COMPILE IN THE SESSION “ENERGY COMMUNITIES AS AN OPPORTUNITY FOR REGIONS IN TRANSITION”
What: COMPILE participated in the session “Energy communities as an opportunity for regions in transition”
Where: Online
When: 17th November 2021
On November 17th the COMPILE partners University of Ljubljana (UL) and Coopernico participated in the session “Energy communities as an opportunity for regions in transition” which was part of the fourth edition of the Just Transition Platform Meeting – Coal Regions in Transition virtual week and Carbon-intensive regions seminars (link). The event was co-hosted by the European Commission’s DG REGIO and DG ENER.
By presenting relevant case studies, the session demonstrated how energy communities, organising collective and citizen-driven energy actions, can contribute to the clean energy transition, while also having the potential to provide direct benefits to locals by advancing energy efficiency, lowering energy bills, and providing employment opportunities. The session concluded with a presentation of a new funding opportunity for community-driven projects as part of the LIFE programme.
Coopernico opened the presentations of energy communities with Mr. Pedro Barata, a specialist in climate change and environmental policy, explaining how the energy community in the COMPILE pilot site Lisbon works. To continue, Mr. Tomi Medved (UL) presented another pilot site and its energy community, Luče (Slovenia). The presentation was broken down into several parts such as key facts, establishment and objectives, EnC in practice, benefits, challenges and success factors. There were three other cases elaborated, Hyperion EnC by Mr. Ignacio Navarro Pérez de Guzman, Cooperativa de Energie by Mr. Adrian Munteanu and The Green Thank by Ms. Ioanna Theodosiou. To end with, all the presenters were part of the Questions & Answers session which covered just some dilemmas raised by attendees which were more than 200.
The Just Transition Platform aims to assist all stakeholders in using the support provided by the Just Transition Mechanism, including the Just Transition Fund. This edition of the meeting will gather stakeholders from EU coal, peat, shale oil and carbon-intensive regions, and will deliver a range of thematic sessions, networking options enabling exchange and interaction between Member States, local and regional authorities, non-governmental organisations, business and social partners and EU institutions to learn from one another in the journey towards a just transition to a climate-neutral Europe.
