Project description
Empowering Europe’s renewable energy prosumers
There’s a new phenomenon emerging across Europe: prosumers. Not only do they consume renewable energy, but they also produce it. However, the rapid growth of prosumers poses a challenge to Europe’s current energy market structures and institutions. In this context, the EU-funded PROSEU project aims to enable the integration of prosumers into the European Energy Union. Specifically, the project’s interdisciplinary team, in collaboration with policymakers and stakeholders from eight countries, will conduct research on new business models, market regulations, technology scenarios, and energy policies. By employing a quasi-experimental approach and closely examining prosumer communities, start-ups and businesses, it will identify incentive structures that promote the mainstreaming of renewable energy prosumerism.
Objective
PROSEU aims to enable the mainstreaming of the prosumer phenomenon into the European Energy Union. Prosumers are active energy users who both consume and produce renewable energy (RE). The growth of prosumerism all over Europe challenges current energy market structures and institutions. PROSEU research will look into new business models, market regulations, infrastructural integration, technology scenarios and energy policies. PROSEU’s interdisciplinary and transdisciplinary team will closely work together with RE Prosumer Initiatives (15 Living Labs), policymakers and other stakeholders from eight countries, following a quasi-experimental approach to learn how prosumer communities, start-ups and businesses are dealing with their own challenges, and to determine what incentive structures will enable the mainstreaming of RE Prosumerism, while safeguarding citizen participation, inclusiveness and transparency. Moving beyond a case by case and fragmented body of research on prosumers, PROSEU will build an integrated knowledge framework for a socio-political, socioeconomic, business and financial, technological, socio-technical and sociocultural understanding of RE prosumerism and coalesce in a comprehensive identification and assessment of incentive structures to enable the process of mainstreaming RE prosumers in the context of the energy transition.
Fields of science
- engineering and technologyenvironmental engineeringenergy and fuelsrenewable energy
- natural sciencescomputer and information sciencesdatabases
- natural sciencescomputer and information sciencescomputer securitydata protection
- social scienceseconomics and businessbusiness and managementbusiness models
- social sciencespolitical sciencespolitical policiescivil society
Programme(s)
Funding Scheme
RIA - Research and Innovation actionCoordinator
1749 016 Lisbon
Portugal