What kind of support does the Repository offer?
Energy communities in the EU find themselves at very different stages in their development; some are informal groups that have just started thinking about the possibility of setting up an energy community, some are already established legal entities that only need a last bit of expert support to get their clean energy project over the finish line.
With this in mind, the Energy Communities Repository will provide different forms of support to at least 150 energy communities overall, taking into consideration the different needs of applicants:
To at least 25 energy communities, in which experts provide days of expert support to the community.
Workshops and webinars held in local language in the following countries: Bulgaria, Greece, Czech Republic, Croatia (extension towards Serbia / Montenegro / Albania / Bosnia & Herzegovina), Hungary, Italy, Latvia, Estonia, Poland, Portugal, Romania, Slovenia, Slovakia, targeting at least 80 communities.
On specific topics and issues faced by energy communities.
The deadline for applications has now passed. If you are interested in future opportunities for your urban energy community, please sign up for our newsletter here.
The Rural Energy Community Advisory Hub are providing support to rural based energy communities. The deadline to apply for assistance has also passed but you can sign up to their newsletter to hear about future opportunities for rural communities.
Questions
Please don’t hesitate to contact us at info@ec-repository.eu, we’ll be happy to answer your questions!
You can also check out our Q&A!
The Energy Communities Repository was set up to map and support energy communities across the EU. To provide dedicated support to rural communities, the European Commission set up the Rural Energy Communities Advisory Hub which operates as an extension of the Repository. The two initiatives are working very closely together, making sure that all communities receive the best possible support.
Information about the workshops will be shared on our website. The contents of the workshops will depend on the needs expressed by energy communities in the application forms.
No. The Energy Communities Repository provides technical assistance via experts. These experts can help you - for example - carry out a feasibility study, develop a business model, develop a financing plan, etc.(you will find the full technical assistance offer in the guidelines on our support page). There are other EU initiatives that provide grants, such as the EU City Facility (see here for more information - your energy community would need to have a municipality as a member to be eligible for support).
The focus countries include EU Member States and associated countries where there has historically been less activity on the topic of energy communities, and where it was therefore considered that additional support would be more valuable.
The Advisory Hub does not have focus countries. The Repository’s technical assistance is also open to nonrural communities from all EU Member States. Our offer provides additional support to countries where historically there has been less activity in the area of energy communities.
Our tender already included a set of country experts, to ensure we could put support in place as soon as possible after the project started. If there are additional needs by energy communities, we will consider adding more experts to our pool.
If your group could benefit from technical assistance, capacity-building workshops and/or exchanging experiences with another community that has already done what you would like to do, we’re here to support you. In addition to finding support tools and information on the Repository website, we can also highlight tools you developed, showcase your energy community on the EU-wide map, and possibly highlight you as a best practice - a great way to get exposure and recognition all across the EU!
Yes! We have already reached out to quite a few projects in order to include them in the Repository’s website (see here). If your project is not yet on there, please get in touch with us at info@ec-repository.eu. We will also be highlighting tools and best practices from other EU projects - please don’t hesitate to send them our way by email.
Yes. Any tool that can support energy communities in setting up their group, operations and activities, can be featured on the Repository’s toolbox. To share your tools, please don’t hesitate to send them to info@ecrepository.eu