GReen Energy Transition Actions

Project Information

GRETA

Grant agreement ID: 101022317

DOI

10.3030/101022317

Project closed

EC signature date 20 April 2021

Start date 1 May 2021

End date 31 October 2023

Funded under

• SOCIETAL CHALLENGES - Secure, clean and efficient energy

Total cost

€ 3 098 372,50

EU contribution

€ 3 098 371,78

Coordinated by

LAPPEENRANNAN-LAHDEN TEKNILLINEN YLIOPISTO LUT
Finland

Periodic Reporting for period 2 - GRETA (GReen Energy Transition Actions)

Reporting period: 2022-11-01 to 2023-10-31

Summary of the context and overall objectives of the project

Energy citizenship means active public participation towards a greener future. By 2050, most EU households could potentially be engaged in sustainable energy actions, such as saving energy locally, or producing and storing green electricity.  This is supported by recent EU legislation which has made it possible for individual households and communities to produce, store and sell their own energy.  However, people and communities are not motivated by top-down policies alone, instead they need to be able to find ways to act that are motivating to them and which suit their own circumstances.

The aim of GRETA is to understand more about what affects peoples’ willingness and capabilities to take action and the barriers that hamper it. The project will focus on 6 distinct case studies - around renewable energy, mobility and energy efficiency – and use these as a basis for studying energy citizenship from a range of different perspectives. First, by defining more closely what it means to be an ‘energy citizen’ and what types of actions they could potentially take towards a more sustainable future. Second, to understand potential barriers against energy citizenship by studying the actions and interactions, both between individual energy citizens and between different energy community initiatives, and what factors mediate those interactions. Third, to utilize different sources of data and information to support the development of new strategies for achieving decarbonization. Fourth, to use the insights obtained from case studies as a basis to understand the phenonmena at regional, national and European level. Finally, to improve the policy making process so that it is more favourable to support the emergence of energy citizenship in the EU.

Work performed from the beginning of the project to the end of the period covered by the report and main results achieved so far

In the first stages of GRETA, much of the work has focused around understanding energy citizenship and what it means, especially in the context of 6 case studies. The initial research has been based on reading and understanding the research literature and using this to create frameworks and models that will support interpretation of data collected through other research activities in the project. There has been direct communication with people involved in the case studies, through interviews and workshops. One set of workshops has focused on working with the communities to co-design community-level indicators (CLIs), which are measurements that can help planners, policy makers and communities to measure progress towards the case study goals. At the same time, these communities have been trying to define what actions they would like to take in order to achieve their goals. These are represented as Community Transition Pathways (CTPs). Energy-related data has also been collected from and about the case studies. At the same time, GRETA has drawn on all the different types of knowledge gained through its research activities and used this in the design of a Europe wide survey, aimed at gaining new knowledge about energy citizens, from the perspective of residents, companies and policy makers. This has yielded around 10,500 responses from across 16 European countries.

In the second stage of the project, GRETA has continued working with case study communities to finalise the Community Transition Pathways (CTPs) and to formalise these for three case studies into Energy Citizenship Contracts (ECCs) that define roles and responsibilities to achieve actions laid out in the CTPs. This stage has also focused on modelling the multinational survey data in various ways to understand the perspectives of energy citizenship across Europe. This modelling has revealed interesting insights. For example, it shows differences between countries in how energy citizenship manifests as well as differing drivers and priorities between civil society, companies and decision-makers. In addition, clustering of the data from the general public has yielded 8 distinct personas each of which reflects differences in how people may enact energy citizenship actions, based on their attitudes and knowledge but importantly, also according to their individual and local circumstances.

In order to disseminate and further exploit key project results, much of the GRETA findings have been embedded into a GRETA analytics tool through which it is possible to explore the emergence of different types of energy citizenship across different geographical scales, as well as explore many of the project outcomes including the multinational survey data. All key project findings have also been included into 6 policy briefs that have been disseminated to policy makers. A social media campaign has been produced and disseminated, promoting energy citizenship through energy communities.

Progress beyond the state of the art and expected potential impact (including the socio-economic impact and the wider societal implications of the project so far)

GRETA has achieved progress beyond the state of the art in a number of areas. A three-stage model to explain energy citizenship emergence was developed in the first part of the project. The model provides novel insights compared to previous research as it focuses on the interplay between the individual and the collective actions.

The multiple complex connections between the concept of energy justice and the emergence of different forms of energy citizenship have also been analysed. These analyses have paved the way for the development of Community Transition Pathways (CTPs) and Energy Citizenship Contracts (ECCs) which are instruments to offer communities ways to forge new direct relationships with energy and with involved stakeholders. CTPs represent communities’ vision toward decarbonization goals, including a roadmap of key steps for the transitioning; ECCs are the operative result of the pathways through which communities and stakeholders can mutually recognize roles and benefits.

Further progress of GRETA is in the use of different sources of data - related to energy, infrastructures, communities and individuals - to understand how energy citizenship may manifest differently due to the local conditions. The data derives from a number of sources, utilizing both public and private datasets, the data obtained through the large multinational survey, but more crucially working closely within the communities themselves to gain insight into how well instrumented their local areas currently are for supporting positive energy citizenship activities

All of the key information and knowledge generated by GRETA has been made available for all, through an Open Portfolio for Civic Empowerment.

These results of GRETA are expected to achieve the following socio-economic impacts. Firstly, increased awareness and understanding to combat energy poverty and energy justice. Secondly, improved interaction, connectivity and dialogue between individuals, communities, energy providers and municipalities so that they can work together towards achieving decarbonization targets. Thirdly, the communities directly involved in case studies will be empowered to effect positive change through their participation. Finally, there will be better policies that support more inclusive energy strategies that provide favourable conditions for the emergence of energy citizenship, by focusing more on community level, infrastructural, organizational and governance factors than individual change.

Energy citizenship emergence