The Centrales Villageoises Association, co-created by AURA-EE in 2010, have won the EUSALP 2022 Energy Award in the “Participatory approaches to roll out energy efficiency and renewable energies on the local level” category.

The EU Strategy for the Alpine Region (EUSALP) is an integrated framework endorsed by the European Council to improve cross-border cooperation in the Alpine States as well as identifying common goals. 9 thematic action groups, lead by Alpine Space regions, drive the day-today implementation of EUSALP.

The EUSALP Energy Award is an initiative of the EUSALP Energy Action Group under the umbrella of the Italian EUSALP Presidency 2022. The award is financially supported by the Technical Assistance Fund of the European Commission, DG Regio. The EUSALP Energy Award recognizes best practices that are contributing to the implementation of the energy transition in the Alpine area through the roll-out of renewable energy and energy efficiency measures. The energy transition can only succeed if all stakeholders participate in it, because energy can be saved everywhere. Hence the award edition 2022 honours activities and projects of citizens, municipalities, start-ups, established companies, research institutions and NGOs that give an example of citizens involvement in the local energy transition.

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The Centrales Villageoises are local energy companies whose shareholders are mainly citizens, local municipalities and local companies.

Their aim is to develop renewable energy and energy efficiency projects, at a territorial scale, taking into consideration the local stakes. The concept was born in 2010, from an experimental project launched by AURA-EE and 5 regional Parks, thanks to European and regional Funds. 8 pilot sites progressively led to local citizen-owned companies, then the technical and legal framework was consolidated and enabled the concept to be replicated on other sites. The model has been largely spread across the Auvergne-Rhône-Alpes Region and beyond, and an association was created in 2018 to coordinate them. Today, the network gathers 60 local companies,, representing 410 photovoltaic plants in operations, 61 territories and 12M€ already invested.

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