LIFE LOOP – Local Ownership Of Power

The LIFE LOOP community energy accreditation is Europe’s first scheme that acknowledges municipalities demonstrating foresightedness in energy community matters. It is free of charge for local authorities and has been designed to require as little time as possible for participating local authority representatives. In its first edition, the scheme will be running from April until November 2024.

This scheme is open to all municipalities who want to show their commitment to empower and speed up the creation of or partnership with energy communities in its area, no matter whether they are at the beginning, or later stage in their community energy journey.

How to join?

• Step 1: Download and sign the Charter (by a person mandated by the municipal council or equivalent), send it to the LIFE LOOP team: contact-lifeloop[at]energy-cities.eu
• Step 2: The LIFE LOOP team welcomes your municipality in the scheme
• Step 3: A team of civil servants in your municipality starts completing all tasks from self-assessment over training to asset provision. See details of each component below.

Charter in other languages available here: Bulgarian, Croatian, Greek, Italian, Romanian

1 – Self-assessment tracker

Assess your current status with the self-assessment tracker: How much of a community energy supporter is your municipality and what is missing? 

Practically this means: a civil servant of the city administration fills out the questionnaire on the self-assessment tracker packer with 17 questions related to different ways of municipal support for energy communities, leading to a final assessment report. This should not take more than 15 minutes. Once the questionnaire is completed the municipality will see how it ranks in 3 support levels: 

• “Not yet supportive” 
• “Somewhat supportive”
• “Fully supportive” to community energy 

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2 – Espresso training

Encourage in-house capacity-building, i.e. providing staff time to develop new skills and knowledge through the self-paced online Community Energy Espresso course running between 1 April and 31 August 2024.

Practically this means: as many civil servants as possible of an administration complete at least 2 of the 5 modules and attend the two “live online classes” lasting 75 minutes (on 9 April and in June). Modules and civil servants can be freely chosen by the municipal decision-makers according to relevance and local needs. Each module is designed in a way as to be completed by a civil servant in 2-3 hours.

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3 – Asset match-making tool

List municipal assets on the LIFE LOOP asset match-making tool and link up with new or existing energy communities in your area to maximise local benefits. Those assets can then be allocated to local project developers following local legal requirements.

Practically this means: A designated civil servant identifies assets such as available roofs, land or retrofit opportunities that could be used for potential community energy projects. This will enable the municipality, as asset holders, to show their readiness for community energy and to find the perfect partner amongst local stakeholders. This should not take more than 5 minutes per asset.

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And lastly: What do you get out of it?

If you and some of your colleagues go through all steps of the scheme, you will see where you stand, gain new skills, and advance greatly as an organisation in community energy matters. The completion of the scheme acknowledges municipalities demonstrating foresightedness in energy community matters. It has institutional backing by two recognised organisations: the European city network Energy Cities and the European federation of citizen energy cooperatives REScoop.eu. Completing the scheme is a first step to becoming a community energy leader. The participation of a city will be awarded with:

• An institutional certificate for the municipality demonstrating foresightedness in energy community matters
• An individual certificate for civil servants following the Community Energy Espresso training (at least 2 modules).

For cities’ going through the full scheme, we will provide additional visibility by highlighting their work through blogs and social media. We will celebrate community energy efforts at an in-person award ceremony in early Summer 2025. The municipalities can also receive support from the LIFE LOOP communication experts.