CEL RURAL

The POCTEP area addresses the challenge of promoting a fair energy transition based on the promotion of a decentralized, democratic, and sustainable energy system that allows for the utilization of the territory’s endogenous renewable resources. There is an opportunity to create green and quality jobs that contribute to population retention in rural areas by promoting distributed generation through prosumers and local energy communities (LECs). In this context, the RURAL LEC project is proposed, aiming to promote the implementation of renewable energies at the rural level to strengthen the development of a sustainable and proximity energy system in cross-border regions of the POCTEP area through the adoption of innovative models of shared energy self-consumption within local energy communities in rural environments.

To achieve this goal, the project will carry out actions that contribute to overcoming the technical, regulatory, and economic barriers that currently limit the deployment of rural LECs. Tools and demonstration experiences will be developed to evaluate available technology and design, plan, and control shared self-consumption installations, as well as manage the relationships between their users. In turn, the project will address the implementation of pilots, which will allow for a rigorous understanding of the difficulties to be faced when developing such initiatives. Based on the results obtained, methodologies, guides, and training and dissemination activities will be developed to transfer the acquired knowledge and empower the target audience in its deployment.

For the project to be successful, cross-border cooperation is essential. The concept of a local energy community is relatively recent in Spain and Portugal, requiring demonstration regarding the most suitable innovative energy models for its deployment, a multidisciplinary approach, and the involvement of experts in each of the fields sharing a common problem. The project proposes an innovative approach by promoting collaboration between promoters and knowledge agents for an efficient definition and development of rural LEC models, demonstration experiences, pilots, and tools for their design and management.