Sunrise project – Plug-in PV systems

The project is implemented in the period 01.11.2022 – 30.04.2025 by a consortium with the lead organization Initiative for Housing in Eastern Europe (IWO) and partners from Habitat Bulgaria, Lithuanian Consumers Alliance (LCA), Habitat for Humanity International (HFHI), German Solar Energy Company (DGS) and Habitat Macedonia. The project’s primary objective is to address and overcome barriers hindering the adoption by households in multi-family residential buildings of renewable energy, with a specific focus on solar energy.
The project advocates for the implementation of tools that facilitate and incentivize households to adopt plug-in PV systems. This includes the introduction of net metering for energy production and consumption on an annual basis. The project aims to contribute to the European Union’s ambitious targets of achieving a 55% reduction in greenhouse gas emissions by 2030 and attaining carbon neutrality by 2050. Its importance is evident in the current context, where soaring energy prices put an emphasis on utilizing renewable energy for electricity generation, even at the household level.
LONG-TERM IMPACT
The introduction of PROSUMER – PRODUCING CONSUMER contributes to:
• reduced carbon emissions, environmental benefits and security for households and society in general;
• cheaper energy bills, energy autonomy;
• unleashing private investment in renewable energy;
• small-scale installations will help people realize that they can influence the energy transition together..
MAIN GOAL
• Increase the use of renewable energy in the residential sector by individual homeowners or tenants – a PROSUMER approach – a producing energy consumer.
This project is part of the European Climate Initiative (EUKI). EUKI is a project funding instrument of the German Federal Ministry for Economic Affairs and Climate Protection (BMWK). The EUKI competition for project ideas is run by the German Society for International Cooperation (GIZ). The overall objective of EUKI is to promote climate cooperation within the European Union (EU) in order to reduce greenhouse gas emissions. www.euki.de/en
PRINCIPAL ACTIVITIES
• Identifying challenges and opportunities for community participation in the implementation of renewable energy in the housing sector;
• Capacity building;
• Identifying and disseminating solutions for financing renewable energy sources and a PROSUMER – PRODUCING CONSUMER approach in the residential sector;
• Raising awareness and installation of plug-in PV systems as a demonstration of a use case.
GROUP 1
• Researching and analyzing of the legal and policy framework and its impact on the Prosumer – Producer Consumer approach to generating energy from renewable energy sources in partnering countries;
• Mapping stakeholders and creating an advisory group to improve the implementation of renewable energy in residential buildings in the target countries;
• Country-specific recommendations for Prosumer – Producer-led approaches in the housing sector (strategy documents).
GROUP 2
• Researching and mapping of target organizations working directly with consumers at building level (condominiums, professional house managers, consumer protection organizations);
• Developing a demand-driven training programme for target/participating organizations, with a focus on vulnerable users;
• Developing technical training materials and conduct training.
GROUP 3
• Mapping of financial products and services for RE at the homeowner/tenant level (loans, assistance programs, subsidies, grants, etc.);
• Assessing the financial potential of homeowners’ associations (HOAs) to implement smaller-scale RES;
• Disseminating and raising awareness of financing solutions for renewable energy equipment at homeowner/tenant level.
GROUP 4
• Conducting an entry and exit survey;
• Raising public awareness of plug-in PV systems, including:
1. production of an educational video and six infographics;
2. dataset of common images and texts for printed material;
3. an awareness campaign on social and traditional media.
• Installing 30-40 plug-in PV demonstration systems.
Learn what a plug-in PV system is and the benefits of using it by viewing the video and the gallery of six infographics.
Read more here: Project SUNRISE – Prosumer Solar Energy. Households producing household energy from the sun