CEES Partner highlights

Over three years (2021-24), CEES sought to build knowledge and experience in relation to how energy communities (ECs) can effectively participate in tackling energy poverty in Europe.

An underlying principle of CEES was that each Partner brought experience and expertise in some aspect of tackling energy poverty or operating an energy community. In turn, each committed to pilot new practices within their operations and to be mutually supportive across all activities.

The following paragraphs summarise very briefly the main achievements of each Partner within the context of CEES. Much more detailed analysis of each Partner’s development is covered in the Evaluation section of this website.

Before the CEES project, ALIenergy was entirely dependent on grant funding to support its activities. Through CEES, ALIenergy has diversified its funding mechanisms through proactive marketing, direct dialogue and new collaborations, seeking public micro donations, larger corporate donations, referral fees, service agreements and commercial activities. Through these new mechanisms, ALIenergy has successfully raised over €200 000 to support its activities. Importantly, by supporting more than 3 000 Scottish households, it has achieved more than €1 million in client gains.

With the theme, Gastar Bem a Energia (Spend Energy Well), Coopérnico offered 18 workshops / Energy Cafés, directly reaching more than 350 people. The events were hosted in liaison with senior academies, municipalities, local parishes and an energy agency. In the Energy Cafés, Coopérnico presented how energy billing works, waysto save energy and reduce costs, and tips to increase thermal comfort through simple, low-cost measures. Adapting to hesitancy on the part of participants to allow Energy Advisors to carry out home visits for customised assistance, Coopérnico distributed ‘energy boxes’ at later workshops. Participants expressed appreciation for the opportunity to learn more about energy, which boosted their confidence, and for being given tools to improve their situations. By July 2024, Coopérnico had also offered personalised contacts to ~20 households and carried out 20 home visits (separately from the workshops), with more scheduled in the near future. Coopérnico engaged with the former POWERPOOR Network of Energy Supporters and Mentors to continue providing (through CEES) energy counselling and advice, and to help apply for public financing for home renovations and energy efficient equipment.

Within the context of CEES, Enercoop conducted an experiment to establish an Energy Solidarity Taskforce, aimed at supporting its customers in energy poverty. Ultimately, this experiment resulted in the development of a new service, dedicated entirely to assisting customers in challenging situations, whether energy, economic or housing related. In addition to helping customers with their energy bills, the service enhances their connections with relevant social services. Enercoop, supported by Énergie Solidaire, played a significant role in gathering information on financing energy communities to implement energy solidarity initiatives. They highlighted innovative, replicable solutions for Europe and identified the most robust traditional methods for supporting this type of structure.

As a primarily grant-funded organisation, Repowering London’s pilot project for CEES aimed to test and tailor a micro-donations mechanism, inspired by Enercoop. In parallel, it would investigate other alternative fundraising mechanisms as necessary. Over the course of the pilot, this came to involve three main activities:

working with a coalition of community energy stakeholders in London on a public crowdfunding campaign;
seeking donations from businesses through their corporate social responsibility programs; and
ultimately securing a new service contract to deliver fuel poverty initiatives. Drawing together its established practices, Repowering London also launched a new energy support roadshow to provide energy advice in the district of Lambeth.

Les 7 Vents is a ‘cooperative of collective interest’ in Normandy, France (established in 2005)35 that deals with energy and sustainable development in local and European contexts. Its main goal is to facilitate collaboration and cooperation among businesses, artisans, citizens and communities, leveraging the diverse expertise and perspectives they each bring to local challenges.

Through the CEES project, ZEZ had the opportunity to further develop mechanisms already in place for alleviating energy poverty while testing new mechanisms to enhance our efficiency in increasing the energy efficiency of vulnerable households. In launching the ‘Ease their pain’ campaign, ZEZ was able to raise awareness of energy poverty and boost public engagement in tackling it. Notable activities included successfully raising sufficient funds to prepare and deliver up to 250 Energy Efficiency Kits and being featured on various radio and TV programmes. Together, these achievements advanced ZEZ’s goal to contribute to achieving energy equity and just energy transition for all.

By closely following the CEES pilot projects, including obstacles encountered and lessons learned, REScoop.eu was able to formulate concrete policy recommendations for both the EU and national level (for countries in which the project was active). Over the project timeline (2021-2024), this has led to the development of a number of policy briefings that advocate for empowering citizen-led measures against energy poverty and for a just transition. Those recommendations were shared and discussed in dedicated national and EU-level policy events organised by CEES.

Additionally, REScoop.eu took the lead on building capacity among ECs beyond the CEES consortium. In a series of dedicated ‘Open Days’ over the course of the project’s final year, CEES Partners have shared insights and concrete tips with numerous EC from across Europe, including Italy, Greece, Belgium, France and Slovenia. This experience greatly emphasised the importance of knowledge sharing within the wider movement and broadened REScoop.eu’s view on the opportunities and obstacles ECs are experiencing when it comes to enacting social and energy justice within and beyond their communities.

The UoB team was responsible for evaluating six pilot projects carried out by other CEES Partners. This involved developing an Evaluation Framework, implementing evaluation methods (with extensive support from the six pilot project teams) and preparing a comprehensive evaluation report (available on the CEES website). UoB also produced several academic outputs.

EnAct supported CEES Partners with an extensive social media campaign, highlighting their activities and achievements throughout the project. This activity attracted the attention of other ECs, providing insights and advice relevant to their own projects. In turn, EnAct also organised four webinars at key points in the project and distributed four newsletters, each time building up a broader network of followers. Finally, working closely with all Partners, EnAct led the development of the CEES Energy Solidarity Toolkit, the project’s key legacy. Packed with information, insights, inspiring practices and concrete tips, the Toolkit will be of immense value for other ECs seeking to integrate energy solidarity measures in support of just, clean energy transition.

SNAP oversaw the overall management of the CEES project, such as risk management and legal consulting. Applying experience with previous H2020 projects – e.g the Citizenergy IEE and REScoop.

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