Event organised jointly by EnergyPROSPECTS and SHAREs Empowering Communities

GreenDependent Institute in cooperation with Friends of the Earth Hungary (FoE Hungary) organised the workshop "What are citizens’ and communities’ role in the energy transition in Hungary?" on 20 September 2023.

GreenDependent’s EnergyPROSPECTS (H2020) and MTVSZ’s SHAREs Empowering Communities (H2020) projects aimed at having an expert panel discussion on the role of citizens in the European sustainable energy transition and the factors supporting and hindering their community participation in Hungary.

The morning session included presentations about the EnergyPROSPECTS project:

• Edina Vadovics, Research Director presented an analysis of the 596 energy citizenship cases analysed in the framework of the project, highlighting the specificities of the 56 Hungarian cases;
• while Kristóf Vadovics summarized the main results of the PESTEL analysis of the Hungarian contextual environment that determines energy citizenship.

This was followed by a facilitated interactive discussion in small groups to get the views of participants from different areas and backgrounds (ministries, municipalities, NGOs, consultancies, academia) on energy citizenship and the sustainable energy transition. During the discussion, diverse topics were raised, such as how laws determining the installation of solar panels and the accounting of energy production, and how this affects the creation of future community energy projects; or how the established consumer culture (and its gaps) hinders the empowerment of energy citizens.

In the afternoon workshop session, the SHAREs project was presented, where experts from MTVSZ spoke about the Hungarian situation and results.

• Ágnes Szalkai-Lőrinc presented to the participants the recently launched Community Energy Knowledge Space, where information tools and communication campaign materials are available for organizers of community energy actions and energy communities.
• Éger and Bence Kovács described in detail the international and domestic regulatory environment affecting community energy projects, highlighting the current difficulties and potential solutions in Hungary.

After the presentations, the exchange of ideas continued in small group discussions on these two topics.

To close the day, everyone said goodbye in a big circle and exchanged business cards until the expected next meetings. 😊