Training material

Collaborative policy briefing from 10 EU funded projects. 

The main aim of this paper is to understand, compare, and assess the emerging regulatory concepts in member states and provide an overview of issues arising during transposition.

A guide to help citizens make their homes more comfortable while saving money in the energy bills, it includes top energy saving tips and information about the cost of the measures.

A report reviewing and analysing the national housing stock in the Republic Bulgaria as basis for developing policies and measures for energy efficiency upgrades the existing housing stock in Bulgaria.

Report from a survey on existing training methods and practices on the topic of Energy Poverty, identification of target groups and analysis of the results of a survey

Analytical report on the energy poverty in Bulgaria aiming to open the discussion on the methods and concrete actions discussion on the methods and concrete actions of the state and local authorities to deal with the problems of the impossibility to maintain a healthy living environment and air pollution.

The consortium of the H2020 project ComAct has taken a deep dive into five countries – Hungary, Lithuania, Bulgaria, North Macedonia and Ukraine – to look at their energy poverty rates, how the energy-poor are identified, and what programmes are in place to support them. Furthermore, existing financial schemes from all over Europe, which have proven to help alleviate energy poverty in multi-family apartment buildings are identified.

The toolkit is destined for municipalities wishing to tackle the problem of energy poverty in their territories. It includes a set of customised and ready-to-replicate measures which can be implemented on the local level to boost implementation of low-cost energy efficiency improvements (change of behaviours, small intervention/investment) in vulnerable households. It is based on best practices collected in the scope of the project and include detailed guidelines and tips not only on how to implement selected capmaigns, services or support schemes on the ground, but also how to assess the scale of energy poverty on the local level, recruite and engage households in an energy poverty mitigation programme and monitor the results of already implemented measures. 

A report reviewing and analysing the national housing stock in the Republic Bulgaria as basis for developing policies and measures for energy efficiency upgrades the existing housing stock in Bulgaria.

Report from a survey on existing training methods and practices on the topic of Energy Poverty, identification of target groups and analysis of the results of a survey

Analytical report on the energy poverty in Bulgaria aiming to open the discussion on the methods and concrete actions of the state and local authorities to deal with the problems of the impossibility to maintain a healthy living environment and air pollution.

Comparative country study proposes a new model for the analysis of energy poverty

The study investigates how the determinants of energy poverty at the household level can change according to a country’s economic situation.

EU progress on climate action – How are the Member States doing? Briefing on climate action in Estonia

SECAP of City of Tallinn, capital of Estonia. A cross-sectoral development document that specifies the strategic goal of the development strategy Tallinn 2035 to achieve climate neutrality by 2050 and creates a specific action plan  to fulfil the commitment set out in the Covenant of Mayors to reduce greenhouse gas emissions of cities by 40% by the year 2030.

Agenda Co-Creation and Knowledge Innovation (ENGAGER) is an Action funded via the European Co-operation in Science and Technology (COST) scheme. The Action radically transforms the extent and depth of scientific knowledge about energy poverty in Europe

SPECIAL REPORT / Governments' inability to address energy poverty in Southeastern Europe is increasing the threat of deforestation, as illegal timbering is seen by needy people as their only chance for survival through harsh winters.

Project's objective is to empower NGOs and citizens to have a greater impact on policy and practice for a fairer, cleaner and more secure energy future in Southeast Europe where it covers  several countries, lasts for many years and has 17 CSO partners from across the region (Albania, Bosnia and Herzegovina, Croatia, Kosovo, Macedonia, Montenegro and Serbia) and the EU, together with the South East Europe Change Network as the lead partner. The project was financially supported by the European Commission.

Guide on how to reduce energy consumption in the household. Energy costs depend on the quality, type and size of the building in which the residents live, the climate in the area in which they live, the energy sources they use and the habits of the residents.

The project "Knowledge to a warm home" aims to establish a new social service of energy counseling, in order to address the growing problem of energy poverty.

The recommendations set out in this document are the result of the project "Together for more comfortable housing" implemented by the DOOR with the financial support of the City Office for Social Welfare and Persons with Disabilities of Zagreb and "Reduce energy consumption and change habits (REACH)" which was carried out by DOOR together with partners with the co-financing of the European Union through the Intelligent Energy for Europe program and the Fund for Environmental Protection and Energy Efficiency.

The main objective of this paper was to compare poverty rates in Croatia obtained on the basis of the official methodology for monitoring poverty in the EU with alternative indicators of income poverty, material deprivation and subjective poverty. In addition to the analysis of poverty indicators by individual dimensions, a cumulative approach to measuring poverty was applied, ie poverty was measured according to a combination of several dimensions or poverty measures. 

This document provides an analysis of the various existing mechanisms for encouraging and implementing energy efficiency measures in EU households and provides an assessment of their applicability in Croatia. Special emphasis is placed on financial instruments and programs targeting the energy poor household.

This document, developed within the project CENEP - Citizen Participation in Energy Efficiency Measures Planning, contains an overview of the legislative framework of the Republic of Croatia in the area social welfare and energy from the aspect of energy poverty, and an analysis of the areas in which it is harmonization is needed between these two legislative frameworks. Not offering almost a solution to the policy of combating energy poverty suitable for Croatian conditions, which will require a much broader discussion, as well as the involvement of a larger number of different stakeholders, is the intention of this document indicate the directions in which to harmonize these two legislative frameworks should take place, i.e. make recommendations for further actions that are absolutely necessary, in most recently, in the area of ​​mitigating the social consequences of energy policy.

The research on energy poverty in Petrinja was realized within the project "Knowledge to a warm home", which aims to implement an innovative social service of energy counseling for poor households and enable energy-poor households to save energy and change their habits. The implementation of the activities aims to focus on energy poverty as a problem that requires specially tailored policies and measures at the local, national and EU levels. 

The analysis was made based on the results of field research in the municipality of Dvor and existing data on energy consumption in the municipality, Local Action Group (LAG) UNA3 and Sisak-Moslavina County and the aim is to establish a system of energy consulting and providing simple energy efficiency measures for vulnerable households. The aim of the project was to determine the real energy situation in the facilities of individuals and households according to consumption energy for heating, cooling, cooking, washing, lighting and more. 

In this paper, a model of homeowners’ energy efficiency retrofit choices is presented based on the database of a project implemented by the national energy efficiency retrofit scheme in Croatia during 2015 and 2016. The analysis was performed on the cleaned dataset of 4610 implemented projects in privately owned family houses. 

The purpose of this paper is to estimate the impact of energy saving investment in residential and public buildings in Croatia for the period 2015–2020. The aim is to assess the overall socio-economic impact of energy saving renovation measures defined in Croatian strategic documents in terms of the direct, indirect and induced growth of gross value added, employment and government revenues. An estimate of the avoided costs of air pollution is also included. 

 This paper investigates whether income inequality in EU countries is correlated with energy poverty by one of its definitions: a household’s inability to keep their home adequately warm. Using country-level data for all 28 EU countries for all years 2009–2017, I regress the percentage of households who cannot keep their home adequately warm, against a set of independent variables including: the Gini index as a measure of income inequality; GDP per capita; the number of heating degree days; and several other likely determinants of energy poverty. 

The paper presents a comprehensive approach to capturing the scale of exposure to hidden energy poverty at a household level in 11 Central and Eastern European countries. The paper assumes that the energy poor limit their energy consumption to the level below what is reasonably assumed a decent life and to estimate the expected energy costs, and introduces a new statistical approach. 

Local and national authorities are lacking validated facts to make informed investments that would make a long-term impact on lowering energy demand, but also improving living conditions and quality of life of energy poor. To collect relevant data, 102 energy poor households in the City of Zagreb were visited and surveyed. 

In this paper, more than 130 publications have been analysed and critically reviewed, highlighting the different approaches adopted in EU Member States concerning heat accounting and the related issues.  To this aim, the authors focussed the following subjects: (i) the allocation rules adopted by EU Member States, (ii) the heat metering and sub-metering technologies, (iii) the cost-benefit analysis of individual heat metering and accounting systems and, finally, the analysis provides policy makers with several suggestions to improve transparency and reliability of allocation rules.

The aim of our paper is to assess and compare the number of energy poor households in three new EU Member States based on quantitative indicators like the number of energy poor households that use financial measures related to energy sector and the number of households that spend more than 10% of their income on energy. Results show that the number of energy poor population increased in the period 2009-2014 in all three countries according to the level of monthly (Bulgaria and Romania) and guaranteed minimum allowances (Croatia), while the share of heating allowances decreased only in Romania, though from very high level of over 20% to 14%. 

The paper shows that energy poverty has become a rising problem in Croatia, as in most new EU Member States. The problem is additionally emphasized by the condition of residential stock because most of them are family houses and are built before 1980, which means high energy consumption for heating. 

This report gives a glimpse into the everyday life of those who are severely affected by adverse impacts of living in energy poverty throughout South East Europe, while trying to provide guidance for possible paths to solving the problem. Tools and mechanisms that can provide immediate and much needed assistance for many families are also discussed. 

 To investigate impacts of living in energy poverty in Moslavina County, Croatia, two sets of field visits and a phone survey have been undertaken (N=394) in Sisak- During the second round of field visits, all households were provided with simple energy efficiency measures. To test impact of those measures a phone survey (N=60) was undertaken. 

Data were collected through a questionnaire on the energy habits and energy efficiency status of a building and on the health status of household members with general demographic data. In the first phase of the field research, a total of 394 households were visited, 80 households from the area City of Petrinja and in the second phase, 384 households were visited and equipped with simple energy efficiency measures: LED bulbs, reflective foils behind the radiator, timer for electric water heater, extension cable with switch, aerator for faucet, brushes for under doors and window seals ).

By implementing activities under the project Reduce Energy Use and Change Habits (REACH), undertaken in four SEE countries:  Bulgaria, Croatia, Macedonia and Slovenia, it has proven to be likely that through provision of energy advising and implementation of simple energy efficiency measures, households' energy consumption can be reduced up to 10% and water consumption up to 18%. Results are also indicating that policies focusing on energy efficiency measures are likely to be the best mechanism for alleviating energy poverty especially when energy and social policies are harmonised with the aim of alleviating adverse effects of energy poverty.

Practical tips on energy saving and efficiency, classified by the level of investment cost.

A guidebook with the basic knowledge about the energy consumption, including advices about energy savings and energy efficiency.

Manual to help users operate their nZEB in an optimal way, including examples that show the effect of implementation of the recommended practices.

The report describes existing technological solutions for renewable energies in order to explore their potential and put in perspective the opportunities for further integration of cost-effective renewable energy technologies into nZEBs.

Factsheet about some misbehaviours that may affect installations performance
and could come up suddenly, especially when tenants are social
housing users.

Article that describes GoiEner cooperative's efforts against energy poverty, by giving advice about electricity contracts to the social services of municipalites.

Closer look at EU crowdfunding platforms offering investment in RES projects, how they are exposed to and lead with investor risk.

Questions that renewable energy developers should ask themselves and crowdfunding platforms in order to facilitate better understanding and decision-making before engaging in crowdfunding.

Operation of an energy-related Living Lab in  Greece is presented in an attempt to explore the dynamics of such initiatives to address energy vulnerability. Methodology included amongst others home visits from Energy Advisors, energy cafés etc.

Summaries of the chapters on the role of local authorities from the guidebook "Community Energy: A practical guide to reclaiming power" packed with instructions, practical tips and resources.

The paper aims at presenting the planning actions for the transition of the current passive distribution system of the Municipality of Berchidda (Italy) towards a smart local energy community (Berchidda Energy 4.0 project).

Findings of 3 online surveys conducted in 2015 at EU level (and in several languages) regarding perceptions about crowdfunding in the renewables' sector

"Smart house resident’s handbook" provides an overview of the energy efficiency and the maintenance and functioning of the various system of renovated apartment buildings.  It also instructs residents on how to use the smart home system for monitoring their energy consumption and adjusting the heating and ventilation in their apartments.

Commission recommendations for Member States on energy poverty.

This paper provides a systematic review and assessment of the existing (composite) indicators for measuring energy poverty (EP). A total of 71 (composite) indicators have been identified for evaluating EP.

Energy poverty is examined for the time-period 2004–2019 for 28 selected European countries, using a consensual approach and a composite measurement, based on the main indicators proposed in the literature.

This report assesses policies and measures aiming to tackle the energy poverty in Croatia, Czechia, Hungary, Poland, Slovakia and Slovenia. It also looks into energy poverty measures in these countries’ NECPs and makes recommendations to strengthen them.

This paper scrutinizes existing policy efforts to address energy poverty at the governance scale of the European Union (EU) and its constituent Member States.

An assessment of the capacity of member states to guarantee it, according to the basic services management model.

This report introduces requirements to plan and implement new energy support programs in a gender-just  way and to add gender-transformative tools and  mechanisms into existing programs, such as gender needs assessments, women’s empowerment and target group-specific communication.

This report aims to highlight examples of successful targeted energy efficiency renovation towards vulnerable and lowest income groups.

The article discusses the challenges entailed in the deployment of Distributed Ledger Technologies (DLT) in the European energy sector that is currently under transformation. 
 

The guidebook supports cities to be more involved in community energy projects bu showcasing examples of cities from across Europe that initiate, support and facilitate such projects.

The paper offers a comprehensive approach to capturing the scale of exposure to hidden energy poverty at a household level in 11 Central and Eastern European countries.

This report presents the problems in France relating to energy poverty as faced by those involved, namely a. landlord, b. tenant, c. social organisations, d. the State. It alos examines cases studies in France, Great Britain, Germany and Spain and includes recommendations to tackle the phenomenon.

The European Barriers in Retail Energy Markets project was established to research the extent to which the theory is the case in practice; the extent to which energy suppliers across Europe face a variety of barriers to enter and compete in the market; to identify which barriers exist and to provide some suggested solutions to those barriers. 

A policy briefing which explores 'energy cafes' (a community event offering tailored advice and support on energy and providing third party referrals to housing and so on). It details what they are, what they hope to achieve, their role in helping to tackle fuel poverty and recommendations for policy makers. This resource could also be used to inform relevant bodies/actors on the benefits of and how to set up their own energy cafes.

This policy report from the INSIGHT_E consortium assesses how Member States define the issue of energy poverty and vulnerable consumers, and the measures that have been implemented to address these issues.

This study taps into recent findings from behavioral sciences regarding the role that scarcity conditions have on decision-making, with the aim to i) review certain cognitive biases that might arise in energy poverty contexts, and ii) devise strategies to unlock individuals’ potential to make decisions that result in better outcomes for themselves and their surroundings.

A set of examples of energy cooperatives focusing on energy poverty.

Law 4513/2018 on Energy Communities in Greece 

This study examines the process and the final content of the new institutional framework for the Social and Solidarity Economy in Greece (Law 4430/2016).

This paper aims to provide an overview of the existing financial instruments and successful schemes focused on facilitating the implementation of energy efficiency-related measures, in the context of addressing the problem of energy poverty, along with its adverse socio-economic effects. 

This  handbook  provides  definitions  and  typification  of  the  most  relevant  business  models  (BMs)  of citizen RES initiatives. TheseBMs could be used by both new andestablished companies, directly orthrough crowdfunding platforms, to finance RES projects.Financing models presented here can either be offered by crowdfunding platforms to RES promoters looking for funding through their portals or can  be  adopted  directly  by  RES  promoters  themselves  to  raise  capital  on  their  own.Therefore,  this handbook may become a practical tool to RES promoters and citizens

This guide presents a series of questions that renewable energy developers should ask themselves and crowdfunding platforms in order to facilitate better understanding and decision-making before engaging  in  crowdfunding.  

The present guide provides a non-exhaustive list of questions, structured in three parts. The first part suggests questions an investor might usefully ask themselves when considering supporting renewable energy projects via  crowdfunding.  The  second  part contains  potential  questions  that  might  be  asked  of  the crowdfunding  body,  whilst  the  final  part  covers  questions  that  might  be  asked  of  the  renewable energy project developers involved.

This eBook  collects  insights  from  the  following  project results: guidelines for crowdfunding platforms, guidelines for project developers, guidelines for investors and the report on policy recommendations.

This booklet provide a syntetuc guide to donation and reward based crowdfunding with usefull tips on how to design your project and how to create a successfull campaign 

The study discusses Estonian experiences in renovating the ventilation systems of old apartment buildings. The paper is based on the ventilation performance analyses of long-term field studies during two different grant schemes. The technical conditions of the support grant and the correct ventilation renovation measures to guarantee necessary air change rate are presented.

 To analyse retrofit policy cost-optimal energy efficiency levels and investment costs, a baseline of measured actual energy usage of apartment buildings was created and then individual energy-saving measures and retrofit packages were composed. 

The study’s empirical analysis shows that energy efficiency improvements and related regulatory policies contribute to decreases in household energy consumption and energy poverty rates. The document covers following topics: Energy Poverty and Energy Markets in Europe, Housing Policies and Energy Efficiency Regulations, The Cost of Transition to Renewables in Households; – Empirical Analysis of Energy Efficiency Policies on Household Consumption and Energy Poverty.

The Estonia energy efficiency summary presents energy efficiency trends and policies by sector: Overview, Buildings, Transport and Industry. Get a set of graphs commented by energy efficiency specialists.

This handbook, “A WinWin(d) for all,” provides guidance on how public engagement for socially-inclusive wind energy projects can be approached. It includes a comprehensive analysis of the barriers and drivers to achieve socially-inclusive wind energy projects from economic, social and environmental perspectives and indicated promising best practices.

At the heart of a decentralized energy system is a producer-consumer community that responsibly controls and regulates energy production and consumption and exchanges surplus energy with other similar communities. The vision and strategy for this energy future is described and analyzed by the German organization "Bündnis Bürgerenergie e.V. – BBEn", in an edition edited and published in German. Although the analysis refers to the reality of Germany, a country at the forefront of the energy transition, the vision of a future decentralized energy system based on producer-consumer communities is pan-European. 

This follow-up publication includes the latest political developments in Greece and the rest of Europe as per energy poverty and presents interesting examples and policy proposals for the fight against energy poverty in Greece with a holistic approach aimed at addressing the root causes of the phenomenon in a cross-cutting and socially innovative way.

Every autumn Habitat for Humanity Hungary publishes their own “Annual report on housing poverty in Hungary”. This paper reflects the most recent situation of this issue and contains a detailed chapter about energy poverty as well. Therefore, the-state-of-the-art information and statistics are also available in this report. User-friendly infographics and informative tables and graphs make this report easily understandable even for those who have no background knowledge about energy poverty.   

The booklet covers social causes and consequences of energy poverty, health impacts, an overvies of energy performance of the housign stock and differences at local level, regulation at Member State level, available financial resources and good practices in tackling energy poverty.

Publication discussing the challenges and opportunities entailed in addressing energy poverty through innovative solutions, such as Peer-To-Peer Energy Trading (P2P), Virtual Power Plants (VPP), smart metering, streamlined processes, gamification and reputation-based identities

The reports gathers the key-findings from a multi-stakeholder workshop which invited academics, practitioners and other stakeholders to reflect on the various social impacts of community energy groups, analyzed through their respective fields of expertise.

The facilitation and soft skills materials aim at enabling the Energy Supporters and Mentors to better approach and support energy vulnerable households. 

The list of case studies includes all the cases partners gathered as best practices in the 8 National POWERPOOR countries. 

The POWERPOOR sister projects are a list with all the EU funded Horizon 2020 projects that are currently active. 

It includes a step wise guide aiming at familiarising the users of POWER TARGET and ACT with how to optimally use the tools. It also includes instructions on how to "read" an electricity bill.

The aim of the Guide for the use of POWER FUND is to facilitate the users to optimally use the POWER FUND tool. 

Module 4 aims to understand the importance of energy poverty actions as key inputs to local sustainable energy and climate action processes on a local level and to identify key climate and social innovation tools and methods to mainstream energy poverty SECAPs.

Module 3 aims to understand and identify conventional and innovative financial instruments and methods to develop energy poverty alleviation actions, including energy cooperatives, crowdfunding and other joint energy initiatives.  In addition, the module should empower energy supporters and mentors in promoting energy cooperatives and crowdfunding schemes to citizens facing energy poverty episodes and also to local actors that could support the development of these schemes (i.e. municipalities, NGOs, utilities, etc)

Module 2 aims to identify the types of energy poverty alleviation policies and practices developed by different stakeholders, with emphasis on their results and benefits for citizens facing energy poverty episodes. An emphasis on practical actions tangible and replicable results across Europe, including technological innovations will be included. In addition, the module is aimed to introduce the POWER ACT tool.

Module 1 aims to leverage the importance of energy poverty for sustainable energy transitions on a global and European level and to introduce the POWER-Target tool and the importance of identifying citizens facing energy poverty episodes to target specific actions on a local and community level to leverage the importance of energy poverty for sustainable energy transitions on a global and European level and to introduce the POWER-Target tool and the importance of identifying citizens facing energy poverty episodes to target specific actions on a local and community level