Rural Communities engaged with positive energy.
The inclusion of RES into energy mix of a certain area, region or state at policy level is not enough. The use of RES potential should be the horizontal principle of any development planning supported by EE measures; much like the environmental impact assessment has become a standard for any major development project.The increase of RES in energy mix will happen if it has strong social acceptance, showing clear socio-economic benefits for the area and is sustainable. This calls for a different approach to development planning with RES and EE at the core of any business planning and a way of translation of local (regional, state) vision into concrete development opportunities. In order to highlight different obstacles to RES planning and provide measures to overcome them complementary pilot actions in different countries will be implemented to tackle obstacles for the social acceptance of RES, and for the local development planning, development of local business according to new business models with RES at the core.Results will upgrade existing methods and approaches to RES planning to make a simple and comprehensive model called: COMPOSE - model for RES development planning.It will promote this concept to decision makers at different levels and also provide a concrete training for experts dealing with development planning on a daily basis.A policy paper to mainstream the results and a Memorandum of understanding will be delivered as part of the sustainability of the project.