Coming soon: a European community of local one-stop shops for home energy renovation
Fossil-free citiesAbout
Local one-stop shops for home energy renovation will soon have the opportunity to imagine and create their own European community of practice, that is, a place where they can find answers to the many questions that may arise at various stages of their development.
When homeowners need help to make their homes more energy efficient, they go to their local one-stop shop for home energy renovation. Easy. But where do one-stop shops go when they need help themselves? The answer is: they join a European community of practice!
A community of practice is a safe space where members can exchange ideas and learn from each other, share useful information and tools and get to know the local frameworks (political, legislative, financial, market, etc.) in which they evolve. In short, where they can get the support they need to successfully set up and run their activities.
The new EU Peers LIFE project supports the creation of such a community
Setting up a community of practice, imagined and steered by one-stop shops, is the mission of EU Peers, a new EU-funded LIFE project. Launched at the end of September 2023 in Netzeband (Germany), the project is coordinated by Climate Alliance and involves ten partners from seven countries, including Energy Cities. The project partners from France, Ireland, Latvia, Spain, Hungary and Italy will also set up and facilitate national platforms that will bring one-stop shops and their supporters around the table to discuss national contexts. Our ultimate goal? To facilitate the deployment of one-stop shops in Europe and make sure that every citizen has access to a local one-stop shop for their home energy renovation projects.
The revised Energy Efficiency Directive and the Energy Performance of Buildings Directive encourage the development of one-stop shops in all EU Member States
The launching of this community could not be more timely. Both the Energy Efficiency Directive (revised and adopted in September 2023) and the revised Energy Performance of Buildings Directive (yet to be adopted) mention one-stop shops for home energy renovation services in several articles. One-stop shops have become a key tool in implementing the ‘energy efficiency first principle’, in particular in the residential sector, which is more fragmented and difficult to manage. EU Member States are expected to facilitate the setting up of home energy renovation one-stop shops and to stimulate both the demand and supply sides through favourable legislative and regulatory frameworks and other support mechanisms.
For example, Article 22 of the EED states: “…Member States shall in cooperation with competent authorities, and, where appropriate, private stakeholders establish dedicated one-stop shops or similar mechanisms for the provision of technical, administrative and financial advice for energy efficiency.”
In the next few months, the European Commission will provide Member States with guidelines to develop one-stop shops with the aim of creating a harmonised approach throughout the Union. The guidelines shall encourage cooperation among public bodies, energy agencies and community-led initiatives.
The EU Peers project intends to help with this. One of our first steps will be to launch a campaign to recruit our pioneer community members: one-stop shops that want to assist us in shaping the community and making it as useful as possible!
Stay tuned for more information about EU Peers or, if you are too impatient, contact us to know more about what to expect from the project and how to get involved!
Learn more about Energy Cities’ projects supporting the creation of local one-stop shops for home energy renovation:
