Promote the participation of energy consumers in the production of renewable energy

The goal of the SHREC project is to contribute to an increase of the renewable energy share in energy production, by encouraging and facilitating the production and use of renewable energy by businesses, communities and households. This implies more business investment in renewable energies, strong involvement of communities and public actors, and more consumer involvement in the production and consumption of renewable energy (involve the citizens as active players).

Renewable energies play a major role in energy transition. The European Union set a global objective of at least 27% of renewable energy in the final energy consumption by 2030. The main challenge for EU countries is to develop these renewables by encouraging new technologies and approaches to facilitate large-scale deployment. In particular, this requires addressing the participation of energy consumers in the production of renewable energy.

Technology development and social innovation

The actions carried out within the context of the SHREC project are structured around three main axes:

• Encourage business investment in innovative technologies that allow the development of renewable energy. An important lever is the significant reduction of costs related to renewable energy production.
• Increase the participation of energy consumers through self-consumption and storage. Households and citizens' groups can influence the production of renewable energy, not only by choosing their energy suppliers (encouraging the demand for low-carbon energy), but also by producing energy themselves and by joining forces with SMEs in order to build new models.
• Increase the acceptance and awareness of households, communities, businesses and public actors about the need and opportunities to use renewable energy as an alternative/low-carbon energy. Integrated regional strategies are needed to identify local renewable energy sources, to mobilise stakeholders, to facilitate and guide public and private investment and to raise awareness among the various stakeholders in the territories.

 [Updated: July 2019]