EURegionsWeek close to you webinar - From Urban to Rural: The Power of Community-Driven Building Renovation Actions for a Climate-neutral Europe

The Support service for Citizen-led renovation projects was collaborating with the EU-funded LIFE Programme project RENOVERTY to organise a EURegionsWeek close to you  webinar on 21 October 2024, 10.30-12.00 with the title “From Urban to Rural: The Power of Community-Driven Building Renovation Actions for a Climate-neutral Europe”. 

It aimed to present the journeys that existing and aspiring energy communities have taken to become prosumers and key stakeholders in the movement towards decarbonising urban and rural areas and implementing building renovation activities to achieve the Fit-for-55 goals across various geographic settings. 

The keynote on the importance of energy communities in advancing the EU’s decarbonization goals and increasing consumer autonomy, along with an introduction to the support service for citizen-led renovation projects, was held by Julien Tami, Policy Officer, Unit B3, Buildings and Products, DG Energy, European Commission  

During his keynote, Julien gave an overview of the EU perspectives on energy communities: 

• Energy communities play a crucial role in advancing the EU's decarbonisation goals by allowing citizens to produce, consume, store, and sell energy. Despite their progress in electricity, they remain underdeveloped in sectors like building renovation, heating, cooling, and renewable gas.  
• The EU's Renewable Energy Directive (RES) and other legislation emphasise creating supportive regulatory frameworks for energy communities, ensuring access to financial instruments, tailor-made support schemes, and removing barriers. However, due to their local and less professional nature, the RES Directive provides more privileges for RECs than for CECs. Member States need to put in place a supportive regulatory framework. 
• The EU's "Fit for 55" package mandates that new buildings be solar-ready. Solar installations will become standard, with phased rollouts starting in 2027 for existing public buildings. This supports the broader goal of increasing renewable energy adoption. 
• Introduction of the concept and importance of citizen-led renovation and the current status of the support service phases I and II that were also being represented in this webinar and its upcoming phase III. 

The keynote was followed by short presentations by energy communities, city representatives, and project experts, which showcased examples of how energy communities can work towards achieving the Fit-for-55 goals across various geographic settings. 

Stephanie Dickenson, Co-founder of Triple SEC, focused on the Triple SEC energy community in Ireland, which is a pilot from the support service for citizen-led renovation projects. Stephanie shared insights on the neighbourhoods of the energy community Triple SEC is working towards the retrofitting and renewable energy renovations of buildings in the area. Specifically, she focused on introducing activities the community is realizing as a volunteer group and the challenges the neighbourhood buildings and residents face. E.g. the high percentage of renters, older buildings that have to be renovated, and lack of knowledge and labour to achieve renovations. She also introduced the various activities with which the community aims to engage with residents and inform them about grants and best practices. 

Mihail Georgiev, Founder of Izgrei BG, explained the foundation of the energy community as the first energy community in Bulgaria and its pathway as a pilot from the support service for citizen-led renovation projects. He focused on the vision of his undertaking and shared key challenges such as legal form, administrative hurdles, and the lack of national support that energy communities face in Bulgaria. Mihail also expressed his future plans in more closely work together with municipalities to progress further with energy renovations of buildings. 

Sophie Loots, Co-founder and project coordinator of Energiecooperative ZuidtrAnt, a pilot of the support service for citizen-led renovation projects, introduced the energy community she is involved into the audience. ZuidtrAnt aims to renovate several residential buildings in close collaboration with the municipalities. Under this project, it has already renovated 90 homes and reached 4600 residential buildings with key information. Sophie further explained their plan to continue expanding in this direction during the support period of the Citizen-led renovation initiative. A special focus was also placed on the social objective of the Energiecooperative, which includes supporting local projects regarding energy poverty, biodiversity, social inclusion, and strengthening the local community. 

Katty Michielsen, Responsible Sustainability, Municipality of Schoten, introduced the neighbourhood renovation project in Schoten and the cooperation with the ZuidtrAnt energy community as one example of the collaboration between municipalities and energy communities. In her short presentation she focused on the vision to decrease CO2 emissions in the municipality by supporting and encouraging neighbourhood renovation. She also described the process of collaboration with local energy communities and with that underlined the importance of joint visions and workforce development. 

In the final short presentation, Raquel Rodriguez Martinez, Project Manager, ECOSERVEIS  presented the practical implementation of renovation actions via energy communities based on collaborations within the RENOVERTY project. She further explained how the project is working on a scalable series of renovation roadmaps with operating models for rural areas across Europe. 

During the panel discussion, which was moderated by Mara Oprea, IEECP, the audience got the opportunity to raise questions and discuss with the panellists. Key aspects of the panel discussion were the questions on how to scale up renovation projects by smaller or volunteer energy communities, how to provide financial and technical resources for larger-scale neighbourhood projects and the role local and national authorities play in overcoming hurdles energy communities are facing.

Watch the recording: