Climate Alliance International Conference - CAIC'22

Energy Communities and Energy Cooperatives are models that embody citizen and community ownership of energy in the urgent transformation towards 100% renewable energy. In this workshop we discuss how municipalities can be part of or set up their energy communities and explore tools to project the demand of household energy consumption. We wish to support mutual learning on the role of municipalities in establishing and contributing/supporting the management of energy communities and energy cooperatives.

How can municipalities participate in energy communities? What are the bottlenecks and solutions? What tools and methods support forecasting energy demand to ensure energy system stability in a municipality? These are the core questions we explored in this workshop with experts from municipalities, energy communities and cooperatives and researchers including energy system modellers.

Background

In the last few years, new energy and climate policies have been implemented in order to reduce emissions, improve energy efficiency, expand the renewable energy generation capacity and improve the electric system overall.

Energy communities can be instrumental in changing the energy landscape and enabling the clean energy transition at the local and citizen level. In the grassroots, community-based energy projects have rapidly gained momentum with the help of public investment and support schemes, and the awareness of sustainable advantages for local populations. Energy communities have encouraged democratic decision-making and self-sufficiency, social innovation, and collaborative social transformation. Beyond the community-specific lens, energy communities can bring increased flexibility and resilience to the main energy grid, and from an economic perspective, they can also be seen as socially innovative enterprises, engaging in economic activity that lowers energy costs while providing financial returns to the local community.

Municipalities have a key role when it comes to trust and safety of the local energy network. It is however critical to be able to do precise consumption forecasts in the medium and long term for municipalities to see what policy measures are to be planned to ensure energy safety. Based on a good private and public energy demand forecast, municipalities could be able to know exactly how much energy they have to acquire in the months or years to come.

Against this backdrop, energy communities can take many legal, organisational, and financial forms, subject to local circumstances and needs, while also dependent on the policy and regulatory support available. From a technical standpoint, traditionally energy communities focused only on energy generation, but this is expanding to also include storage, supply, and energy efficiency, while the system can be either centralised, distributed, or decentralised.

About CAIC'22: Unlocking local potential – driving global transition

28 – 30 September 2022 | Hesperange (Luxembourg) and Online

Our towns and cities are brimming with potential. From civil society organisations and local businesses to concerned individuals and youth activists, the local resolve for a just and green transformation should not be underestimated. Yet how can municipalities harness all the energy and ideas that abound within their borders to fight for climate justice and buffer global heating’s impacts? How can they build bridges with local stakeholders, tap into local expertise and unleash local potential for positive change?

CAIC22 exploreD these questions with a look at examples from fields such as energy poverty, renewable energies, sustainable mobility, building renovation, climate justice and nature-based solutions. Through interactive workshops and inspiring contributions, this year’s Climate Alliance International Conference examineD how local engagement with stakeholders can bring us closer to a global transformation that is both sustainable and just.