Greece is a gifted country when it comes to renewables and it was the first EU country to have a law on energy communities all the way back in 2018. In its national energy and climate plan, the Greek government has set a target of in self-consumption by 2030. We wanted to know how this translates into concrete action on the ground and did a virtual travel to Ilioupoli. Ilioupoli is a sub-urban municipality in the Athens area. It counts 80.000 residents. 

For this episode we met two of them: Thanos Katsonis works for the local government of Ilioupoli, and Chris Vrettos is driving force of the social cooperative Electra Energy. They are just about to kick-start a community power organisation. How will they work collaboratively to increase the number of prosumers in Greece and – who knows – to bring other good things to the local community? Thanos and Chris tell us how they push for a citizen energy culture and the steps necessary to achieve this.

This episode and the collaboration lab were made possible thanks to funding from the European Climate Foundation (ECF). The ECF is an international non-profit and its great team promotes climate and energy policies in Europe. In 2019, the European Climate Foundation launched its Energy Democracy program. It focuses on the support of community energy projects both at the EU and national levels. europeanclimate.org

ECF collaboration lab episode: Community power through virtual net metering in Athens area

Welcome to City Stories, the podcast by Energy Cities. Energy Cities is the European city network of local authorities in energy transition with over 1000 members from 30 countries. This podcast is for those who want to learn more about how cities go about with the energy transition. The challenge is big, but there are so many new, collaborative practices that emerge and that make this challenge fun and feasible. Each month we invite passionate European guests from different horizons and sectors who dedicate much of their time to making the energy transition more democratic. Each conversation brings out a city’s story as well as very personal opinions and motivations. The podcast is moderated by Miriam Eisermann. It is available on Spotify, Google Podcasts and Apple Podcasts

ECF collaboration lab episode: Community power through virtual net metering in Athens area

City stories: The podcast by Energy Cities