SCORE - Supporting Consumer Ownership in Renewable Energies

The project aimed at engaging private consumers and households in co-financing schemes for RE installations, with a focus on vulnerable groups like low-income HH, unemployment and women.

With a budget of over 1 million euros, pilots were supported in setting up an inclusive financing model for renewable energy installations, the Consumer Stock Ownership Plan (CSOP). The CSOP foresees the financial participation of private households in jointly owned RE plants, e.g. rooftop PV. Ideally, the households consume the electricity produced and reach ownership of the installations, thus reducing their energy bills and becoming active partners in the local energy transition. Other co-investors such as municipalities and private actors were also co-investors to make the investment feasible. To reach this goal, the projects supported the pilots in technical aspects, EE measures and in involving vulnerable consumers via trusted local intermediaries. Beyond the pilots, Follower Cities are invited to replicate the financing model. Several projects took the form of energy communities.

The project was a scalable financial model for RE projects including vulnerable consumers. A lesson learnt was that the European-wide approach was a barrier to participation of low-income households in RE projects.

Some concrete key performance indicators (KPIs) of the project include:

• Enabling policy: 15 Number of citations/statements from governance bodies.
• Investment in sustainable Energy: 9 Million € investments made by the European consumers.
• Energy savings: 29.86 GWh/Year.
• Renewable Energy production : 10.97 GWh/year.

The project started in 2018 and was completed in 2021.

Main beneficiaries: low income populations, national/local authorities and people affected by gender inequality.

It addressed the topics of: law and legislation, energy access and consumption, energy efficiency, financing schemes, gender.