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Increased energy efficiency and/or optimised energy management and/or integrate a higher share of renewables. Thus, the term energy communities in SHAREs refers to all forms of collective actions by and for consumers such as cooperatives, collective purchase groups or other consumer-driven collective actions. Six countries are involved in the project implementation: Austria, Germany, Croatia, Bulgaria, Georgia and Hungary. In order to achieve a clean energy transition, all consumer groups need to be involved and convinced to contribute to the energy market. Founders of energy communities are by definition very motivated and “on-board” but often lack the tools to engage with other consumer groups. The concept of the SHAREs project is simple and straightforward - to create a Gateway for those interested in setting up collective actions to help them initiate an action and grow. The Gateway will consist of: (1) A country-specific implementation toolkit to equip local heroes with the technical and logistic capacity to set up their energy community (legal framework, such as master contracts, technical and IT solutions, business models, etc.); (2) The building blocks of a tailored “pick-and-mix” communication campaign to enable local heroes to promote their idea effectively to their most relevant stakeholder groups. The Gateway will combine the insights and tools from existing initiatives as well as input of established energy communities (pioneers) and policy developers. After having been put to test and refined in at least 20 aspiring energy communities in 6 European countries, the Gateway will be broadly disseminated to relevant stakeholders all over Europe., Proceedings of the 30th European Biomass Conference and Exhibition, 9-12 May 2022, Online, pp. 314-316

38th European Photovoltaic Solar Energy Conference and Exhibition; 1645-1649, The TRACER project supports a number of coal-intensive regions around Europe to design (or re-design) their Research and Innovation (R&I) strategies in order to facilitate their transition towards a sustainable energy system. The TRACER consortium consists of different target regions: South East Bulgaria, North West Bohemia - Czech Republic, Lusatian Lignite District - Germany, Western Macedonia - Greece, Upper Silesian Coalfield - Poland, West Region, Jiu Valley - Romania, Wales - UK, Kolubara - Serbia, Donetsk - Ukraine. Core activities of TRACER include the implementation of an EDP (Entrepreneurial Discovery Process) to mobilise a wide range of stakeholders in each target region to develop an appropriate governance structure and to bring regional stakeholders together to discuss and agree on a shared vision and priorities for coal transition. R&I strategies, industrial roadmaps and decision support tools will be developed jointly with key stakeholders of the TRACER target regions. Further TRACER activities include the identification and analysis of best practice examples of successful and ambitious transition processes in coal intensive regions, a detailed assessment of social, environmental and technological challenges, the elaboration of guidelines on how to mobilise investment as well as dedicated activities to stimulate R&I cooperation among coal intensive regions in Europe and beyond.

The Upgrade DH project supports the upgrading and retrofitting process of DH systems in different climate regions of Europe, covering various countries: Bosnia-Herzegovina, Denmark, Croatia, Germany, Italy, Lithuania, Poland, and The Netherlands. The objective of the project is to initiate the upgrading process of concrete DH systems in each of the target countries, the so-called Upgrade DH demonstration cases (demo cases). The gained knowledge and experiences are further replicated to other European countries and DH systems (replication cases) in order to leverage the impact. Core activities of the Upgrade DH project include the collection of the best upgrading measures and tools, the support of the upgrading process for selected district heating networks, the organisation of capacity building measures about DH upgrading, financing and business models, as well as the development of national and regional action plans. In addition, an image raising campaign for modern DH networks is carried out in the Upgrade DH project. The outcome is the initiation of district heating upgrading process in the above-mentioned target countries and beyond. The present paper summarizes the results of the project, which is close to its finalization.

The Upgrade DH project supports the upgrading and retrofitting process of DH systems in different climate regions of Europe, covering various countries: Bosnia-Herzegovina, Denmark, Croatia, Germany, Italy, Lithuania, Poland, and The Netherlands. The objective of the project is to initiate the upgrading process of concrete DH systems in each of the target countries, the so-called Upgrade DH demonstration cases (demo cases). The gained knowledge and experiences will be further replicated to other European countries and DH systems (replication cases) in order to leverage the impact. Core activities of the Upgrade DH project include the collection of the best upgrading measures and tools, the support of the upgrading process for selected district heating networks, the organisation of capacity building measures about DH upgrading, financing and business models, as well as the development of national and regional action plans. In addition, an image raising campaign for modern DH networks is carried out in the Upgrade DH project. The outcome is the initiation of district heating upgrading process in the above-mentioned target countries and beyond. The present paper summarizes the results of the pre-feasibility studies of the demo cases.

With a production of about 180 million tons Germany is still and by far the leading producer of lignite worldwide. More than 30 % of this production takes place in the Lusatian Lignite District and without any doubt mining is the economic driving force of the region - despite ongoing structural change. In the framework of the Horizon 2020 project FORBIO (www.forbio-project.eu) agronomic and techno-economic feasibility studies were elaborated to in-vestigate the potential of establishing value chains for energy crops to produce biomethane as a contribution to agricul-tural reclamation of post-mining landscapes. Agriculture on reclaimed ground aims to strengthen the efficiency of farms affected by mining and to improve their viability. However, overall yields remain low to medium and there is hardly any food production and cultivation of special crops on reclamation sites. Therefore, farmers are interested in low-risk production alternatives with good earnings, such as undemanding, drought-tolerant and fast-growing energy crops like Sorghum or Sudan grass. The investigated case study was based on a 6-year crop rotation system on more than 7,000 ha of post-mining land in the Lusatian Lignite District (involving Lucerne, Sorghum, winter wheat and winter rye) for biomass feedstock production. The feedstock is used in a newly constructed biogas plant with electrical capacity of 3.1 MW and an integrated biomethane up-grading unit. Financial viability was calculated for an investment amortization period of 20 years. It was found that under the current market situation with rather low fossil fuel prices, investment in energy cropping for biomethane on the selected reclamation sites is not fully viable yet. An investment of 89 million EUR leads to total revenues of 85 million EUR. About 50 % of costs during the calculated operation period of 20 years are thereby allocated to feedstock production (530 EURha-1yr-1 for Lucerne silage, 750 EURha-1yr-1for Sorghum silage) with limited potential for cost reduction by the farmers. Finally, an outlook is presented for energy crops grown on post-mining landscapes providing feedstock opportunities for future innovative value chains in biorefineries integrating the production of bioenergy, materials and higher value chemicals. Such inno-vative green technologies can be the initial spark for establishing a new bio-based industries in the Lusatian Lignite region after the phase-out of coal mining, thus serving to cushion partially the declining fossil-based economy., Proceedings of the 27th European Biomass Conference and Exhibition, 27-30 May 2019, Lisbon, Portugal, pp. 1636-1641

In the EU around 40% of bio-waste (organic fractions of municipal solid waste including food waste) still goes to landfills. In some Member States this waste is almost completely landfilled. An estimation is that about one-third of Europe`s 2020 targets for renewable energy in transport could be met by using biogas produced from bio-waste (including food waste), and around 2% of the EU`s overall renewable energy target could be met if all bio-waste were turned into energy.Modern and environmentally friendly waste management is still not introduced in many European cities and regions. This problem is tackled by the Bin2Grid project which promotes the “food waste to biomethane” concept in four large European cities in order to serve as flagship examples for other cities.The objective of the Bin2Grid project is to support biomethane production and its use in transport by using segregated food waste from the food and beverage industry, catering sector, and from households(MSW) as feedstock. Focus of the Bin2Grid project is on the development of value chain concepts for four European cities: Zagreb (Croatia), Skopje (Macedonia), Malaga (Spain), and Paris (France). The Bin2Grid project highlights the multiple environmental benefits of source-separate waste collection and conversion of that feedstock into biomethane, in comparison to other treatment methods (landfilling, incineration, MBT, composting). A Benchmark Tool was developed by the project and is presented in this paper., Proceedings of the 25th European Biomass Conference and Exhibition, 12-15 June 2017, Stockholm, Sweden, pp. 204-209

Perennial Short Rotation Woody Crops ("SRC" or "Short Rotation Coppice") are woody species such as willow, poplar, robinia and others. Their cultivation is a good alternative to annual energy crops and can be complementary to existing agricultural systems. Aside from being harvested for energy production, the cultivation of SRCs has many potential benefits compared to annual crops. For instance, they may help to improve water quality, enhance biodiversity, provide ecosystem services (hunting, beekeeping, water supply, fire protection), mitigate animal diseases between farms, prevent erosion, reduce artificial input materials (fertilizers, pesticides) and mitigate climate change due to carbon storage. These advantages have to be promoted to produce sustainable woodchips from SRC, enhancing the positive impacts of SRC to the environment. Thereby, the following sustainability aspects must be considered: SRC has most positive impacts on marginal land and especially as structural elements in the landscape, bordering for instance fields, roads, and electricity lines. The sustainability of the supply chains is specifically addressed in the project SRCplus. The SRCplus project contributes to remove the non-technological barriers of SRC development in Europe through the support of implementing local SRC supply chains. Thereby, synergies with other agricultural uses, ecosystem services and nature conservation measures are exploited. This paper presents first results of the SRCplus project, and discusses sustainability aspects of SRC., Proceedings of the 24th European Biomass Conference and Exhibition, 6-9 June 2016, Amsterdam, The Netherlands, pp. 264-269

Perennial Short Rotation Woody Crops (“SRC” or “Short Rotation Coppice”) are woody species such as willow, poplar, robinia and others. Their cultivation is a good alternative to annual energy crops and can be complementary to existing agricultural systems. Aside from being harvested for energy production, the cultivation of SRCs has many potential benefits compared to annual crops. For instance, they may help to improve water quality, enhance biodiversity, provide ecosystem services (hunting, beekeeping, water supply, fire protection), mitigate animal diseases between farms, prevent erosion, reduce artificial input materials (fertilizers, pesticides) and mitigate climate change due to carbon storage. These advantages have to be promoted to produce sustainable woodchips from SRC, enhancing the positive impacts of SRC to the environment. Thereby, the following sustainability aspects must be considered: SRC has most positive impacts on marginal land and especially as structural elements in the landscape, bordering for instance fields, roads, and electricity lines. The sustainability of the supply chains is specifically addressed in the project SRCplus. The SRCplus project contributes to remove the non-technological barriers of SRC development in Europe through the support of implementing local SRC supply chains. Thereby, synergies with other agricultural uses, ecosystem services and nature conservation measures are exploited. This paper presents first results of the SRCplus project, and discusses sustainability aspects of SRC., Proceedings of the 23rd European Biomass Conference and Exhibition, 1-4 June 2015, Vienna, Austria, pp. 117-122

Public support is a key to reaching the EU's 2020 RES (Renewable Energy Sources) target. Community RES projects can turn public opposition into support for new RES installations and infrastructure, including grids. Research demonstrates that if citizens are actively involved in RES projects from the initial proposal, and the economic and social benefits of such projects are shared, public acceptance is far higher. Community ownership of renewable energy plants can mobilise local investment, improve the acceptability and increase local community benefits of renewable energy. There are several European examples of how citizen involvement has accelerated the development of RES. However, the share of community owned renewable energy plants differs a lot in the EU countries. In Central and Eastern European (CEE) countries, upfront financing is a particularly large barrier to achieving a higher share of RES. The problem of enabling legislation for and financing of community RES projects at the European, national and local level is addressed by the CO-POWER project (Enabling legislation to increase acceptance for RES projects across Europe) which is supported by the Intelligent Energy for Europe Programme of the European Union. The project is raising awareness among policy makers on the benefits of community RES ownership.This paper gives an overview on community energy models and recommendations for legal frameworks., Proceedings of the 23rd European Biomass Conference and Exhibition, 1-4 June 2015, Vienna, Austria, pp. 1457-1459

Many biogas plants aim to maximise the electrical output from biogas in combined heat and power (CHP) units, due to supportive policies that mainly focus on electricity production (feed­in tariffs). As a result, in many cases the heat from CHP units is only partly used, or wasted. This inefficiency in energy use is a bottleneck in current biogas production, causing macroeconomic and microeconomic losses and challenges in the context of overall increasing land use competition. This has a negative impact on the public perception on biogas. In the framework of the BiogasHeat project 10 feasibility studies for existing biogas plants in southern Germany were elaborated. Heat data were collected from the biogas plants and interviews were made. This paper gives an overview on the use of waste heat from biogas plants in Europe and Germany. It presents and compares the outcome of the studies in Germany., Proceedings of the 22nd European Biomass Conference and Exhibition, 23-26 June 2014, Hamburg, Germany, pp. 786-792

In Europe, biogas is mostly used to produce electricity and heat in CHP units. However, in many cases, the heat is either underused or fully wasted. This inefficient utilisation of energy is a bottleneck in current biogas production and use. The problem of how to efficiently utilise heat from biogas plants at the European, national and local level is addressed by the BiogasHeat project (Development of Sustainable Heat Markets for Biogas Plants in Europe), which is supported by the EU´s IEE programme. During the first year of the project it was carried out a detailed framework and market analysis on the use of the biogas heat in nine target countries (Austria, Croatia, Czech Republic, Denmark, Germany, Italy, Latvia, Poland and Romania), including the collection of good practice examples of heat use, the realization of a handbook on sustainable heat use of biogas plants and a report on national policy enforcement for heat use from biogas on target countries., Proceedings of the 21st European Biomass Conference and Exhibition, 3-7 June 2013, Copenhagen, Denmark, pp. 1220-1226

Public support is a key to reaching the EU's 2020 Renewable Energy Sources (RES) target. Community RES projects can turn public opposition into support for new RES installations and infrastructure, including grids. It is demonstrated that if citizens are actively involved in RES projects from the initial proposal, and the economic and social benefits of such projects are shared, public acceptance is far higher. Community ownership of renewable energy plants can mobilise local investment, improve public acceptance of RES and increase local community benefits of renewable energy. There are several European examples of how citizen involvement has accelerated the development of RES. However, the share of community owned renewable energy plants differs a lot in European countries. In many EU countries, existing legislation does not provide sufficient support for, or even impedes, community ownership models. In Central and Eastern European (CEE) countries, upfront financing is a particularly large barrier to achieving a higher share of RES. Thus, there is a need to research and advocate for innovative public-private financing mechanisms, and for making funds from the EU budget available to community RES projects. The problem of enabling legislation for and financing of community RES projects at the European, national and local level is addressed by the CO-POWER project (Enabling legislation to increase acceptance for RES projects across Europe) which is supported by the Intelligent Energy for Europe Programme of the European Union., Proceedings of the 21st European Biomass Conference and Exhibition, 3-7 June 2013, Copenhagen, Denmark, pp. 1991-1994

Perennial Short Rotation Woody Crops (“SRC” or “Short Rotation Coppice”) are woody species such as willow, poplar, robinia and others. Their cultivation is a good alternative to annual energy crops and can be complementary to existing agricultural systems. Aside from being harvested for energy production, the cultivation of SRCs has many potential benefits compared to annual crops. For instance, they may help to improve water quality, enhance biodiversity, provide ecosystem services (hunting, beekeeping, water supply, fire protection), mitigate animal diseases between farms, prevent erosion, reduce artificial input materials (fertilizers, pesticides) and mitigate climate change due to carbon storage. These advantages have to be promoted to produce sustainable woodchips from SRC, enhancing the positive impacts of SRC to the environment. Thereby, the following sustainability aspects must be considered: SRC has most positive impacts on marginal land and especially as structural elements in the landscape, bordering for instance fields, roads, and electricity lines. The sustainability of the supply chains is specifically addressed in the project SRCplus. The SRCplus project contributes to remove the non-technological barriers of SRC development in Europe through the support of implementing local SRC supply chains. Thereby, synergies with other agricultural uses, ecosystem services and nature conservation measures are exploited. This paper presents the final results of the SRCplus project., Proceedings of the 25th European Biomass Conference and Exhibition, 12-15 June 2017, Stockholm, Sweden, pp. 143-149

The Upgrade DH project supports the upgrading and retrofitting process of DH systems in different climate regions of Europe, covering various countries: Bosnia-Herzegovina, Denmark, Croatia, Germany, Italy, Lithuania, Poland, and The Netherlands. The objective of the project is to initiate the upgrading process of concrete DH systems in each of the target countries, the so-called Upgrade DH demonstration cases (demo cases). The gained knowledge and experiences will be further replicated to other European countries and DH systems (replication cases) in order to leverage the impact. Core activities of the Upgrade DH project include the collection of the best upgrading measures and tools, the support of the upgrading process for selected district heating networks, the organisation of capacity building measures about DH upgrading, financing and business models, as well as the development of national and regional action plans. In addition, an image raising campaign for modern DH networks is carried out in the Upgrade DH project. The outcome is the initiation of district heating upgrading process in the above-mentioned target countries and beyond. The present paper summarizes the results of the pre-feasibility studies of the demo cases., Proceedings of the 28th European Biomass Conference and Exhibition, 6-9 July 2020, Virtual, pp. 890-893

The Upgrade DH project supports the upgrading and retrofitting process of DH systems in different climate regions of Europe, covering various countries: Bosnia-Herzegovina, Denmark, Croatia, Germany, Italy, Lithuania, Poland, and The Netherlands. The objective of the project is to initiate the upgrading process of concrete DH systems in each of the target countries, the so-called Upgrade DH demonstration cases (demo cases). The gained knowledge and experiences are further replicated to other European countries and DH systems (replication cases) in order to leverage the impact. Core activities of the Upgrade DH project include the collection of the best upgrading measures and tools, the support of the upgrading process for selected district heating networks, the organisation of capacity building measures about DH upgrading, financing and business models, as well as the development of national and regional action plans. In addition, an image raising campaign for modern DH networks is carried out in the Upgrade DH project. The outcome is the initiation of district heating upgrading process in the above-mentioned target countries and beyond. The present paper summarizes the results of the project, which is close to its finalization., Proceedings of the 29th European Biomass Conference and Exhibition, 26-29 April 2021, Online, pp. 1333-1337

The TRACER project supports a number of coal-intensive regions around Europe to design (or re-design) their Research and Innovation (R&I) strategies in order to facilitate their transition towards a sustainable energy system. The TRACER consortium consists of different target regions: South East Bulgaria, North West Bohemia - Czech Republic, Lusatian Lignite District - Germany, Western Macedonia - Greece, Upper Silesian Coalfield - Poland, West Region, Jiu Valley - Romania, Wales – UK, Kolubara - Serbia, Donetsk - Ukraine. Core activities of TRACER include the implementation of an EDP (Entrepreneurial Discovery Process) to mobilise a wide range of stakeholders in each target region to develop an appropriate governance structure and to bring regional stakeholders together to discuss and agree on a shared vision and priorities for coal transition. R&I strategies, industrial roadmaps and decision support tools will be developed jointly with key stakeholders of the TRACER target regions. Further TRACER activities include the identification and analysis of best practice examples of successful and ambitious transition processes in coal intensive regions, a detailed assessment of social, environmental and technological challenges, the elaboration of guidelines on how to mobilise investment as well as dedicated activities to stimulate R&I cooperation among coal intensive regions in Europe and beyond., Proceedings of the 28th European Biomass Conference and Exhibition, 6-9 July 2020, Virtual, pp. 936-940

Small modular district heating/cooling grids can be fed by different heat sources, including solar collectors, biomass systems and surplus heat sources (e.g. heat from industrial processes or biogas plants that is not yet used). Especially the combination of solar heating and biomass heating is a very promising strategy for smaller rural communities due to its contribution to security of supply, price stability, local economic development, local employment, etc. On the one hand, solar heating requires no fuel and on the other hand biomass heating can store energy and release it during winter when there is less solar heat available. Thereby, heat storage (buffer tanks for short-term storage and seasonal tanks/basins for long-term storage) needs to be integrated. With increasing shares of fluctuating renewable electricity production (PV, wind), the Power-to-Heat conversion through heat pumps can furthermore help to balance the power grid. The objective of the CoolHeating project, funded by the EU’s Horizon2020 programme, is to support the implementation of "small modular renewable heating and cooling grids" for communities in South-Eastern Europe., Proceedings of the 25th European Biomass Conference and Exhibition, 12-15 June 2017, Stockholm, Sweden, pp. 1896-1898