Toward Sustainable Energy Communities, ShareRES KOM
The Kick-off meeting of ShareRES project took place in Badajoz on the 24th and 25th of May, and it was organized by AGENEX. The project addresses an issue that is key at regional, national and European level, the development of Energy Communities. These communities emerge as local initiatives where citizens, municipalities and other entities come together to generate, consume and manage energy.
On the first day of the event, AGENEX’s director, Mr Cosme Segador, welcomed the participants to the meeting and presented the energy situation in Extremadura as well as the regional impact of participating in cooperation projects like ShareRES.
The event took place in a quaint building called "El Hospital Centro Vivo," where 30 attendees from different parts of Europe shared their experiences regarding the project's topic. Furthermore, a Masterclass on the exchange of experience was conducted by the lead partner to give the consortium a solid basis to implement the learning activities planned throughout the project.
MonitorEE project partners also participated in the meeting and the result was that the merging of knowledge between both projects allowed for a deep exchange of best practices, which were discussed in the second part of the event. Themes such as citizen empowerment, integration of smart technologies, mitigation of energy poverty, decentralization of energy systems and more, were covered during the discussions.
On the second day of the event, two study visits took place. The first one was a pilot project developed thanks to INNOINVEST project, financed by Interreg POCTEP program, through which AGENEX developed an innovative pilot scheme located in the vicinity of several public buildings. All of them share the energy produced and stored based on their different consumption profiles, allowing to optimize the use of renewable energy produced and therefore, minimize the excess energy sold into the grid. The solar PV panels installed have a total power of 132 kWp distributed among 5 building rooftops and one building facade.
For the second study visit, project partners travelled to Cáceres to visit the EDEA demonstrators, which exemplify a methodology for designing and constructing sustainable social housing in Extremadura. This was the end of the interregional event and that afternoon most of the partners started their return trip back home. The event was a successful starting point for ShareRES project to achieve its objective of improving 6 policies that will allow the creation of sustainable energy communities.