Energy Communities excellence Hubs: catalyzing energy innOvation ecosystems

Project Information

ECHO

Grant agreement ID: 101185725

DOI

10.3030/101185725

EC signature date 30 October 2024

Start date 1 December 2024

End date 30 November 2028

Funded under

• Widening participation and spreading excellence

Total cost

€ 4 999 875,00

EU contribution

€ 4 999 875,00

Coordinated by

YILDIZ TECHNICAL UNIVERSITY
Türkiye

Periodic Reporting for period 1 - ECHO (Energy Communities excellence Hubs: catalyzing energy innOvation ecosystems)

Reporting period: 2024-12-01 to 2026-02-28

Summary of the context and overall objectives of the project

Energy communities — groups of citizens, municipalities, businesses and cooperatives that collectively produce, manage and share renewable energy — are emerging as a powerful model for accelerating Europe's clean energy transition. They reduce emissions, lower energy costs, combat energy poverty and build local resilience. Yet in many parts of Europe, their deployment remains limited by incomplete regulatory frameworks, scarce technical expertise, restricted financing and insufficient stakeholder capacity.This challenge is especially pronounced in Widening Countries still building their research and innovation base. ECHO — Energy Communities Excellence Hubs: Catalyzing Energy Innovation Ecosystems — was designed to address this gap in Türkiye, Greece and Portugal. Funded under Horizon Europe (Grant Agreement No. 101185725) and coordinated by Yıldız Technical University, the 24-partner consortium established three national Excellence Hubs (ECHO-TR, ECHO-EL, ECHO-PT) as long-lasting innovation ecosystems operating across the quadruple helix of academia, industry, public authorities and civil society.ECHO pursues four interconnected lines of action: a collaborative networking platform for continuous stakeholder engagement; targeted training programmes aiming to reach at least 1,000 participants per Hub; an Expert Collaboration Programme injecting cutting-edge scientific and regulatory knowledge; and a portfolio of at least nine real-world pilot projects demonstrating advanced energy services and community-based solutions to energy poverty. The expected impact spans stronger regional R&I ecosystems, new business opportunities for SMEs, informed energy policy and a replicable Hub model transferable to other Widening Countries.

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

Reporting Period 1 (December 2024 – February 2026) constituted the foundational phase of ECHO. All planned technical outputs were delivered on schedule or are progressing without critical deviation.

Strategic Foundations (WP1). A Needs and Opportunities Mapping was conducted across all three countries using a Five-Spheres framework covering technological, market, regulatory, operational and societal dimensions, combining desk research with a structured stakeholder questionnaire. More than 200 actors were identified, classified through Mendelow's power–interest matrix and operationalised through a five-level participation spectrum. An international benchmarking analysis of comparable Excellence Hub and energy community models identified transferable critical success factors. These outputs were translated into the ECHO Excellence Hub Launch Playbook — defining mission, governance, KPIs and first-year roadmaps for each Hub — and consolidated in Deliverable D1.1. The three Hubs were formally launched on 25 February 2026, marking the transition from analytical groundwork to active implementation.

Capacity Building and Networking (WP2). A training needs analysis identified six thematic priority areas: Technical, Social, Legal, Economic, ICT/Data and Innovation Management. The training programme reached approximately 80% completion by end of RP1. A modular Moodle-based Networking and Training Platform architecture was defined, with regional Hub instances and links to existing national platforms. The Expert Collaboration Programme was conceptually designed, and draft monitoring and evaluation questionnaires were produced ahead of schedule.

Pilot Portfolio (WP3). Fifteen candidate pilot Energy Communities were identified and assessed across the three countries — five in Greece, four in Portugal and six in Türkiye — spanning all three maturity levels (emerging, early-stage, mature). A consortium-wide MoU template and Participant Consent Form were developed. Pilot-specific service packages were scoped at Hub level, and cross-site learning methodology design was initiated.

Innovation and Exploitation (WP4). A first ECHO IP Assessment and Strategy was produced, classifying technical and social innovations using adapted TRL thresholds tailored to energy community contexts. Structured desktop research on Energy Community business models was initiated to ground future commercialisation pathways.
Governance (WP6). The Project Management Plan and Data and Ethics Management Plan were established, embedding FAIR-compliant data governance and ethical safeguards. Three General Assembly meetings were held and no critical risks or deviations were identified.

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)

ECHO advances beyond existing practice in several interconnected ways.

The Five-Spheres analytical framework developed under WP1 provides a replicable, multi-dimensional methodology for assessing energy community readiness that goes beyond single-domain approaches typical in the literature, integrating technological, market, regulatory, operational and societal analysis in a single comparative instrument applicable across diverse national contexts.

The three-tier maturity model (emerging, early-stage, mature) operationalised for pilot selection offers a structured, transferable governance instrument for categorising and sequencing support to energy communities — addressing a recognised gap in both policy practice and academic literature where maturity-based differentiation has been largely conceptual rather than operationally deployed.

The adaptation of Technology Readiness Level thresholds to capture non-technological innovations — including governance models, community engagement methodologies and business model configurations — represents a methodological contribution to the evaluation of social innovation within Horizon Europe exploitation frameworks, where classical TRL scales remain insufficient for citizen-energy initiatives.

The quadruple helix Hub model itself, combining a living laboratory, incubator/accelerator and replication platform within a single institutional structure, is designed to persist beyond the project lifetime as a self-sustaining innovation ecosystem — a structural response to the common failure mode of Horizon Europe projects where outputs dissolve after funding ends.

To ensure full uptake of ECHO's results, several enabling conditions will be critical: continued regulatory development in Türkiye to operationalise community energy legislation; streamlined permitting processes in Portugal and Greece for new energy community formation; access to blended public-private financing instruments at national and EU level; IPR support for SMEs and cooperatives navigating exploitation pathways; and the integration of ECHO's Hub model into national Smart Specialisation Strategies and regional innovation agendas.