November 22, 2023 – Green Energy Cooperative (ZEZ) opened the implementation of the international project “COMET – Coalitions for Community Energy Catalyzation in Eastern EU” by gathering partners at a two-day project meeting in Zagreb. ZEZ will coordinate this new project in the field of community energy on behalf of the international project consortium consisting of REScoop.eu – European Federation of Citizen Energy Cooperatives (Belgium), Electra energy (Greece), Technical University of Tallinn (Estonia), Solidarity Economy Center (Hungary), Focus – Society for Sustainable Development (Slovenia), PLZ Spoldzielnia CoopTechHub (Poland) and Cooperativa de Energie (Romania).
The goal of the “COMET” project is to influence the development of supporting conditions for community energy by joining in advocacy and capacity development activities with leading energy cooperatives and communities in the EU, especially the Eastern EU. The project is financed through the LIFE Program, an EU instrument for financing activities in the field of environment, nature and climate protection, in the amount of €1,499,825, while the total value of the project is €1,578,764.
“Naturally, we took over the coordination of this project in line with a series of activities that we are undertaking to enable simple establishment of energy communities and community energy in general in Croatia, but also in line with many years of active cooperation with relevant organizations in the field of community energy in the region and the EU. This project is complementary to other advocacy projects that we are implementing, and we have no doubt that it will play a significant role in the changes in the field of community energy that we aim for in the years to come.” said Erica Svetec, manager of the “COMET” project for ZEZ.
The project will build national coalitions for community energy that will work together to simplify procedures and create better conditions for citizen participation in renewable energy projects, and then conditions for replicating good practices that the coalitions will create. The strength of the project lies in the project consortium that has a good understanding of the complex obstacles that hinder the involvement of citizens in renewable energy projects in the Eastern EU. The consortium is made up of cooperatives, non-governmental organizations and academic partners, thus covering a broad set of expertise needed to successfully implement project activities and ensure its impact.
The “COMET” project will be in implementation until October 31, 2026.