Regional Strategies for Energy Conscious Communities
RENERGY should be seen in a context of the EU Strategy for Competitive, Effective and Secure Energy (2020) setting out objectives and main line of action to address urgent global energy concerns: excessive reliance on non-renewable fossil fuels, dependency on energy imports from certain countries, safety issues (e.g. nuclear) and the significant CO2 contribution of transport sector and fossile energy sources to climate change. RENERGY deals with the multiple dimensions of the „energy crisis”. 
To seize the momentum of Energy 2020 and the urgency to strengthen our competitiveness in the energy field and ensure local economic growth more effective local/regional level actions are needed. RES are often produced and distributed locally & not suitable for distant transportation and local action has also better chance of influencing energy consumer/producer/supplier behaviour. However, current local/regional energy policies point at several bottlenecks. Stakeholder involvement is not
effective & energy policies/strategies do not necessarily correspond to the interests of stakeholders & the infrastructural & architectural settings. Such shortcomings jeopardise efficient planning & implementation of energy policies.
 
RENERGY, thus, aims to improve effectiveness of local/regional sustainable energy  policies/strategies by (1) demonstrating the relevance of a holistic, integrative, bottom up process to take local community needs,  demands,  cultural and infrastructural characteristics into account, (2) emphasizing the crucial role of the energy business sector in  RES uptake and EE management and (3) emphasizing the role of local/regional governance bodies in developing/implementing sustainable energy policies and furnish these bodies with sufficient  competences, powers & knowledge. These 3 issues are the main project pillars analysed and communicated through the 3 Case Studies and the Energy Labs. Energy Labs is a completely new platform concept for local energy
action ensuring continuous dialogue and cooperation between experts, producers/suppliers and end-user representing the 3 project pillars. These partners will together evaluate their own region in terms of RES/EE efficiency, present case studies & participate in the 3 case study exchanges to fill knowledge gaps & prepare & implement local/regional RES/EE implementation plans. The results & experience of the 3 thematic Case Studies and Energy Labs will feed into a Model Implementation Plan including policy recommendations the findings of which will be disseminated to target groups and used at regional/local level by partners while designing their regional implementation plans. 

RENERGY brings together a balanced partnership with public authorities from Italy, Austria, Denmark, Germany, Hungary, Lithuania, Poland, Portugal, Rumania and the UK pooling valuable knowledge/experience in these 3 thematic clusters that function as “knowledge centers” & case study examples.