The Rural Energy Community Advisory Hub (RECAH) Energy Breakfast Series networking sessions are open to our RECAH member network and will take place on Wednesday mornings at 9 AM CET.

Each 1-hour session will welcome a key speaker from thriving energy communities (ECs) across Europe. Their 15-minute presentations will focus on the strengths of each EC and touch on themes such as providing assistance to economically vulnerable households, group organisation, citizen engagement and the empowering process, motivating young people to pursue careers in renewable energy, new business model ideas, nature preservation, obstacles that arise and incentives available at your local levels.

Following the presentation, the audience will have an opportunity to network, share knowledge and ask questions. As an audience member, you will be invited to introduce yourselves during a 30-minute moderated session, reflect on the topic presented and put ideas and questions forward to our key speaker and other network members.

DON’T MISS YOUR OPPORTUNITY TO HAVE A POSITIVE INFLUENCE ON THE ENERGY TRANSITION!

If you have not yet joined the RECAH member network and wish to participate register today!

If you are already a member of the RECAH network, you can register for our first three Energy Breakfast Series sessions below. Please note by registering for any of the Energy Breakfast Series you are agreeing to our privacy notice.

Session 6:  Goiener Cooperative, Basque Country, Spain

This session has now ended. Recordings will be made available to RECAH network members.

Goiener is a non-profit citizen cooperative whose activity is to commercialise 100% renewable electricity. Given the broad scope of citizen energy activities in 2015, the Goiener Association was created. They hoped to scale and strengthen the dissemination of activities, training, awareness raising and development of new lines of work. They foster collaboration with social networks that empower citizens and share our values. Their mission is to channel citizen demand to regain control of the local energy supply.

The Goiener cooperative is committed to an inclusive organisational structure based on thematic and multidisciplinary teams. It consists of 200 volunteers and workers that have autonomy but also coordinate.

Find out about the key speaker and register for this session

Session 5:  Energy Communities Tipperary Cooperative (ECTC) CLG, Ireland

This session has now ended. Recordings will be made available to RECAH network members.

The General Manager of award-winning Energy Communities Tipperary Cooperative in Ireland will be presenting a session on the EU LIFE project One Stop Renovation Coop (OSR-Coop).

The OSR-Coop project looks to create a model that enables citizen-led renovations by advancing cooperative One-Stop Shop building renovation services.

During this networking session you will have the opportunity to discover what significance the outputs from this project will have on energy communities across the European Union.

Session 4:  Case dell’Energia Serrenti, Italy

This session has now ended. Recordings will be made available to RECAH network members.

This session will be presented in Italian. | Questa sessione sarà presentata in italiano.

Serrenti è un piccolo Comune sardo, con poco meno di 4540 abitanti, precursore nell’avvio di iniziative di smart city e di economia circolare tra Comuni medio-piccoli della Regione.

Obiettivo del Comune, negli ultimi anni, è stato quello di promuovere l’autoconsumo di energia pulita nei propri edifici pubblici, con particolare riguardo a quella derivante dagli impianti solari fotovoltaici, realizzati dall’amministrazione comunale e da essa direttamente gestiti.

Ed è con questo obiettivo che l’amministrazione e l’ufficio tecnico hanno lavorato in questi anni per la realizzazione e la creazione già dal lontano 2010 di micro-reti, dislocate nel territorio comunale.

I flussi energetici e la loro distribuzione ottimizzata e smart all’interno delle micro-reti sono gestiti dalle cosiddette “Case dell’Energia”.
La prima di esse è operativa dal 2018 grazie a fondi POR FESR 2014-2020 della Regione Sardegna ha visto l’installazione di uno specifico accumulo agli ioni di litio da 43 kWh e l’implementazione di un sistema intelligente che tramite un’Intelligenza Artificiale permette una gestione ottimale dell’energia all’interno della prima micro-rete.

Il progetto è diventato un modello regionale grazie alla realizzazione di vari laboratori didattici nelle scuole e all’interno delle casette sul tema dell’energia verde. Un semplice esempio di modello circolare riconosciuto e apprezzato a livello italiano, grazie anche ai tanti premi e menzioni ricevute.

Session 3: Roseto Valfortore, Italy

This session has now ended. Recordings will be made available to RECAH network members.

Comunità Energitica Rinnovabile Rosetana APS, referred to more colloquially as Comunità Energetica Rinnovabile di Roseto Valfortore, is a rural EC in Apulia, Italy. The EC celebrated the inauguration of their first 6kW renewable energy installation on January 27th, 2023.

The EC is actively pursuing other innovative activities in the near future, by maximising their income with the GSE incentive on shared energy using smart meters, exploring opportunities for storage, e-mobility and district heating. The EC’s “leasing model” is a unique way of reducing the initial financial burden on the community and offers a valuable lesson to other communities in their early stages, as well as the ECs’ ability to take advantage of the incentives available in Italy through self-consumption and shared energy.

Currently, the community has 30 members and has a driving ambition to increase self-consumption to cover 100% of its citizens, reducing their financial costs for energy and eventually becoming autonomous from an energy perspective.

Session 2: Coöperation BioZon, Netherlands

This session has now ended. Recordings will be made available to RECAH network members.

Cooperation BioZon is a renewable energy community in The Netherlands. The community has about 60 members that live close to the renewable energy plant which is owned by the cooperation itself.

They were the first community in The Netherlands to offer local households energy at costprice.

Session 1: Energy cooperative Novi Otok Korčula, Croatia

This session has now ended. Recordings will be made available to RECAH network members.

The Novi Otok citizens association, founded in 2012, aims to improve life on the island of Korčula, with an emphasis on nature preservation and sustainable development. Partnering with the Vela Luka municipality in 2015, they formed the Novi Otok cooperative to implement the Action Plan for increasing energy efficiency.

Their primary goal is to encourage citizen participation in the energy transition by investing in renewable energy projects. They also aim to create local income, provide assistance to economically vulnerable households, and motivate young people to pursue careers related to renewable energy sources.

RECAH refers to Novi Otok as a real-life example of how a citizen association took the first steps into creating a cooperative, energy efficiency projects and communal photovoltaic power plants.

The environmental and economic benefits of this cooperatives achievements include over 70,000 euros invested in the energy renovation of private homes.