Periodic Reporting for period 1 - CLEAR-X (Consumers Leading the EU’s Energy Ambition Response, Expansion)
Periodo di rendicontazione: 2021-09-01 al 2022-11-30
•What is the problem/issue being addressed?
EU buildings are responsible for 40% of our energy consumption and roughly 75% of existing building stock is currently energy inefficient. As approximately 75% of heating supply is based on fossil fuels, further decarbonising the energy system is crucial to reach climate objectives in 2030 and 2050. A power sector must be based largely on renewable sources, complemented by the rapid phase out of fossil fuels. Therefore, increasing use of renewable energy and sustainable energy (RES) and energy efficient (EE) technologies should be at the heart of the energy transition and are essential for the EU to become climate neutral by 2050.
•Why is it important for society?
In December 2019, the European Commission launched the European Green Deal to make Europe climate neutral by 2050. Indeed, to keep fighting climate change and preserving our environment, the EU needs to make its green ambitions a reality. At the same time, Europe is facing an unprecedented crisis due to the COVID-19 outbreak and people’s daily lives have been severely disrupted. While the Clean Energy Package enabled millions of consumers to install photovoltaic panels and to switch to more energy efficient heating systems, consumers have reported to consumer organisations that they often struggle to get the right information on new technologies, lack the economic incentive to act, perceive taking action as an unnecessary hassle, are largely unaware of funding support options, and cannot access independent advice on the actions they should take. Studies show that there are also plenty of administrative, technical, and financial barriers that consumers face with RES and EE technologies.
•What are the overall objectives?
CLEAR-X (Consumers Leading the EU’s Energy Ambition Response, Expansion)'s overall objective is to enable consumers to lead the energy transition by investing in RES and EE technologies. It aims to facilitate consumers’ access to household renewables at an affordable price, through the provision of trusted information, collective purchase schemes and an improved regulatory framework. By the conclusion of CLEAR-X, consumers will have improved the energy performance and comfort of their homes and reduced their energy bills in the long term.
EU buildings are responsible for 40% of our energy consumption and roughly 75% of existing building stock is currently energy inefficient. As approximately 75% of heating supply is based on fossil fuels, further decarbonising the energy system is crucial to reach climate objectives in 2030 and 2050. A power sector must be based largely on renewable sources, complemented by the rapid phase out of fossil fuels. Therefore, increasing use of renewable energy and sustainable energy (RES) and energy efficient (EE) technologies should be at the heart of the energy transition and are essential for the EU to become climate neutral by 2050.
•Why is it important for society?
In December 2019, the European Commission launched the European Green Deal to make Europe climate neutral by 2050. Indeed, to keep fighting climate change and preserving our environment, the EU needs to make its green ambitions a reality. At the same time, Europe is facing an unprecedented crisis due to the COVID-19 outbreak and people’s daily lives have been severely disrupted. While the Clean Energy Package enabled millions of consumers to install photovoltaic panels and to switch to more energy efficient heating systems, consumers have reported to consumer organisations that they often struggle to get the right information on new technologies, lack the economic incentive to act, perceive taking action as an unnecessary hassle, are largely unaware of funding support options, and cannot access independent advice on the actions they should take. Studies show that there are also plenty of administrative, technical, and financial barriers that consumers face with RES and EE technologies.
•What are the overall objectives?
CLEAR-X (Consumers Leading the EU’s Energy Ambition Response, Expansion)'s overall objective is to enable consumers to lead the energy transition by investing in RES and EE technologies. It aims to facilitate consumers’ access to household renewables at an affordable price, through the provision of trusted information, collective purchase schemes and an improved regulatory framework. By the conclusion of CLEAR-X, consumers will have improved the energy performance and comfort of their homes and reduced their energy bills in the long term.
Between September 2021 and November 2022, consumer organisations in the target countries have learned how to conduct market research (Deliverable D2.2) and have analysed their renewable energy market to identified national products that are suitable for consumers and would be available at the time of their collective purchase campaigns (Deliverable D2.3). Based on the outcome of this research, ICRT tested the products selected by the consumer organisations (Deliverable D2.4) which in turn informed the consumers about the testing results as well as other benefits of installing RES (renewable energy sources) and EE (energy efficient) technologies. This was done also through the development of digital tools (Deliverable D4.2) which aimed to help consumers understand the energy savings that they would obtain if installing one or more products promoted through the CLEAR-X project (PV panels, tumble driers, heat pumps for heating and cooling (air conditioners) and heat pumps air-to-water).
CLEAR-X partners in target countries have learned about the process of organizing a collective purchase campaign (CPC) through the manual compiled by ZPS (Deliverable D3.1) and through an ad hoc workshop organized by both ZPS and DECOP. Consequently, they have established a CPC calendar under the guidance of DECOP and started the negotiations with the suppliers identified. These were selected based on a pre-established evaluation grid to ensure that the selection process was transparent and fair, and would bring the best deal possible to consumers.
A communication strategy was established to support partners communicate the benefits of installing RES and EE technologies in the target countries (Deliverable D4.1). Consequently, partners in the target countries have implemented several communication activities, although most of them will increase their efforts in 2023 to support their collective purchase campaigns.
CLEAR-X partners have assessed the implementation of relevant EU legislative acts, particularly the revised Electricity Directive (Directive 2019/944 on common rules for the internal market for electricity), the revised Renewable Energy Directive (Directive 2018/2001 on the promotion of the use of energy from renewable sources) and the Energy Efficiency Directive (Directive 2012/27/EU). Based on the outcome of this assessment (Deliverable D5.1) they put forward eight recommendations to improve consumer access to renewable energy and renewable energy technologies (Deliverable D5.2). Since then, partners are advocating towards their governments on how to empower consumers in the energy transition and simplify the process of switching to renewable energy. An advocacy plan was put in place and made available to partners to better plan and report their advocacy activities.
The project has its website in place (Deliverable D1.2) promotion materials available, as well as a dissemination plan to guide partners throughout their dissemination actions in the target countries. Since September 2022, BEUC started a trimestral newsletter to inform policy makers, civil society organisations and industry associations about the activities and results of the project. Dissemination actions are ongoing through different communication channels (TV, radio, printed/online articles), as well as through the participation in working groups, conferences/events at national and EU level as well as via cooperation with other H2020 energy projects such as ENPOR and POWERPOOR and EU projects like Consumer PRO and Consumer Law Ready.
CLEAR-X partners in target countries have learned about the process of organizing a collective purchase campaign (CPC) through the manual compiled by ZPS (Deliverable D3.1) and through an ad hoc workshop organized by both ZPS and DECOP. Consequently, they have established a CPC calendar under the guidance of DECOP and started the negotiations with the suppliers identified. These were selected based on a pre-established evaluation grid to ensure that the selection process was transparent and fair, and would bring the best deal possible to consumers.
A communication strategy was established to support partners communicate the benefits of installing RES and EE technologies in the target countries (Deliverable D4.1). Consequently, partners in the target countries have implemented several communication activities, although most of them will increase their efforts in 2023 to support their collective purchase campaigns.
CLEAR-X partners have assessed the implementation of relevant EU legislative acts, particularly the revised Electricity Directive (Directive 2019/944 on common rules for the internal market for electricity), the revised Renewable Energy Directive (Directive 2018/2001 on the promotion of the use of energy from renewable sources) and the Energy Efficiency Directive (Directive 2012/27/EU). Based on the outcome of this assessment (Deliverable D5.1) they put forward eight recommendations to improve consumer access to renewable energy and renewable energy technologies (Deliverable D5.2). Since then, partners are advocating towards their governments on how to empower consumers in the energy transition and simplify the process of switching to renewable energy. An advocacy plan was put in place and made available to partners to better plan and report their advocacy activities.
The project has its website in place (Deliverable D1.2) promotion materials available, as well as a dissemination plan to guide partners throughout their dissemination actions in the target countries. Since September 2022, BEUC started a trimestral newsletter to inform policy makers, civil society organisations and industry associations about the activities and results of the project. Dissemination actions are ongoing through different communication channels (TV, radio, printed/online articles), as well as through the participation in working groups, conferences/events at national and EU level as well as via cooperation with other H2020 energy projects such as ENPOR and POWERPOOR and EU projects like Consumer PRO and Consumer Law Ready.
CLEAR-X will achieve the impacts as proposed by the call. We expect that 38,000 consumers will be reached through the organization of collective purchase campaigns, having already reached 5,792 consumers with the first three campaigns, as of 30 November 2022. In particular, ZPS reached 152% of their target (761 consumers vs the foreseen 500) during their first collective campaign.
The CLEAR-X consortium has also prepared communication and dissemination material to ensure the consumers are better informed on RES and EE technologies and are actively reaching out to consumers through different channels (TV, radio, printed/online articles, etc). We expect that this will lead to a behavioral change and, consequently, to primary energy savings.
The CLEAR-X project is contributing to policy and strategy developments to include sustainable energy issues at all governance levels. This is done by all the partners based on a set of recommendations (D5.2) developed by SOS following a review of legislation relevant to the project in 2021 (D5.1). Many partners were successful in establishing contacts and holding meetings or giving presentations to ministries of energy and other governmental departments. The Consortium’s advocacy activities already resulted in the adaptation of two funding schemes in Slovakia and allowed Cyprus Consumers Association to convince two PV panels suppliers and one air conditioner supplier to create interest-free payment schemes which would allow consumers to pay the price of the product back over time with no interest.
The CLEAR-X consortium has also prepared communication and dissemination material to ensure the consumers are better informed on RES and EE technologies and are actively reaching out to consumers through different channels (TV, radio, printed/online articles, etc). We expect that this will lead to a behavioral change and, consequently, to primary energy savings.
The CLEAR-X project is contributing to policy and strategy developments to include sustainable energy issues at all governance levels. This is done by all the partners based on a set of recommendations (D5.2) developed by SOS following a review of legislation relevant to the project in 2021 (D5.1). Many partners were successful in establishing contacts and holding meetings or giving presentations to ministries of energy and other governmental departments. The Consortium’s advocacy activities already resulted in the adaptation of two funding schemes in Slovakia and allowed Cyprus Consumers Association to convince two PV panels suppliers and one air conditioner supplier to create interest-free payment schemes which would allow consumers to pay the price of the product back over time with no interest.