Save the date and join us!

When: Thursday 1 March 2018

Where: Killarney, Ireland

Organised by: the partners of the ECCO project

Full invitation and programme can be downloaded here.

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At the end of last year, we kicked off a transnational project to create new local energy community co-operatives: the ECCO project. The project has been approved by the Interreg NWE programme and is focused on the reduction of Greenhouse Gasses.

A large number of organisations from different European regions joined forces with REScoop.EU, the European federation for renewable energy cooperatives that was founded in 2013. The ECCO project starts off from a bottom-up approach, building upon the practical experience and best practices of nine operational examples. These are
the Beacon ECCOs to keep us on track and provide us with inspiration.

We aim to accelerate the growth of local Energy Community Co-Operatives (ECCOs), both in effectiveness and in numbers. We will achieve this by bringing ECCOs together and linking them up with relevant sources of knowledge from around North West Europe to overcome the barriers they are often faced with at present.

Additionally, we will inspire policymakers, farmers and community groups, in particular in the more rural areas in North West Europe, to initiate their own ECCOs. Subsequently, we will facilitate their initiation and development processes. By designing and establishing a transnationally connected Accelerator Network (AN), we want to build the organisational structure that will secure the continuation of support activities after the project has ended. Do come and help us to establish the energy democracy together.

1 March 2018 - Killarney

We cordially invite you to join us on 1 March 2018 in Killarney at our Opening Conference.

Preliminary programme

09:00 Introduction

09:30 Plenary session – the challenges and opportunities of renewable energy

  • Taking steps towards building an energy democracy (Mr Dirk Vansintjan, president of RESCoop.EU)
  • How ‘die Energy Wende' helped the village of Oberrosph to get rid of oil and gas (Mr Ulrich Pfeiffer, Bioenergiedorf Oberrosph)
  • What is the ECCO project all about & how can it help facilitate the development of ECCO’s across Europe (Mr Tom Schaeken, lead partner)
  • The Irish community/policy perspective (Minister Denis Naughten Irish Dept. of
    Communications, Climate Action and Environment Representative and Mr Sean
    DeBuitlear South Kerry Development Partnership CLG.)

12:30 Lunch

14:00 Workshops – we will start addressing some of the challenges together

Three questions to focus our ideas:

  • How do we make communities enthousiastic about managing their energy needs and resources?
  • How do we mobilise farmers and help them reconnect their business with local communities?
  • How do we convince local policy makers of the need to adapt the playing field for the benefits of our local communities?

Plenary summary and lessons learned

19:30 Conference dinner & official launch

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Location

Great Southern Hotel

East Avenue Road

Killarney

IRELAND

Directions

This conference is organised in collaboration with the INTERREG ECCO project.

The positive effects of the project’s activities are possible thanks to financial support from the European Regional Development Fund provided by the Interreg North-West Europe programme.