of Proaktiva presented the ways of their work, the training they are going to implement with the interested ones, but also the possibility that is offered to the citizens and that is to use the acquired knowledge for opening small businesses for isolation of apartment  and public buildings and for installing solar systems. The silicone tapes which are used for isolation and are considered to be highly effective and ecologically suitable are produced in “Medicinska plastika” in Tetovo. From the same place these tapes are already purchased by the members of the ecological association “Green power” from Veles, who, after being trained by Proaktiva, opened a private firm and commercially work on isolation in buildings. And it all started in 2002 with the international project “International energetic brigades”, where Proaktiva took place as an only citizens’ organization, together with brigadiers from Czech Republic, from Croatia, Russia, Romania, Ukraine, Hungary, Bulgaria and from Bosnia and Herzegovina. The training was performed by the members of the ecological association “Energoclub” from Romania. As for the knowledge about the offered possibilities  about construction of solar panels, members of Proaktiva acquired it during the realization of the project “Balkans youth for renewable energy”, where they worked together with the organizations: “Friends of Earth” from Galac, Romania and “Moris” from Karlovo, Bulgaria. After that, there was a common project with organizations from Croatia and Norway, during which on the Croatian island of Sholta a training was held and a small test solar system was created. “The pilot project in Jegunovce should show the way in which these projects will be realized in the other municipalities in the country in the future. It comprises all kinds of trainings for energy saving and the achieved results will be measurable in reference to the saved electrical and thermal energy. The goal of the project is to achieve the expected savings of 12 to 20 % energy a year, which would mean a lot to the schools, considering that with the decentralization of the government their financing depends on the municipalities” – says Vladimir Karchicki, the president of Proaktiva. The project-manager Jovan Draganovski, mentions that in the realization of the projects problems occur with the expected volunteer participation. “In the elementary and nursery schools in Skopje where we did the isolation, the volunteers were not interested to come and help, although they had previously agreed to” – says he.  A major problem for the need for energetic efficiency to be seriously taken in this country, according to Ilija Sazdovski, a technical manager in the project, is the low price of the electrical energy, which is why a great number of the citizens do not think about saving it. “In Greece, for example, there is a great number of solar collectors, but are there any in Ohrid, in Dojran, in Prespa? We are a country with very good conditions for using solar energy, but we still do not do anything significant to exploit it” – says Sazdovski. The Principal of the Central elementary school of “Aleksandar Zdravkovski”, Kostadin Tushev, in this occasion mentioned that he was satisfied that the working conditions in the school would be improved. The school uses steam-heating system, but there is a big problem with the isolation of the doors and windows. In this school, which was built in 1960, windows are old, part of them are broken, and at some places there are only single windows left. The condition is similar in the other schools as well and in the Boarding school for children with special needs.