DISCOVER : supporting photovoltaic energy communities

Citizens, companies, associations and all the small and medium-size structures in our society have a role to play in the energy transition. Their considerable numbers represent a potential that needs to be organized. It’s a collective challenge.

When it comes to electricity, gathering ourselves into communities of small producers and consumers is a promising way. The European Union is seeking to encourage this type of initiative as part of its strategy to achieve climate neutrality by 2050.

With increasingly affordable photovoltaic technology and an adapted French legal framework, decentralized electricity production has become a reality in France. However, such citizen projects are complex and must manage various constraints—technical, economic, legal, urban planning — especially in a dense and historic urban centre like Paris. Generally, the project leaders are not fully equipped to handle these challenges.

In France, since the first energy transition laws in 2015, over 300 citizen-governed renewable energy projects have emerged across the country, including 276 projects in photovoltaics.

Renewable and recovered energy accounted for 19.3% of Paris’s consumption in 2021. The City’s Climate Plan sets a target of 45% renewable and recovered energy by 2030, including 10% produced locally (total energy consumption should have decreased by 35% compared to 2004).

This requires mobilizing an additional 500 GWh of local renewable energy by 2030, including 100 GWh of photovoltaic solar energy. A significant portion should come from private buildings, especially the 47,000 condominiums that will be supported by a specific program.

In Paris, with the EnerCit’IF initiative, a collective of citizens has pooled their savings and are operating 16 solar power plants on the roofs of several public buildings. Independently, several condominiums have also installed photovoltaic panels on their roof, showing that it can be done.

Collective action for photovoltaics optimizes energy management locally. Different models will apply depending on the characteristics of the producing and consuming buildings.

For example, with collective self-consumption of electricity, Parisians can use the roof of their condominium to produce electric energy, consume part of it (for common areas), and exchange the rest between buildings in the community (other residential buildings, offices, shops, etc.).

Other measures, such as insulation, reflective painting, or greening, and other renewable energies, such as solar thermal energy or air-to-water heat pumps, can be implemented on roofs. Each solution will be tailored to the specific case.

DISCOVER project seeks to bring together in a concise guide and within local one-stop shops the multiple services useful to community photovoltaic energy project developers.

For three years, until December 2026, DISCOVER will bring together partners in 5 European countries (Austria, Bulgaria, Croatia, Italy, France) with the aim of supporting 20 community energy projects generating approximately 3 GWh/year of electric energy, with an estimated investment of 7.7 million euros.

To achieve this, in the 4 pilot sites of Rijeka in Croatia, Teramo in Italy, Sofia in Bulgaria, and Paris in France, DISCOVER pursues the following operational objectives:

1. Mobilize local project stakeholders
2. Understand barriers and develop tailored services
3. Develop a guide for each of the 4 pilot sites
4. Develop a European web platform
5. Establish 4 one-stop shops to support projects

With 10,000 Parisian buildings already registered on CoachCopro, the APC is the one-stop shop for energy renovation of condominiums. Tomorrow, it aims to offer condominiums a new public service for operational support in photovoltaic production.

DISCOVER project is funded by the European Commission’s LIFE 2022 program in the “Transition to Clean Energy” category.

DISCOVER has a budget of 1.2 million euros, with 300,000 euros allocated to the Paris Climate Agency, funded at 95% by the European Agency for Climate, Infrastructure, and Environment, an agency of the European Green Deal.

• AGENA, the agency for energy and the environment of the province of Teramo (Italy) www.agenateramo.it
• AISFOR, the agency for innovation, development, and training (Italy) www.aisfor.it, coordinator of the DISCOVER project
• BEZ GRANICA, NGO for the development of the Rijeka region (Croatia) www.bezgranica.hr
• IESDI, NGO for entrepreneurship, sustainable development, and innovation (Bulgaria) http://institute-esdi.org/
• PIXEL Energy Solutions, a technology solution company (Austria) www.pixelenergy.at

To follow DISCOVER project news, please visit our webiste Accueil | DISCOVER (projectdiscover.eu) and LinkedIn page (22) Project DISCOVER : Présentation | LinkedIn

Funded by the European Union. Views and opinions expressed are however those of the author(s) only and do not necessarily reflect those of the European Union or CINEA. Neither the European Union nor the granting authority can be held responsible for them.