REScoop.eu is delighted to welcome a new member to her network. We strongly believe that by growing our network, we make sure the voices of citizens and their communities are better heard in the energy sector.

ASEC - Association Suisse pour l'Energie Citoyenne

Association Suisse pour l'Energie Citoyenne (ASEC) is a Swiss federation for citizen energy initiatives. ASEC was established in the wake of a doctoral research supported by the Volteface platform, the Services Industriels de Genève and the Zoein Foundation, which took place between 2015 and 2020 at the University of Lausanne, Switzerland.

The research observed that the French-speaking part of Switzerland lacked a platform to connect its different citizen energy initiatives (around 20 at the time). Since research and experience in other countries show that intermediary actors are of great importance in the development and further upscaling of these types of initiatives, the idea was born to fill this gap.

ASEC

In December 2018 a collaboration was set up with Coopergy Cooperative to organise the first citizen energy day in French-speaking Switzerland. The event resulted in the creation of a working group, which led to the establishment of ASEC in October 2019.

The aim of ASEC is to promote and support citizen energy while respecting the environment and people and generating local economic benefits. To this end ASEC

  • encourages citizen involvement in the energy transition by raising awareness and disseminating information
  • improves the visibility of citizen energy initiatives;
  • promotes and represents the common interests of the initiatives to other actors of society;
  • facilitates the sharing of experience and know-how between initiatives;
  • takes any other action consistent with its aims.