Seven years of struggle for the promotion of community energy in Croatia – in the wake of REScoop.eu General Assembly in Zagreb
Pre-conference blog post for General Assembly of RESCoop.eu – EU Federation of energy cooperatives that will be held in Zagreb, from May 30 to June 1, and hosted by ZEZ
It has been now 7 years since we first time organized visit from REScoop association in Croatia to share us the experience from the energy coops movement across EU.
It’s been so inspirational that soon after that we cofounded ZEZ – Zelena energetska zadruga with the mission to promote this concept in Croatia.
5 years from now we became a full member of REScoop and started cooking some first projects – dealing with solar energy on schools and camps, recruiting first energy advisors team to fight energy poverty, making first consultation business.
We did advocacy too; together with national partners, we created a recommendation for policymakers how to create a favorable playground for energy cooperatives.
By that time, the whole renewable energy sector was blocked and there were only a few initiatives active, all initiated by the private sector. But we keep on diving.
2 years from now we became Board member of REScoop.eu recognized as a link towards energy cooperative movements in Balkan region.
We had first projects in the region; laying some foundations for first community energy projects in Bosnia and Herzegovina and Serbia.
We focused on working with local authorities and created the first crowdinvesting campaign in solar energy for City of Krizevci that was awarded as one of the most innovative projects in EU.
Now, we are at home again, this time hosting not one member but whole REScoop federation in Zagreb for three days – with many more people and organization on board as partners and supporters.
This time to create some huge impact and aiming to:
- Highlight collaborations between energy cooperatives and local authorities and laying the ground for some new projects
- Mobilize more people and initiatives from Croatia and Balkan region to spread the movement
- Encourage policymakers to create a more favorable ground for energy cooperatives and energy communities
Do not miss the chance to meet us!