Support Service for Citizen-Led Renovation

The support service for citizen-led renovation is an EU-funded support service for energy communities to establish citizens as central actors in the renovation of buildings. Energy communities are associations of citizens who, for example, jointly invest in power generation facilities and jointly generate, store and use electricity and/or heat. They are seen as important catalysts for the energy transition. Basically, two different types of energy communities can be distinguished: Citizen Energy Communities and Renewable Energy Communities.

The initiative aims to expand the work and services of energy communities in the field of energy renovation. Together with four selected pilot energy communities, approaches and methods are being sought to overcome existing barriers to the energy transition and to drive far-reaching energy renovation activities by citizens. The initiative supports energy communities in strengthening cohesion within their community and helping their members plan and implement renovation activities such as insulating the building envelope, replacing heating systems or installing renewable energy systems. The innovative element of the overall project here is to incorporate renovation activities into the concept of energy communities and to develop new concepts and business models for them.

The project aims to collaborate with four pilot energy communities in Belgium, Bulgaria, Ireland, and Portugal from June 2023 to December 2024, and subsequently expand citizen-led renovations across the European Union.

Main activities:

• Supporting pilot projects in developing project and investment plans, preparing and assisting with regulatory procedures, project management and technical design, communicating and promoting citizen participation.
• Dissemination of best practices, exchange of experience between actors in the field of energy communities and energy retrofitting at regional, national and EU level.
• Establishment of a multi-stakeholder exchange platform
• High national and international visibility of the concept of citizen-led renovation

The service contract is led by Th!nk E and implemented in collaboration with eight other partner organizations, including Steinbeis Europa Zentrum, which coordinates the communication activities.

Further Information:;

• Funding: European Commission, DG Energy
• Funding budget for all partners: 929.765 Euro
• Project duration: 01/2023 – 12/2024
• Participating countries: Austria, Belgium, Germany, Greece, Portugal