Author: Gerlind Wagner.Vogel

Progress for the Estonian Pilot: PV panels for a kindergarden

Active preparations are underway in Tartu, Estonia for the establishment of a solar park to be installed on the renovated Pääsupesa kindergarden. Close cooperation between the city and the kindergarten has led to efficient planning, with experts from the Tartu Region Energy Agency (TREA) now working on the cooperative’s operational model.
 
Next month, TREA will offer the first public information day which will focus on future plans, and specifically on this pilot project created by Energize Co2mmunity. The aim is to reach all ages, raise awareness and highlight the benefits of such energy cooperatives.
 
Several exciting events are planned up until Autumn 2021, and during this time the residents of Tartu will have the opportunity to become members of the newly established energy cooperative.

Energize Co2mmunity represented at the national forum of the Horizon 2020 project (Latvia)

At the end of January, Energize Co2mmunity expert Ilgvars Francis from Riga Planning Region represented our project in the Latvia national forum of the Horizon 2020 project “COME RES 9” (Community Energy for the uptake of renewable energy sources).
 
The presentation included successes of Co2mmunity in Marupe municipality and the development and outlook of the Energize Co2mmunity project. The biggest focus was on cooperating with energy policymakers to develop a support mechanism for renewable energy community projects in Latvia – one of our goals with Energize Co2mmunity. 

Webinar week

Last week, our partners from Energize Co2mmunity came together digitally in 5 days of learning, exchange and planning 🤓.

We hosted workshops in communication psychology, social media and storytelling and laid the basis for our communication steps in the coming months. In the transnational pairing meetings, the pilot projects from Germany & Latvia, Finland & Estonia and Lithuania & Denmark talked about their individual status quo and how they want to work together.

We are looking forward to sharing more details about the progress of our pilot pairings with you soon!

Swedish paper reports on Co2mmunity project “Byn som tar makten över elen”

On the first of January the swedish paper “Landetsfria” published a lengthy article oncommunity energy in Sweden. It touches on Kalmar Energi’s investment in Nöbble and Törneby solar parks, which was part of the Co2mmunity research. You can find the full article in swedish here. 

A finding of the research was, that energy in Sweden is very centralised, meaning the incentives for citizens to intitiate community energy projects are comparatively low. What surprised Henner Busch, a researcher from Lund University, most about the project’s results was how many people get involved in such projects for idealistic reasons. 

Yet their advantages are not restricted to climate benefits. Among other things, local communities can reduce their energy costs, create local jobs, strengthen local cohesion, build a more positive identity and, in some countries, receive tax revenues.

You can read more about community energy in Sweden in our handbook. 

European Shallow Geothermal Days 2020: Danish Partner presents Termonet solution

On the 9th of December our partner from Middelfart (Denmark) will present their Termonet solution for single family houses. A chairman of the board, Søren Andersen, will present the concept at the “European Shallow Geothermal Energy Days” that take place on 4th, 9th and 11th December 2020. The event intends to connect policy makers, professionals, and scientists to discuss ways to promote the market uptake of geothermal heat pumps as well as underground thermal energy storage. Promising  concepts and good practices from all over Europe will be introduced. They share the common aim to “operate and manage shallow geothermal in an efficient and sustainable way“.

This virtual event is organised by the European Geothermal Energy Council (EGEC), the Renewable Heating and Cooling Platform (RHC-ETIP), GEOTRAINET aisbl and Geothermal DHC COST action, with the support of the GeoERA-MUSE project, EuroGeoSurveys, GEOCOND project and EHPA.

You will find all the informations here.

 

Danish paper reports on RENCOP Føns Nærvarmes

Føns Nærvarmes is a part of an citizen empowering project, where citizens are testing heatpumps balanced with biomass boilers. This is in Denmarks newest and smallest district heating – RENCOP. A system developed by citizens and owned by citizens. It is closely followed by research , Southern University of Denmark, and knowledge will be shared. It was also part of the Co2mmunity project.

As one of the citzens puts it : “We might find new solutions that empower other citizens to use a heatpump in their system – enabling possibility to get rid of oil boilers and other fossil fuels for heating.”

You can find the full article (in danish) here.

Paper published on urban community energy initiatives: An analysis of six case studies from the Baltic Sea Region

The paper was recently published in a special issue of Energy Policy dealing with the role of community energy initiatives in the transformation of urban energy infrastructures. Besides the policy recommendations, one of the most interesting contributions of this paper is the fact that it identifies strategies community energy actors can implement to overcome contextual barriers to citizen-driven renewable energy projects.

Registration open: Final Online Conference – September 8, 2020

The registration for our Final Online Conference is open! Please register via this link. Have a look at the agenda or the information sheet.

After three years of successful Co2mmunity cooperation we will summarise our achievements and talk about the current status of community energy (CE) in the Baltic Sea Region (BSR). We will continue our cooperation in the follow-up project „Energize Community“, implementing pilot projects in the BSR, empowering the people producing and consuming their own renewable energy.

Reasons to Attend?

  1. Get to know practical tools and guidelines to foster CE projects in your region
  2. Learn about how to embed CE in renewable energy policies
  3. Exchange your knowledge and experience with researchers, technical experts, policy decision makers, CE stakeholders and citizens being prosumers
  4. Strengthen your transnational cooperation in the EU

Topics of Interest

We will state the current situation of CE in the BSR and visualise our RENCOP model to establish CE projects by real-life examples. The application of our roadmap, country specific handbooks, and tools for fostering CE projects will be illustrated. We will address our policy recommendations and put CE as an important pillar of the EU Green Deal in the focus of our panel discussion.

Who will join?

This final conference targets all CE stakeholders: Citizens, European & national policy makers and governmental institutions, actors and organisations active in the development of the CE sector.

Community Energy Forum for Policy Progress in Tallinn

Let’s take initiative!

March 11/12, 2020 in Tallinn, Estonia

The Community Energy Forum for Policy Progress is a lunch to lunch event during which Europe’s renewable energy community meets to network, discuss and forge joint action on policy progress.

The Community Energy Forum for Policy Progress is the place where the ‘renewable energy community’ meets. It provides an interactive experience to catch up on the current state of play on a broad range of issues concerning community renewable energy and to discuss ways of moving forward. The Community Energy Forum for Policy Progress targets professionals from community energy, governments, public institutions, citizens, NGOs and academia.

The Energy Forum for Policy Progress is organised jointly by Tartu Regional Energy Agency and Kiel University.

Have a look at the agenda for the meeting as well as the information sheet.

Registration will be open until end of February 2020.

For further information please contact the project coordinator via info@co2mmunity.eu