Periodic Reporting for period 3 - mPOWER (Municipal Action, Public Engagement and Routes TowardsEnergy Transition)
Berichtszeitraum: 2021-05-01 bis 2022-10-31
Some European cities, particularly in Germany, Denmark and Spain, have made innovations in energy sector management, from running distribution networks, new supply companies, and renewable generation, to facilitating citizen participation processes, to sourcing public/alternative finance for energy projects. Other cities across Europe are exploring their options for municipal energy and are looking to learn from best practice elsewhere. mPOWER mapped existing municipal energy policy and identified innovation practices and solutions, as well as obstacles. A key concern was with overcoming the barriers facing municipal actors. To this end, the project’s central aim was encouraging peer-learning among municipalities and the adoption of successful strategies to achieve energy transition.
The overall objectives of the project were:
● To map and document best practice in municipal energy transition
● To undertake a European wide peer learning initiative to disseminate best practice
● To accelerate the process of energy transition across European municipalities.
We have carried out a number of research study visits to leading municipalities across Europe (including Aberdeen, Hamburg, Ghent, Ljubljana and Ettlingen) in diverse geographical settings although this was constrained by Pandemic related travel restrictions. These visits have been used to triangulate our earlier findings and add depth to the explanations we are developing to understand the diversity of municipal action on energy transitions.
We have completed the delivery of mPOWER Exchange, our bespoke peer-peer learning programme, that worked with small groups with no more than six municipalities at a time. This part of the programme consisted of study visits, expert witness sessions and peer-peer learning and problem solving. mPOWER Exchange’s final output’s were replication plans and a celebration event.
In preparation for the delivery of mPOWER Digital, we conducted three study visits to Nis, Burgas and Brussels. These have been turned into three documentaries that can be viewed here (https://www.youtube.com/playlist?list=PLI6TsTB_YajkHoyD9WtkR2u9nm2BwAV6o)
We have coordinated and delivered mPOWER Digital, our online learning programme, three times. mPOWER Digital is a comprehensive course in how municipalities can deliver a fair, clean and democratic energy transition whilst considering participation and addressing energy poverty. We focus on different forms of public and community ownership, as well as public-public, public-civic and public-private partnerships. The course uses case studies of best practice in the municipal energy transition from across Europe. In each course the content has expanded with new materials that have been developed by the project, including podcasts, videos and blogs. Project participants can continue to share and disseminate learning on our mailing list and in our Facebook group. This website (https://mpowerlearn.co.uk/) has been built that contains the many resources of mPower Digital, allowing additional municipalities to engage with these materials.
Key learnings from mPOWER Digital are the importance of learning spaces for local authorities in realising a just, fair and democratic energy transition. We also learnt that many local authorities simply do not have the capacity to explore best practice, but having knowledge of what other options are available has helped them to build a case within their own contexts for more ambitious plans.
We coordinate and delivered mPOWER Activate, our bespoke one-one incubator programme. This part of the project worked one on one with a municipality to support them towards realising an aspect of their energy transition plans.
Our findings suggest that the vast majority of municipalities are now involved in producing their own renewable forms of energy, with solar power and biomass being particularly prevalent. The opportunity to use biomass alongside CHP in district heating systems seems to be a popular option for both producing energy and improving efficiencies. While municipalities as a whole do not seem to have advanced far in terms of more technologically sophisticated smart grid systems and networks, there are some excellent and innovative examples emerging in the retro-fitting of buildings that might be replicable elsewhere as forms of best practice.
By drawing upon and sharing examples of best practice through the project, we found that the peer-to-peer learning aspects help to disseminate innovative solutions to energy transition elsewhere. Developing further analysis of the blockages and constraints encountered and the creative strategies that municipalities develop – including constructing new forms of finance and new partnerships with other actors – were key elements of the project.