What a journey!

Now that LIFE LOOP is getting to its end, we feel it’s worth looking back – and ahead – to talk about the successful public-private partnerships that emerged in the past three years. Everything started with a crucial barriers and opportunities analysis that helped the team better grasp the realities regarding collaboration between citizens and local municipalities in different parts of Europe. To address some of these challenges we worked with LIFE LOOP cities, islands, public and private partners, providing capacity-building, roadmap designs, tools, communication and ultimately the implementation of RES and EE projects in the pilot areas. 

Although the project objectives were clear, over the past three years a constant re-adjustment of processes to trigger collective action was needed. We found that community-driven projects face significant obstacles in all countries, including inconsistent regulatory frameworks, limited access to financing and training, and political inertia. 

Over the project lifetime, LIFE LOOP partners used their “soft power” to positively influence political culture in those places where energy decisions remain under the local administrative control with little community involvement: through a range of approaches including bilateral meetings between technical and local partners, capacity-building workshops for civil servants, showcasing successes from elsewhere, guidance on funding options, study visits, meetings with experts, peer to peer exchange, tools and templates…

After a year of intense knowledge and skills-building around community energy for the local partners, pilots and satellites defined their business models: from shared PV in blocks of flats to large-scale ground-mounted PV with community participation. Pilots took risks in developing projects even though legislation was not ready. But their courage paid off. 

“It’s inspiring to see how much power we have when we act collectively. These discussions showed me that energy solutions are not just for big corporations—they are for us.”  –

Citizen participant of one Energy Café in Cyprus

(February 2025)

Some highlights:

• ZEZ Sunce, Croatia’s first official energy community was successfully launched thanks to LIFE LOOP in 2023 and inaugurated Croatia’s first citizen-owned solar installation of 200kW in Križevci. 
• Gabrovo in Bulgaria established an energy community for a 150 kW rooftop PV installation, combining crowdfunding and shared energy usage. 10% of redistributed energy is dedicated to social needs. The municipality now serves as a replicable model for integrating solar energy, civic engagement, and social equity in the energy transition.
• LIFE LOOP significantly increased public awareness of the potential that lies behind community energy. Partners from the Center for Social Innovation (CSI) in Cyprus reached out to over 50,000 people through city-wide online and offline communication, including innovative formats such as “energy cafés”.
• The Greek partners, Minoan Energy Community and Electra Energy significantly scaled up their activities involving municipalities (13 in Crete, 25 in Greece) in awareness-raising, workshops, training and project development. Electra expanded its capacity-building offer to cities and energy communities across the Balkans.  

Conference on energy communities organized within the expo “Fa la cosa giusta” with the participation of the municipalities of Ussaramanna and Villanovaforru, Italy

LIFE LOOP helped lift misperceptions of what an energy community is. Pilots report an increase in trust both in civil society and in municipal players.

Through these achievements, the LIFE LOOP project contributed crucially to the implementation of enabling frameworks for energy communities as outlined in Art. 22 of the Renewable Energy Directive, amended by Directive 2023/2413. The team also contributed to the Citizen Energy Package consultation making sure the needs collected in our recent policy recommendations: “Enabling frameworks for Energy Communities” are taken into account. The project increases the pace of EU policy implementation by demonstrating real-world applications and scaling up community energy practices across Europe.

Have a look at our resources and feel the community energy with the LIFE LOOP Youtube playlist.

OUTLOOK

LIFE LOOP’s legacy will be ensured through a new LIFE ENERCOM project called SHINE, from September 2025 – September 2028. SHINE will bring together the experience and tools, such as our accreditation programme for municipalities. These resources will be further enhanced and shared on the European One-Stop Shop. It will also support cities in Spain, Italy, Poland and Belgium in developing One- Stop Shops at local and national level to enable energy communities to shine across Europe. Join us on this exciting new journey! Subscribe to Energy Cities’ Community Energy Hub and its regular bulletin to stay posted.