Kick-off of PROSEU Project took place in Lisbon

Prosumers are active energy users who both consume and produce energy from renewable sources. The growth of renewable energy Prosumerism all over Europe challenges current energy market structures and institutions. What are their motivations to become RE prosumers? What are the incentives and barriers they face when producing their renewable energy? Those and other questions will be examined by a Project funded under the EU Horizon 2020 Programme over the next 3 years.

PROSEU - Prosumers for the energy transition, was kicked-off during a meeting of all project partners on 22-23 March 2018. It was hosted by the coordinator of the project at the University of Lisbon. The participants got to know eachother and introduced the organisations and institutions they were representing. During two days they discussed the different stages of PROSEU, planned activities and expected outcomes.

PROSEU’s research focuses on collectives of RE Prosumers and will investigate new business models, market regulations, infrastructural integration, technology scenarios and energy policies across Europe. The team will work together with RE Prosumer Initiatives (15 Living Labs), policymakers and other stakeholders from eight countries, following a quasi-experimental approach to learn how RE Prosumer communities, start-ups and businesses are dealing with their own challenges, and to determine what incentive structures will enable the mainstreaming of RE Prosumerism, while safeguarding citizen participation, inclusiveness and transparency. Moving beyond a case by case and fragmented body of research on RE Prosumers, PROSEU will build an integrated knowledge framework for a socio-political, socioeconomic, business and financial, technological, socio-technical and socio-cultural understanding of RE Prosumerism and coalesce in a comprehensive identification and assessment of incentive structures to enable the process of mainstreaming RE Prosumers in the context of the energy transition.

For more information about the project, visit: www.proseu.eu

Image copyright: Group picture from Kick off meeting by "FC.ID"