Providing cities with tools to increase their locally owned renewable energy production   

Empowering local players, making wise use of our resources and living within our planet’s boundaries requires sound, democratic decision-making processes.  

We, at Energy Cities, are driven by a desire to strengthen the role and skills of local governments to ensure local communities’ well-being and to accelerate the transition to climate neutrality. The Energy Cities Hubs are the community spaces dedicated to our members that:   

• Activate local leaders to deliver living spaces that are accessible to everyone  
• Empower local communities to decide on their own future  
• Inspire a learning community of cities engaged in future-proofing their economies  

Our 5 Hubs, launching in April, will be a new way of structuring the activities of our network. Stay tuned in the coming weeks to find out more! Today, we’re digging into the Community-led energy for massive renewable production Hub. 

What is the Community-led energy for massive renewable production Hub about?  

Instead of taking consumers hostage, democratic energy systems empower them, allowing them to have an active role in their energy production, thus becoming prosumers. Energy communities are based on local resources and optimise production and consumption. They can also help overcome the urban-rural divide. Breaking with precedent, they are the evidence that citizens, local governments and entrepreneurs (often jointly) can be socially responsible energy producers and distributors.  

Are you wondering how to secure affordable renewable energy for all? How to reap socio-economic benefit of local energy systems? Or how to foster remunicipalisation strategies and help energy communities emerge across Europe?

Within the Community energy Hub, we will provide your city with tools to increase renewable installations owned by the municipality and its inhabitants. We will advocate for EU and national targets adapted to the local potential, for lifting all national obstacles and providing support for local governments willing to increase their locally-owned production.  

Concretely, what does it mean? 

Through a series of activities that we will provide within this Hub, we will: 

• Make sure that our members are up to date and informed about the latest EU policy developments through policy briefs for local policy makers with key updates on major EU policy files linked with community energy 
• Organise discussions between local political leaders and key EU policy makers on concrete proposals to support the development of energy communities and foster renewable energy production at local level 
• Help our members build their capacities in order to facilitate the emergence of community energy projects. We will achieve this with training, coaching, tools and peer-to-peer exchanges 
• Facilitate our members’ access to EU funding with info sessions, matchmaking events and project ideas labs. We will also run competitive calls for funding on specific topics. 

Ready to join the Community-led energy for massive renewable production Hub? 

As our member, you can join and benefit, free-of-charge, from all the activities of our five Hubs, aligned with our intervention systems and impact targets. By joining our Hubs, you become part of our learning community of local practitioners with different backgrounds and fields of expertise: political representatives, technicians and city officers, all sharing the same vision: reaching climate neutrality by 2050. Interested in the Community energy Hub? Get in touch to pre-register here.  

We will launch our Hubs during our Annual Forum and we will keep you posted in the coming weeks.