Tools for energy communities
Below is an overview of the digital tools available - both from COME RES as well as from sister projects - to support energy communities to develop, manage and grow their organisations.
The Energy Community Platform
The REScoop.eu Energy Community Platform targets citizens and communities that want to advance their energy community projects. It is a platform that gathers all available resources for energy communities in one place, so that they are easily accessible. These resources are classified based on the stage of development of the community energy initiative, among other criteria. Users can take a test on the website to determine the development stage of their project. The tools and resources included are gathering during the course of the contributing EU projects. The tool has been available since end 2022, and will continue to be further developed in the coming months.
The W4RES observatory
The W4RES observatory includes an online inventory of case studies elaborated during the project with a search and compare functionality, enabling cross-case comparisons and the assessment of opportunities for scaling and transferability. It also includes a repository of mentors, gender responsive resources and serves as a gateway to regional hubs.
Handbook: Energy Literacy for Energy Communities
The Energy Literacy for Energy Communities handbook offers an introduction to some of the concepts and considerations relating to energy communities and their role in the energy system. It is written for community members and anyone else interested in joining the energy community movement.
The Knowledge HUB
The Decide Knowledge HUB is an online open space to actively transfer knowledge and build capacity on energy communities and collective actions. This Gateway serves regulators and policy makers, facilitators and energy community enables, (potential) energy communities /collective action initiators, directing visitors to the existing and emerging initiatives most suited to their needs, providing links to repositories, marketplaces, databases, platforms and projects among others.
The app for virtual energy communities
eCREW uses the Energy Cockpit app from GreenPocket as the tool for transparency and interaction between the utility and the customer and within the community webs. The GreenPocket Energy Cockpit is an intuitive, user-friendly solution with various features to always have an eye on the energy consumption and to derive potential savings – for example by comparing the consumption to other households or by switching off inefficient appliances.
BECoop self-assessment tool
The BECoop self-assessment tool is designed for inexperienced users seeking to assess the current state of a cooperative/community bioenergy project. The tool consists of self-evaluation forms (through questions) that allow to assess an initiative’s status and recommendations to continue with your initiative.
The BECoop toolkit
This toolkit, developed in the frame of the BECoop project, supports developers and operators of community bioenergy and heating projects. It is developed to support your bioenergy community’s journey from the starting point, to the growing stages and its operational steps. It can also help to scale energy community initiatives in your neighbourhood.
Our Energy platform
The Our Energy platform, developed by the NEWCOMERS project, explores energy communities and energy related topics with short, interactive, multimedia content. By including an array of different experts from various fields, it inspires, educates and advises its users.
Energy Poverty Mitigation Toolkit
The POWERPOOR Energy Poverty Mitigation Toolkit aims at providing an integrated solution to users and supporting them at identifying whether they are energy vulnerable. If so, the tool can propose changes (behavioural or low cost energy efficiency interventions) they can take to improve their well being. Finally, the tool can propose customised solutions regarding their involvement funding proposing the users' involevement in innovative funding schemes such as crowdfunding or participation in energy cooperatives.
Knowledge Exchange Platform
BECoop is developing a Knowledge Exchange Platform to offer various stakeholders (other RESCoops, community initiatives, municipalities, RE and bioenergy industry actors, investors, etc.) a one-stop-shop lifting collaboration barriers across regions and sectors and minimising costs thanks to information sharing and knowledge exchange. The final version of the tool will be available in October 2023.
E-market
This e-market tool supports stakeholders when developing a community bioenergy project and defining the required services and activities for supporting their own cases. Here, you can identify other stakeholders to contact to carry out your project, see the experience of others and similar initiatives, etc. The e-market environment connects supply chain stakeholders to support the creation and operation of new and existing energy communities.
The energy game
To better understand the visions people have about their local energy transition, DECIDE has developed a game approach which enables decisions along four different aspects: Different actors, asking with whom people would organize their local energy transition together; different roles, learning more about how people would participate; ways of implementations, which refers to the types of actions people would support and motivators, asking why people would take part.