Project description
The human factors at the heart of energy transition
Europe’s transition to renewable energy is more than just a technological challenge; it is also a social one. Communities often resist new projects when decisions feel imposed or benefits unevenly shared. This tension slows the shift to cleaner power. With this in mind, the EU-funded POWERUP project will pair technology with social science. Its open-source toolkit combines feasibility mapping, business model design and co-creation methods to ensure renewable energy projects reflect local realities and priorities. A dedicated strategy addresses fairness and community engagement, making projects more acceptable and sustainable. Tested in four European regions and replicated in 10 more, POWERUP aims to involve hundreds of stakeholders and boost acceptance of renewables.
Objective
The market uptake of RES depends on a complex combination of political, geographical, economic, social and cultural factors that are specifically intertwined in each locality. In addition, the acceptance and willingness of directly affected stakeholders to support the deployment of RES depends on the perceived fairness about how the decisions are made (procedural justice) and how the benefits are shared (distributive justice).
POWERUP adopts a holistic approach towards the market uptake of RES for electricity and provides a set of open source tools and methodologies addressing all these factors, tailoring the RES projects to the local conditions and increaseing their acceptability and market uptake. The tools include a GIS-based decision support tool for initial feasibility assessment, a business model toolkit for reconciling stakeholder requirements and producing equitable business models, and a co-creation toolkit for engaging the stakeholders in co-design of a RES project that is reproducible and tailored to the local needs and conditions.
The tools are supported by a social acceptability strategy for RES that provides guidance for considering all social aspects in the decision-making and design process.
The POWERUP tools and methodologies will be extensively validated in 4 European regions and replicated in 10 follower regions, covering a variety of conditions all over Europe. The project aims to involve >700 public and private stakeholders and organise 46 workshops, incresing the perception of fairness of the RES business models by 80% and the community acceptance by at least 50%.
The project consortium is a team from 5 EU countries that comprises regional energy agencies, public authorities, universities, and research centres and includes leading experts in Social Science and Humanities, Business, Renewable Energies, ICT and data science, legal and regulatory framework, with large practical experience in promotion of the renewable energies uptake.
Fields of science (EuroSciVoc)
CORDIS classifies projects with EuroSciVoc, a multilingual taxonomy of fields of science, through a semi-automatic process based on NLP techniques. See: The European Science Vocabulary.
This project's classification has been human-validated.
CORDIS classifies projects with EuroSciVoc, a multilingual taxonomy of fields of science, through a semi-automatic process based on NLP techniques. See: The European Science Vocabulary.
This project's classification has been human-validated.
Keywords
Project’s keywords as indicated by the project coordinator. Not to be confused with the EuroSciVoc taxonomy (Fields of science)
Project’s keywords as indicated by the project coordinator. Not to be confused with the EuroSciVoc taxonomy (Fields of science)
Programme(s)
Multi-annual funding programmes that define the EU’s priorities for research and innovation.
Multi-annual funding programmes that define the EU’s priorities for research and innovation.
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HORIZON.2.5 - Climate, Energy and Mobility
MAIN PROGRAMME
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HORIZON.2.5.2 - Energy Supply
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Topic(s)
Calls for proposals are divided into topics. A topic defines a specific subject or area for which applicants can submit proposals. The description of a topic comprises its specific scope and the expected impact of the funded project.
Calls for proposals are divided into topics. A topic defines a specific subject or area for which applicants can submit proposals. The description of a topic comprises its specific scope and the expected impact of the funded project.
Funding Scheme
Funding scheme (or “Type of Action”) inside a programme with common features. It specifies: the scope of what is funded; the reimbursement rate; specific evaluation criteria to qualify for funding; and the use of simplified forms of costs like lump sums.
Funding scheme (or “Type of Action”) inside a programme with common features. It specifies: the scope of what is funded; the reimbursement rate; specific evaluation criteria to qualify for funding; and the use of simplified forms of costs like lump sums.
HORIZON-CSA - HORIZON Coordination and Support Actions
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Call for proposal
Procedure for inviting applicants to submit project proposals, with the aim of receiving EU funding.
Procedure for inviting applicants to submit project proposals, with the aim of receiving EU funding.
(opens in new window) HORIZON-CL5-2024-D3-02
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Net EU financial contribution. The sum of money that the participant receives, deducted by the EU contribution to its linked third party. It considers the distribution of the EU financial contribution between direct beneficiaries of the project and other types of participants, like third-party participants.
08034 Barcelona
Spain
The total costs incurred by this organisation to participate in the project, including direct and indirect costs. This amount is a subset of the overall project budget.