Monday, 6 October, 2014 – 09:30 to 16:30 | Brussels, Belgium
REScoop 20-20-20 in cooperation with Co-power and the European Union organises a conference on legislation and finance for people’s ownership of community renewable energy across Europe.
Conference objectives
We urgently need to change our energy system into one powered by renewable energy to end
our dependency on fossil fuels and the harm they are doing to peoples, our climate and our
environment. By putting communities and citizens at the heart of a shift to renewable
energy we can achieve a transition more quickly, fairly and with added benefits.
All over Europe communities and citizens are already producing community owned renewable
energy. However, many barriers still need to be tackled, such as the lack of political will for a
transition towards renewables, and financial and legal obstacles to community owned projects.
The conference will focus on the following topics:
• Successful community renewable energy projects
• Legislative challenges across Europe
• Financing in Central and Eastern European countries
• Renewable energy cooperatives (REScoops) and financing
Target groups: EU and national policy makers, RES industry
Download the program (pdf)
Program
09:30 Registration
Opening
Moderation: Dominik Rutz, WIP Renewable Energies, Germany
10:00 Welcome and introduction
Susann Scherbarth, Friends of the Earth Europe, Belgium
10:05 Key note speech (tbc.)
10:20 Latest EU policy developments in the field of climate and energy – community
energy perspectives
Marie Donnelly, DG Energy, European Commission, Belgium (tbc.)
To be invited by EASME, Stephan Renner
10:35 Enabling community energy in Europe: CO-POWER and REScoop 20-20-20 actions
Susann Scherbarth, Friends of the Earth Europe, Belgium
Dirk Vansintjan, Ecopower, Belgium
Success stories
Moderation: Rita Mergner, WIP Renewable Energies, Germany
10:50 Elektrizitätswerke Schönau in Germany
Ursula Sladek, EWS, Germany (tbc.)
11:00 The use of energy savings in cooperatives : a success story in the Czech Republic
Speaker to be proposed
11:10 Coffee break
Legislation and financing
Moderation: Dirk Vansintjan, Ecopower, Belgium
11:30 Financing renewable energy and energy efficiency projects across Europe
Karel Derveaux, Ecopower, Belgium (tbc.)
11:45 Legislation on community RES projects in Europe: different models in Europe
Josh Roberts, ClientEarth, UK
12:00 Cohesion funding opportunities for cooperatives
Markus Trilling, Bankwatch
12:15 Lunch Panel discussion: future of community power projects in Europe
Moderation – Journalist (e.g. J. Mock) – Invited by Susann
13:15 Panellists
Marie Donnelly, DG Energy, European Commission, Belgium (tbc.)
Claude Turmes, European Parliament, Belgium (tbc.) – To be invited by EASME,
Stephan Renner
Mayor of a city
Magda Stoczkiewicz, Director of FoEE (invited by Susann)
Local authority (the city of Freiburg etc.)
Objective: to discuss concrete possibilities to move community energy forward in current climate energy debates
14:15 Coffee break
Working groups on community energy
Moderation: Markus Trilling, Bankwatch, Belgium and Josh Roberts, ClientEarth, UK
14:35 Working groups on community energy
Group 1: Financing community owned renewable energy projects
Discussion on financing barriers and solutions on European and national level
Moderator: Markus Trilling, Bankwatch, Belgium
Group 2: Enabling legislation
Discussion on legislative barriers and solutions on European and national level
Moderator: Josh Roberts, ClientEarth, UK
Summary of discussions
16:00 Concluding remarks Journalist (e.g. J. Mock)
16:15 End