Events

Conference

First International Energy Communities Conference

9 October 2019, 09:00 - 18:30
Lisbon, Portugal- Auditorium Mariano Gago - Knowledge Pavilion

At a time when energy systems are undergoing a profound transformation that may not only result in a 100% renewable system, but also a more intelligent network and a more democratic, open and horizontal energy model, we would like to invite all stakeholders in the sector to discuss the issues facing this new model but also already existing examples of renewable energy communities, power sharing and collective self-consumption projects in Europe and beyond.

Renewable Energy Communities propose a model designed to enable the collective use of production and storage systems and to put its management in the hands of communities and citizens. It might soon be possible that: energy cooperatives or municipalities manage microgrids, dwellings or buildings install and share photovoltaic systems for collective self-consumption, renewable energy prosumers communicate with each other to directly share, buy and sell the the excess renewable energy they generate.

Inevitably, there is still a gap between potential and reality, and many challenges arise. Mainly management and operational needs, but also issues related to data protection with the increasing digitisation of the sector, as well as challenges facing the new architectures and forms of organisation of the old monopoly. Although pilot projects are emerging, by companies, academic or local initiatives, the model of energy communities suffers from a lack of visibility, little credibility and numerous legislative, technical and economic barriers.

The conference discussing all those issues is co-organised by the EU Horizon 2020 PROSEU project partner Center for Ecology, Evolution and Environmental Changes (CE3C) and the research group Climate Change Impacts, Adaptation and Modeling (CCIAM) at the Faculty of Science at the University of Lisbon (FCUL), as well as Coopérnico (Cooperative for Renewable Energy), with contributions from the Horizon 2020 projects COMPILE and BEACON.

For more information, the programme and registration, please click here.