Delegates to the AURORA workshop in Higher Education, Schools and Energy Communities heard how the education sector can pioneer the energy transition through energy communities.
Gyula Cserey from the EU Directorate General (DG) Education opened the webinar by praising the work of the EU AURORA-funded project and highlighting the growing EU Education4Climate group, which now has over 9,000 participants. He placed education and the whole-school approach as critical to winning the hearts and minds of the next generation.
The support of the European Union (EU) was outlined by Achille Hannoset from the EU DG Energy. He outlined the political ambition that one energy community would be in place in every municipality with a population higher than 10,000 people by 2025. He confirmed new powers to empower public bodies, SMEs and households to share off-site generated or stored electricity between each party using the grid. These powers will be transposed into Member State legislation by 17 July 2026. And more support is to come as the EU develops a Citizens Energy Package in Q4 2025.
Case examples were then given of the challenges and opportunities pioneers still face:
- Piet Holtrop outlined the legal issues;
- Zhe Zhang the successful Aarhus University community energy scheme that is now generating lower-cost solar energy for the University, a return to local investors and lowering the carbon footprint of all involved;
- Christophe Bartholeyns, who is leading the Eco2Schools programme across five countries in Europe; and
- Dr Paula Carroll, who outlined how over 1000 sustainable energy communities are emerging across Ireland.
The workshop offered an exciting glimpse on how your University, your School could develop energy communities that gives potentially everyone in your community a stake in the energy transition.
The event concluded with remarks from Monica Pisani, who made the point that despite growing concerns in Europe over defence, security and competitiveness, the energy transition is still critical to all our futures. Not only can we tackle climate change across the EU, but we can grow our economies in parallel. Between 1990 and 2023, the EU reduced its carbon footprint by 37% and grew its economy by 68%. At local, national and EU levels, the green transition makes economic sense and enriches us all. Your University, your school, needs to be part of it.
The complete set of slides used in the Webinar is available aqui. You can also watch the full recording of the proceedings on the AURORA YouTube channel. Short clips of key moments in the webinar will shortly be shared across social media channels. The next step is to encourage others to follow the lead set by the AURORA project in the Education sector through initiatives such as the EU Green Universities Alliance.
Martin Brocklehurst
Project AURORA
30 April 2025
