Latvian Experience of Energy Supply in the Environment-Friendly Building in Biosfhere Reservation

In accordance with the Latvian “Law on the Energy Performance of Buildings”, the environmental and economic considerations as well as binding regulations of the local government and other regulatory enactments should be taken into account in designing buildings to evaluate the possibility to use alternative solutions for the buildings. The paper describes experience and practice of this Policy and Strategy in Latvia. The RES dealt with in the paper relate to the geothermal and solar energy in the Latvian conditions. Currently, in Latvia mainly non-renewable natural resources and wood or its processed products are used for heating. A negative side effect stemming from the use of fossil fuels is the greenhouse gas (GHG) emissions into the atmosphere. Furthermore, the use of fossil fuel energy in the country is limited due to changing price policies of foreign providers. At the same time, RES play an ever increasing role in the Latvian energy balance. Nevertheless, besides objective factors (rather a high cost of the RES technologies, a long pay-back time for the relevant installations, etc.), there exist such subjective factors as prejudices of the people who are lacking trust and confidence in new technologies and do not comprehend positive aspects of their use. All this retards more active use of RES in Latvia. The administration of the North Vidzeme Biosphere Reserve (NVBR) has completed erection of the Environmental Education and Information Centre with a potential area of 675m2 in the town of Salacgriva. This centre is expected to provide local residents, businesses, municipalities and state institutions with information about the natural assets of the reserve as well as about protection of natural resources and the use of innovative solutions in the regional development. By now, a project of the environment-friendly building in the Biosphere Reservation (BR) on the north of Latvia (Vidzeme) has been accomplished. The BR covers the area of Salacas River (the fourth major river of natural salmon spawning in the Baltic Sea catchments) − a temperate forest zone characteristic of the Baltic Sea coastal ecosystems. Its land area is 4577km2, with the population of about 80 000 people. Half its area is covered by forests and 15% by wetlands. The reservation includes 167.5 km2 of the Gulf of Riga coastal aquatorium