On Wednesday, 30th of November, Eurocrowd hosted the PowerPoor Brokerage Event: Providing solutions to energy challenges, within the framework of the PowerPoor project. We were excited to bring together more than 100 participants from all over Europe with an hybrid online-offline format and facilitate the discussion on how innovative financing mechanism can tackle the energy crisis. 

Achille Hannoset, DG Ener, opened the discussion explaining the European strategy for achieving the energy transition, measures to alleviate energy poverty and the REPowerEU programme. He highlighted how it is crucial to accelerate the energy transition by mobilising private and public investment.

Between 2021 and 2027, more than 58 billon will be allocated to different EU programmes, such as Life Clean Energy Transition, Renewable Energy Financing Mechanism, HORIZON EUROPE Climate, Energy and Mobility, and more. This was remarked by Silvia Viverelli, Senior Project Adviser of CINEA, who supports energy poverty mitigation and energy communities. Some of these programmes aim at scaling up collective financing tools for energy cooperatives and communities.

At the event, 15 European projects presented how they are working to boost energy communities and combat energy poverty. Participants discovered different initiatives in the energy field and learned the outcomes and results of successful EU-funded projects. Some of the remarks from the discussion were:

• How Europe is providing solutions to the current energy challenges
• How to bring energy poverty projects into local actions
• The importance of boosting citizen participation in the development of renewable energy 
• Future opportunities to achieve the energy transition

The participants also highlighted the importance of the democratization of energy projects. Although the implementation of large-scale renewable energy projects is still necessary to achieve the energy transition, it is absolutely vital to support local projects that facilitate citizens' participation. We learned how crowdfunding has established itself as a relevant mechanism for financing projects related to the energy sector, playing a significant role in energy communities or actions to increase energy efficiency

Finishing the day with the Pitching Sessions, the participants presented new project ideas facilitating the final discussions and enabling future collaboration to accelerate the just energy transition at European level.

EU-Funded projects showcased during the event:

• PowerPoor: Empowering EU citizens in alleviating energy poverty
• Enpor: Actions to Mitigate Energy Poverty in the Private Rented Sector
• SocialWatt: Connecting Obligated Parties to Adopt Innovative Schemes towards Energy Poverty Alleviation
• EmpowerMed: Empowering women to take action against energy poverty in the Mediterranean
• DECIDE: Developing Energy Communities through Informative anD collEctive actions
• ACCEPT: ACtive Communities & Energy Prosumers for the energy Transition
• ComAct: Community Tailored Actions for Energy Poverty Mitigation
• RESINDUSTRY: Policies for Renewable Energy Sources in industry
• SUITE - SCALING UP ASSIST: Social operators mitigating energy poverty
• Energy Poverty Advisory Hub: Understanding and Addressing Energy Poverty
• CITIZEE: Scaling up Public Energy Efficiency Investments via Standardising Citizen Financing Schemes
• stream SAVE: Streamlining Energy Savings Calculations
• NEVERMORE: New Enabling Visions and tools for End- useRs and stakeholders thanks to a common MOdeling appRoach towards a climatE neutral and resilient society
• Sun4All: Eurosolar for all - energy communities for a fair energy transition in Europe
• PROSPECT +: Capacity building for cities and regions