EC4RURAL – Fostering local engagement for Clean Energy Transition in Rural Areas through Energy Communities

Project summary

Despite their wealth of resources, rural municipalities in Europe are usually at a disadvantage compared to their urban counterparts: rural shrinking, less access to basic services and employment often translate into energy poverty of its inhabitants derived from the current high energy prices.

EC4RURAL project, funded by the LIFE Programme, seeks to deepen, and transform relationships between local and regional authorities and rural communities to contribute to the clean energy transition (CET) in Europe while ensuring active participation of rural areas and local stakeholders and making sure they are not left behind. The project will make sure that rural communities are part of and benefit from CET processes fostering the creation of rural energy communities producing electricity through photovoltaic panels.

Therefore, EC4RURAL action is placed in the orbit of changes in consumer and business behaviours, to facilitate increased dialogue and joint investment by public and private actors (unattainable on an individual level), as established by the European Green Deal. The project will also contribute to rural development within the new Common Agricultural Policy, as well as to the European Rural Pact and the Territorial Cohesion Policy.

EC4RURAL will implement this new paradigm shift through 2 pilots in Estonia and Spain, with a total of 34 case studies in different rural municipalities, aiming to sow the seed of replicability, not only in the participating regions, but also at European level, through the communication, dissemination, and exploitation activities of the network of external partners and collaborators.

Who we are?

EC4RURAL brings together a group of 10 partners composing a multi-stakeholder consortium located in 3 different EU countries (Spain, Estonia, and Belgium). The consortium is led by UVIGO and involves different local and regional public authorities, together with different entities able to provide the municipalities, citizens and SMEs with the support needed to develop, implement, and monitor rural energy communities.

Leader

How are we going to achieve our objectives?

Our approach is organised in two main phases:

· Set-up phase: this phase focuses on social participation. The local energy system will be assessed, ensuring the involvement of different citizens, stakeholders, and institutions. Local communities’ energy plans will be established to determine their energy goals.

· Unleashing energy communities power phase: the previous work will provide the ground to undertake the creation of the energy communities in this stage. EC4RURAL will give specific support to the energy communities in the form of inputs required to take decisions on business models, technology election, legal and financial solutions, governance structure, grid access and authorisation process. EC4RURAL will also provide support with the market and the management of the investment during the early stages of the energy communities.

This approach will be assessed by 2 pilot demonstrators in representative rural areas of Northern and Southern Europe. One pilot will be carried out in the region of Galicia (Northwest of Spain) and a second one covers the whole territory Estonia. The selected areas share needs and challenges in rural development. Additionally, the local context specifications will provide the ground for a broad replicability of project results.

What is our role in this project?

UVIGO, as the leader of this project, will coordinate all the necessary organisation for the effective development of the project, coordinating all the partners with their defined tasks to facilitate the effective development and success of the project. At the same time, UVIGO will take on the leadership of specific work packages and carefully monitors the associated deliverables and milestones, thus demonstrating the effectiveness of the operational efforts.

In its capacity as the lead institution, UVIGO assumes the obligation to manage certain facets of EC4RURAL’s intricacies. The confluence of this leadership role and meticulous oversight will contribute significantly to the validation of operational effectiveness.

UVIGO will ensure the excellent project execution and achievement of results thank to the partner efforts involved in EC4RURAL project.

Funding programme

LIFE Clean Energy Transition sub-programme

Duration

1 September 2023 – 31 August 2027 (48 months)

Total budget

€1,578,130.20

EU contribution

€1,499,223.70

To learn more about the EC4RURAL project and its latest news, please visit EC4RURAL web.

Contact details