Energy Transition in Citizens’ hands

ongoing

The implementation of the Green Deal requires the joint commitment of all institutions and citizens. The EU´s subsidiarity principle obliges local authorities to develop their own transition plans. The key challenge is to involve citizens, businesses and institutions. For the districts of Fürstenfeldbruck and Starnberg (Germany), a total of 157 wind turbines, 1030 hectares of PV plants and 10 geothermal district heating networks are needed to produce the amount of energy required for the transition of both districts. The installation rates achieved up to now must be heavily increased. EnTranC will kick-start this development and by the end of the project we will have signed building contracts for 3 wind turbines, 5 groundbased or Agri PV plants and 15 roofbased PV systems with a total capacity of 42 MWp and we will have initiated an investment volume of app. 45 Mio. EUR. The basis for this transition is the willingness of landowners to make land available for these plants, the acceptance of citizens to live close to these plants and their interest of becoming co-owners. With EnTranC we will implement a replicable demonstration of how regional energy transition will work with real citizen participation and innovative financing concepts. Our tasks: - Analysis of the potential for renewable energy systems throughout the district, with the aim of achieving a holistically balanced use of land. - Set up communication concepts for citizens, communities and authorities which demonstrate the specific advantages of a regional energy transition to convince the landowners in very small plots of land and to involve them in the implementation of the system. - Develope innovative financing instruments for the participation of citizens and companies. - Use energy sharing to invest into and purchase electricity from jointly owned regional plants for citizens. - Sign construction and investment contracts - Set up longterm project pipeline. - Create a toolbox for replication.