OPENING EVENT OF MELTEMI ENERGY COMMUNITY – CREATING THE FIRST ENERGY COMMUNITY IN RAFINA
What: Opening event of Meltemi energy community – Creating the first energy community in Rafina
Where: Meltemi (Rafina), Greece
When: 13th July 2019
On 13th of July the opening event of the first Energy Community in Rafina has been held.
How the story began:
On April 2019 ICCS-NTUA with Electra Coop organized a workshop to present the status and prospects of Energy Communities in Greece. After the event residents from the Μeltemi (a seaside camp at the coast of Rafina of approx. 210 seasonal residents), who participated in the workshop, started collaborating with ICCS-NTUA with the purpose of establishing an energy community in the camp. Few months later, the community has already filed an application to be legally recognized and has formed an initial plan for creating a community-owned solar project within the camp.
The event:
On 13th of July, the Μeltemi community in collaboration with COMPILE partner ICCS-NTUA hosted an opening event aiming to inform residents and invite interested members to join the new cooperative under formation. The first part of the event provided an overview of energy communities in Europe, presented successful local and European examples and highlighted community energy best practices. The legislation framework in Greece and the prospects and initial plans of the new cooperative was presented next. This was followed by a vivid and fruitful discussion in order to clarify questions and improve the proposed plan. The second part was devoted to examples of possible renewable projects. Pre-feasibility studies on specific renewable energy projects were presented and funding scenario were discussed. Overall, the reaction of the attendees was very positive and highly encouraging.
ICCS-NTUA participates actively in the ongoing movement to support energy communities. They pursue the possibility of supporting social initiatives for own community-owned energy generation and the empowerment of active citizens towards a social and democratic energy system.
More than 60 people attended the workshop. ICCS-NTUA and the municipality of Rafina-Pikermi set-up a COMPILE corner within the workshop, where impact assessment questionnaires were distributed to the participants.
