Specific action 

This social experiment stream will produce co-created community visions of desirable energy futures in four regions where renewable energy projects are highly likely to be implemented. This stream will target two urban and two rural locations.

Through the experiment, local organisation hosts will gain a deeper understanding of what local stakeholders want and expect for the future of energy, and how specific aspects of the EU’s Renewable Energy Strategy, such as providing citizens with the possibility to jointly engage in renewable energy projects, can be most beneficial to local communities.

The experiments will emphasise intergenerational learning by including younger (18-30) and older (65+) people together in dialogue events. Through the experiment, local organisation hosts will gain a deeper understanding of what local stakeholders want and expect for the future of energy, and how specific targets in the EU’s Renewable Energy Strategy can be most beneficial to local communities. 

Social Sciences and Humanities background 

The co-creation approach of this experiment builds on recent H2020 projects that used collaborative and participatory approaches for engaging citizens in the energy transition. These projects include ENERGISE and TURNKEY RETROFIT, which worked with households and communities across Europe to show how integrated approaches that work with participants’ everyday practices and their links with people and place, can yield substantial and sustained reductions in household energy use.

Within this strand of Shared Green Deal, community visions will be explored, building on the on the concept of socio-technical imaginaries in which local/regional partners will co-create collective visions and locally produced understandings of the energy transition from a multi-actor perspective. The theoretical underpinnings of this work can be found in the book ‘Dreamscapes of modernity: Sociotechnical imaginaries and the fabrication of power.’