LIFE LOOP – Local Ownership Of Power

December, time to take stock: Over the past year, the LIFE LOOP journey has been marked by several in-person and online workshops, where partners shared knowledge about the benefits and practicalities of community energy.

Gender equality is a value the LIFE LOOP team is strongly defending and that will flow into each and every new energy community we are about to establish in our pilot and satellite cities! Here’s a brief overview of REScoop.eu’s ‘gender power’ work.

A brand new manifesto envisions a decentralized and 100% renewable energy system that prioritizes the needs and participation of people.

Citizens in the Balkan region have started testing renewable energy and energy efficiency technologies and adapting the concept of community energy in their context, improving in this way their local environment and livelihoods. Some of them do so in partnership with their local governments, notably those who are also partner in the LIFE LOOP project.

Local authorities must play a leading role in driving a local, equitable transition. There is a great window of opportunity that local governments must seize. That is why the LIFE LOOP team, including cities and cooperatives, calls on local leaders to abide by the main pillars of this brand new Manifesto.

One of the ingredients we brought back from a study visit to the most innovative energy community actions in Austria and Vienna was this: stubborn optimism. One day is far too short to dive into the various citizen-focused energy projects that exist in the country. It was enough, though, to get a glimpse of how Austrians design their solar future in a collaborative way.

Sasha from Serbia, Sandy from Greece, Anna from Croatia…what do they have in common? They all decided that they wanted to make energy a collective and fun activity while contributing to something bigger.

Want to know why money isn’t flowing faster towards energy communities? In an interview, RESCoop’s development manager Stanislas D’Herbemont explains why investors and citizens still have quite something to learn.