Renewables Archives - Energy Cities

Besançon’s energy and climate policies and innovative projects have made it one of the pioneering local authorities in the green transition in France.

News

Navigating challenges: local solutions to democratise energy

Learn from 3 Energy Cities' member that are shaping the transition together with their citizens

04/11/2024

Thanks to our projects and the activities carried out within Energy Cities’ Community Energy Hub, we recently had the opportunity to talk with some of […]

News

No excuse to get smarter on community energy

Espresso training now available in more languages

Participative governance

Renewables

Tools & Capacity building

Community energy

03/10/2024

As we want the community energy movement to be active all around Europe, we want to make sure municipal employees do have the skills for it. That is why our Espresso training is now also available in languages other than English.

Interviews

Navigating public perception on renewable energy projects

Interview with Jonas Holmstrom and Niklas Karlsson

Participative governance

Renewables

Community energy

02/10/2024

In the municipality of Kökar (Finland) an energy community around solar, urban wind and storage was meant to bring new flexibility to the island’s energy system. You will hear that this has turned into a bad adventure with 1 or 2 strong and loud opponents who managed to sabotage the project.

Interviews

Islanders against all odds: Community energy strategies in a small paradise in Croatia

Interview with Franjo Toić, public official at Cres municipality & Ugo Toić, Director of the public Island Development Agency OTRA

Participative governance

03/09/2024

Ugo and Franjo are working on building the first community-owned ground-mounted PV installation on the island. But as the Croatian law still makes it very difficult to register and run an energy community, they do so through an energy cooperative that has this special feature of including two municipalities as members. This is quite unique in Croatia and uncommon in the EU.

News

Decarbonising cities for a sustainable Europe

Transforming heating and cooling: key strategies and success stories from European cities.

29/07/2024

Did you know that heating and cooling account 50% of Europe’s energy demand and 80% of household energy consumption? Energy Cities’ Annual Forum, held in […]

Interviews

“Degrowth is a pretty loaded term on its own”

Interview with Chris Giotitsas, Peer to Peer Lab and CommonEn energy community

Renewables

Energy democracy

Community energy

22/07/2024

And still, community leaders keep on fighting for it as a means to bring environmental and social sustainability – ultimately also as a means to turn the blurry degrowth concept into something very concrete.

News

Community-building with coffee beans and roof tops

The community energy accreditation scheme brings everything together

Participative governance

Renewables

Community energy

17/07/2024

An energy system with strong participation from everyone is still something new to citizens as much as it is to SMEs or local administrations. Guess what? We have a set of tools that can help local governments understanding the community energy concept and allocating their resources towards the right actions! Espresso is one of them.

Advocacy

Boosting the Green Deal in the next EU mandate

We asked EU Heads of State to confirm the Green Deal as a strategic priority in the next EU mandate

Renewables

Fossil-free cities

Community energy

17/06/2024

Confirming the Green Deal as Europe’s growth and security engine, providing much needed clarity and stability to industries and citizens. Together with a group of […]