In Energy Sustainable Communities (ESC)
activities will be undertaken to bridge the Energy knowledge gap between local
energy initiatives, companies, municipalities and research institutions. It
will build local sustainable energy business cases. The ESC project also aims
at developing and sharing knowledge. It focuses on realization of bottom-up
driven decentralized energy solutions. The long term vision is transition to a
locally based sustainable energy system.

In the project, various organizations from
northern Europe work together with Hanze University Groningen and Province of
Fryslân in North Netherlands. The project is in line with local energy
initiatives that have the ambition to develop towards sustainability. Both
European villages and regions have a significant performance component as wel
as a strong emphasis on knowledge transfer and SME clustering.

This project aims to create an environment
in which development of decentralized energy applications can be done in
cooperation with local energy initiatives and local and regional SMEs within a
real life Learning environment (Living Lab). Local initiatives generally
consist of residents, local businesses, shops and farmers. Often, these
initiatives have formulated an ambition (eg sustainable village in 2020,
energy-neutral by 2020, or self-sufficient in 2020), but they lack the
knowledge and expertise to work this out in longer term practical energy plans.
And they often are not able to put it successfully into practice. For example:
the energy plan defines a certain mix of sun, wind and bio energy, which can be
translated in 2000 solar panels in 2017, 60% of homes isolated in 2016, a
feasibility study of a community owned wind turbine and an investment charting.
By facilitating communities the ambitions of local initiatives thus can be
achieved more quickly; the introduction of well designed energy plans will
help. This offers also opportunities for SMEs in the design, consultancy and
realization phase.

2. Common approach

-ways to develop shared sustainable
perspective; -inventory of potential for sustainability; -alternative designs
for integrating measurements in landscape, middle-up down approach.

3. Development of bottom-up approach

-how to involve & commit fellow
citizens on the long term;- stakeholder involvement strategies; -how to
organize; -scenario development

4. Development of integrated market
approach

-Market segmentation > stakeholder
identification and acquisition; -Identify manufacturers, retailers and consumer
associations, male/female, home, school, work

5. Development of approach for
intermediaries to support bottom-up initiatives

-identification of intermediaries; -ways
& scenarios to support bottom-up initiatives; -strategies for cooperation
between intermediaries

6. Implementation and measurement

7. Dissemination

WP 2 – Aims of Common approach:

• Design of a sustainable & energy
neutral living environment in cooperation with local energy initiatives
(citizens, companies and public parties). This will include the (re-)design of
buildings and the (re-)design of landscapes. Priority in our designs: energy
production, energy efficiency and the possibilities for a pursuit towards
autarky in harmony with communities and their local economic system.

• Municipalities and local initiatives
currently do not work with specific energy scenarios. We want to develop a
method suitable for the scenario development for energy neutrality on the level
of municipalities in combination with local initiatives and local companies.
This method puts attention to 'visioning' and calculation of potential savings
and potential for energy production.

• Municipalities and communities only can
be ambitious if they are supported by their citizens.Our approach therefore
focuses on the involvement of local organizations and businesses in the design
of energy-neutral buildings and landscapes and the development of energy
scenarios. The strengthening of these local organizations is a focus of our
research.

Potential consortium for a North Sea
alliance to build energy sustainable communities:

1. Province Fryslân North Netherlands Lead partner
(Anne de Vries/ Jitske Stavenga)

2. Energy Valley (Koos Lok)

3. Norway Rogaland

4. Scotland ETP and/or University of East
Anglia (Gill Seyfang)

5. Northern Germany (Ems-Achse and EFZN)

6 Denmark Samso Energy Akademy ( Soren Hermanson)

Aalborg University (Carla Smink)

7. Northern Netherlands (Hanze University
for Applied Sciences ( Bate Boschma) Oentsjerk/Trynergie, Energiewerkplaats
(Jaap Bijma), municipalities (Ytsje Hiemstra)