Guide of Best Practices

What is it for?

This guide serves as both an inspiration and a practical toolkit for individuals and organizations eager to explore or kickstart renewable energy projects within their local communities. Whether you’re just beginning to learn about renewable energy or are ready to lead a community project, this resource is designed to support your journey toward a just and sustainable energy transition.

What’s in it?

The information is organised into 8 Aspects that we consider essential for the development of such projects. These Aspects provide insights into the important role of community engagement in a just energy transition and how Energy Communities can be an important tool for citizen participation. We will also look at tools to encourage community engagement in local renewable energy projects, the different stakeholders that can offer support at the various stages of project development, and will highlight important considerations in terms of existing policy and legislation, project financing, and technical aspects that are important for the planning and implementation of Energy Community projects. Most importantly, you will also be introduced to inspiring examples of Energy Communities from Greece, Portugal, Spain, Italy, and Croatia.

To make its contents more approachable to the project’s audience the Guide will be translated into English, Greek and Portuguese.

Who made it?

The guide was co-created by a small team of individuals from Southern Europe who are involved in the LANTERN project activities. Using a participatory Design Thinking approach, the team crafted the structure and content of this guide to make it both practical and impactful for its users.
The Guide team: Ioanna Souka, Margareta Rončević, Maria Zisi, Katherina Anastasiadis, Ângelo Ferreira