Status Quo

Celje is the third largest city in Slovenia. The Municipality of Celje extends over a surface of 95 km2; it includes 39 urban and suburban settlements, and it has a total population of just over 50.000.

Javne naprave d.o.o. established in 1996 is a public company that removes the waste by vehicle in 12 municipalities in the region of Celje. Within their fleet which is composed of 36 vehicles they have one electrical vehicle that serves as a removal of waste from asphalt areas as well as from shrubs. They can use it for 40 kilometres without charging the batteries which makes exactly one 8 hour shift.

Regional Information Sources

www.celje.si/en/municipality

Status Quo

Ljubljana, the capital of Slovenia and the cultural, trade and scientific centre, is the coordinating city of the CIVITAS ELAN project. The city has 275.000 inhabitants, 47.000 are university students. In addition more than 130.000 commuters travel to the city each day.

With its 275,000 inhabitants and the total area of 271.67 km², Ljubljana, the capital of Slovenia, national and regional centre, is considered to be among the smallest European capital cities. High urban density in city center with 27,000 people living in an area of 5 km², very high concentration of activities in star shaped city topography, underdeveloped public transportation system and modest use of public transport facilities - low level modal split contributes to air pollution, noise, traffic jams, congestion problems and decreases the quality of living.

To improve the situation the City is very active developing a sustainable mobility concept including the use of clean vehicles in public transport and public administration/services. The city is the coordinating city of the EU funded CIVITAS ELAN project and took over important activities within CIVITAS MOBILIS.

In CIVITAS MOBILIS there was the main objective to develop sustainable regional production, supply and distribution structures for alternative fuels with special emphasis on biodiesel. Through testing, demonstration and evaluation of the impacts of a large scale implementation of different clean vehicles technologies in public transport, measure is aiming to attract other urban services (i.e. freight delivery, taxi services, etc.). This measure undertaken consists of several tasks:

• Comparative analysis of market and regulatory conditions for bio-diesel supply and usage;
• Marketing study on provision of row material for production of bio diesel from domestic and foreign market Investment study on overview and selection of technology;
• Testing of oil rape sorts including hybrid sorts (10 - 15 sorts) in order to define the most suitable sort according to climate conditions;
• Possibilities of further processing of oil cakes as bio diesel synthesis by-product;
• Investigation of influence of several mixtures (bio-diesel/diesel) and several fuel temperatures on fuel injection characteristics under several operating regimes;
• Testing bio-diesel usage and engine performance.

Ljubljana public transport company - LPP has tested the use of biodiesel mixture on two buses in cooperation with the University of Maribor, Mechanical Engineering Faculty. Since September 2007 twenty buses are running daily on 100 % biodiesel.

The present bus fleet of the public transport company comprises 205 urban buses and 65 regional buses. The urban transport is operated on 23 lines of 268 km total length. There is a strong need to modernise the bus fleet and to make the public transport more comfortable and efficient for passengers as well as to upgrade its environmental component and reduce emissions. The implementation status for this proposal is as follows:

• Documentation for renting 3 different types hybrid bus from 3 different manufacturers was published in year 2009. Unfortunately there is no assurance on delivery period available at the moment. Duration of testing of 3 different types of hybrid buses will be 9 months after the delivery on the different temperature;
• The public tender for the purchasing of 27 hybrid bus was set up in year 2010;
• After the delivery of 27 hybrid busses in 2011 they will be put in operation on the high quality integrated corridor.

Owe to several tax incentives there is a hybrid propelled taxi fleet in the city of Ljubljana. Rumeni taxi (Yellow Cab) is based on an innovative business model of taxi service organisation. The main principles are the introduction of advanced technologies and introduction of new standards. Since November 2004 the company offers a ride in the first hybrid taxi in Ljubljana and after the successful testing the fleet was continuously expanded.

Regional Support Instruments

The city has adopted a decree by which hybrid taxi vehicles are exempted from paying the annual tax on assigned parking spaces.

The problem of congestion related to traffic streams is compounded in peak hours (7.00-9.00 and 15.00-17.00) especially at the highway exits to main roads towards the inner city centre as well as in the city centre itself. This situation is the baseline for any discussion on urban road pricing. Urban transport problems are currently so pressing that urban road pricing measures need to be implemented as soon as possible. The focus should be on the improvement of the quality of urban space by reducing congestion and consequently air and noise pollution. The goal is to make the clear step forward towards a road pricing tool that reduces car traffic in the city. Some of the most innovative cities in Europe demonstrated that congestion charging schemes can have a real impact when designed according to local conditions and problems. Ljubljana aims to be among those forerunner cities by implementing a sustainable congestion charging scheme that benefits its citizens with a higher quality of life and better health.

Regional/Local Procurement Initiatives

A green procurement schema for public fleets at the local level was set up aiming to develop a hybrid car fleet. The main objectives were:

• To implement the green procurement principle in practice by purchasing hybrid personal vehicles for the city’s fleets;
• To lower fuel consumption;
• To improve air quality by lowering emissions;
• To promote the use of hybrid vehicles in the public and private sector;
• To help extend a market for hybrid vehicles;
• To improve the acceptance of hybrid vehicles.

Is current implementation Status is:

• Preparing the public procurement documentation with specific award criteria (maintenance included);
• Preparing a common public tender for hybrid cars for the city and public companies owned by the city;
• Producing an assessment of possible favourable terms (free-parking …) for hybrid vehicles users in Ljubljana;
• A common public procurement tender of the city and public companies, owned by the city, will be issued for purchasing hybrid personal vehicles. If that will not be possible due to public procurement legislation, hybrid vehicles will be purchased by separate tenders. Their share will be at least 10% of the new personal cars public fleet procurement.

Regional Information Sources

www.ljubljana.si/en/municipality/

en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Ljubljana

Status Quo

Piran  is a city and municipality in southwestern Slovenia on the Gulf of Piran on the Adriatic Sea. Piran is a town of about 4,600 inhabitants on an 1 km. The medevial town with its narrow streets is one of the most popular touristic attractions in Slovenia. The public service of waste collection has to be adjusted to this special function of the town. Three utility vehicles of their fleet run on electricity (batteries), all others are diesel propelled. The electric vehicles are used as garbage trucks. The reason for the initiative were severe problems with the noise emission and the size of the conventional vehicles in the medievaltown. The electric trucks are more practical in the narrow streets.

The implementation was not funded by programs of the European Union or any other project. Experiences made shows no differences between diesel and electrical vehicles as far as acceleration, top speed, gear oil changes or filter changes are concerned. The lifespan and average time of service repair are equal for both kinds of vehicles. The refilling time for diesel vehicles is shorter - electrical vehicles run approximately 4 hours, after that, batteries have to be refilled.

Regional Information Sources

www.piran.si

en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Piran

Status Quo

Podravje region is covering the area close to Drava river and covers around 11% of the area of Slovenia. There live around 322.000 people, 16% of Slovene population. The centre is Maribor, second the biggest town in Slovenia with 147 km2 and 120.000 inhabitants.

Podravje region played an important part in the EU funded project MADEGASCAR.

Regional Information Sources

en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Podravje