Last week, Minister of Climate and Energy Kaspars Melnis visited Ventspils on a regional visit. Getting acquainted with the infrastructure and companies of the Ventspils municipality, the minister was also welcomed by the Municipality SIA Ventspils flight.
During the visit, Minister of Climate and Energy Kaspars Melnis was introduced to Ventspils public transport infrastructure, which is currently one of the most sustainable in Latvia. Meeting with the Chairman of the Ventspils City Council Jānis Vītoliņa, Ventspils trip the chairman of the board Arturas Liegi and the director Arvi Bernicu, who is the initiator and manager of the e-bus project, the minister looked at the fast charging stations of electric buses, and also went on a trip with one of the new electric buses, evaluating its advantages and convenience also from the passenger’s point of view. Together with representatives of the council and the company’s management, the minister discussed the possibilities and challenges of electric transport Ventspils trip experience in partially replacing the existing bus fleet with environmentally friendly buses. It has already been announced that Ventspils flight has successfully developed in Ventspils environmentally friendly and sustainable public transport infrastructure – 65% of all city route network transports are currently provided by electric buses. During the implementation of the project, 14 small-capacity electric buses and one large-capacity hybrid bus were purchased, as well as electric bus charging stations were installed. It should be mentioned that this week Ventspils flight received another new small-capacity electric bus, with which passengers will soon be transported between cities and on intercity routes. As the talks continued, the minister was interested in the technical parameters of electric buses, battery capacity, the organization of bus charging, the functionality of charging stations and other issues related to the operation of electric buses. One of the stops on the tour was Ventspils trip the base where night charging stations for electric buses are installed.
During the conversation, Kaspars Melnis emphasizes that every sector and municipality has different challenges in implementing green and sustainable solutions, including in the field of passenger transport and public transport. “Great joy for good examples,” watching Ventspils trip direction, Melnis assesses, «there are things we should be proud of and talk about.» Among other things, he especially praised the fact that the electric buses that are currently running on Ventspils city routes are manufactured in Latvia. The bus body was rebuilt according to the needs of passenger transportation by Jelgava company SIA Universal LTD in the factory, while everything related to the bus electric drive and batteries was built in Ogre, in the factory of engineers Andras Dambja and Kristaps Dambja, provided by SIA Electrify. Therefore, these are the first electric minibuses, the engineering works of which were completely carried out in Latvia, and they were certified to participate in traffic.
Speaking about the many discussed European Green Courses, as high goals have been set for implementation in the public transport sector as well, the minister emphasizes that, in his opinion, municipalities and companies in every sector must start with the implementation of good and valuable solutions, thinking about long-term benefits, and only then we should look at the big picture to understand how much we all still need to achieve our highest goals.
It should be mentioned that during the visit to Ventspils, Melnis also participated in the event held on Wednesday Kurzeme Business Forum 2024visited the future cogeneration station for fuel obtained from waste, and also visited Ventspils Freeport to see how Ventspils Port implements and achieves the goals of the green agreement.
