While it’s widely accepted that energy efficiency investments are not only necessary from an environmental point of view but also convenient in terms of expected return and payback times, it’s still difficult to attract private finance that can boost the energy transition process on a large scale in the retail sector and supermarkets is just a good example of it. Of the total operating costs of a supermarket, which include purchasing merchandise, employee salaries, and more, energy can account for between 10% and 15%, which is huge for a business that operates such tight margins. SUPER-HEERO develops an innovative collaborative and scalable financial scheme based on i) Citizen financing through a crowd-funding/co-operative scheme building upon the loyalty programs in the supermarkets and implementing gamification strategies, ii) Strategic partnerships with ESCOs and utilities to support financially the energy efficiency investments on the basis of the benefits of engaging a large base of energy users through the supermarket co-operative program, iii_ Engagement of technology providers in performance-based schemes that allow them to profit from their products/technologies through innovative circular business models (e.g. leasing, Technology as a service) while making the technology more affordable and accessible for supermarket and similar business. In this way, SUPER-HEERO provides an instrument for supermarkets to access the much-needed funding that allows implementation of energy efficiency strategies and unlocks the potential of energy savings over 40%, which in turn would materialize in economic, social and environmental gains.

LIGHTNESS will increase the Renewable Energy hosting capacity, to securely achieve the EU target for 2030, by supporting the market uptake of Citizen Energy Communities through a turnkey social engagement, regulatory roadmap, low-cost technological package and innovative business models to unlock the full flexibility potential, reduce the final energy consumption and CO2 emissions and bring economic, social and environmental benefits to the communities and across the energy value chain. LIGHTNESS solution will elaborate and execute ambitious end users engagement plans for the involved sites with continuous iterations and solution adaptation to achieve a direct engagement of +500 households and +30 tertiary buildings and an immediate replication potential to over 70.000 persons. LIGHTNESS solution will create digital twins for holistic assessment of 5 CECs case studies across 5 countries to be then deployed and monitored. Case studies consist in an energy cooperative (ES), a social housing building (PL), a private multi-apartment building (IT), a business park (FR) and 2 CECs to uphold the interaction among them (NL). The different regulatory and policy frameworks will allow to exchange best practices and providing road maps for the authorities. Overall, LIGHTNESS will engage +3000 end users, professionals, policy makers in EU, will consent a minimum 25% increase of renewable hosting capacity by making available up to 20% of flexibility in peak times from residential and tertiary buildings, will reduce up to 30% the Prosumers and CECs energy cost and up to 30% of CAPEX and OPEX costs for DSOs. LIGHTNESS has received the support from 59 organisations from which we can highlight EPEX-Spot, STEDIN, LIANDER, ACCIONA, VEOLIA, BAM, 10 EU cities, 9 energy agencies, 9 energy cooperatives, and 3 extra EU replicators from India, Turkey and Africa/America.The project management structure is gender balanced with two women and two men serving in the positions of responsibility.

The LEGOFIT project aims to design, implement and validate an advanced and dynamic integrative approach to accomplish EPH based on smart and innovative solutions with a high scalability and replicability for building construction and renovation, through: i) developing an innovative holistic design platform that encompass not only passive and active technologies but also their integration for smartest exchange of information and interoperability of systems based on Building Information Modelling (BIM), available for both professionals and end-users, ii) integrating active and passive strategies (e.g. envelope, HVAC systems, integrated solutions, including nature based solutions, etc.) with smart management technologies (BAS, BMS) for climate neutral and high energy building performance providing maximum flexibility to users iii) investigating innovative routes for promoting minimum environmental impacts by the smart use of solid and liquid residues generated during building life cycle stages and iv) fostering sustainable stock of buildings by guaranteeing not only the fulfilment of sustainable criteria (economic, social, environmental) but also according to the enhancement of smart readiness of buildings. This innovative and integrated approach is demonstrated in 3+ demos across a range of geographical, cultural and construction stages/technological market maturity scenarios. The building typology focus is the residential sector, multifamily houses and dormitories, including both new and existing constructions. The involvement of professionals in the sector is ensured through the development of a community of stakeholders and an open innovation community for Building Energy System (BES) professionals. Training courses focused on the new positive energy house approaches will ensure a new generation of multidisciplinary team of experts on the topic.

PV4Plants boosts the energy-agricultural synergy of agriPV technologies to enhance growth conditions and increase land-use efficiency, crop yield and renewable energy generation. This is achieved by optimising the light transmission of PV panels through cutting edge nanoparticles spraying on the PV glass surface. PV4Plants system is specifically designed to meet healthy harvesting and to be adaptable to different climatic conditions and crop varieties that will be demonstrated in 3 highly replicable demo sites in Turkey, Spain and Denmark. PV4Plants optimises the system parameters (panels tilt, irrigation level, amount of fertilisers, etc) based on a multi-indicator real-time monitoring system that allows a continuous improvement of the microclimate underneath the agriPV panels to increase crop health and yield. Recyclability and reutilization of components and materials both for the manufacturing and End of Life of the PV4Plants system are central aspects of the project. The PV4Plants system will be certificated through the Environmental Product Declaration (EPD), compliance with ISO 14021 and the Sustainability Excellence Label by UNEF. Finally, PV4Plants will boost its market penetration and uptake through innovative farmers' engagement strategies to enhance their acceptance and trust in innovative agriPV systems; new financing schemes and business models to improve investment performance and through a set of policy recommendations that will be developed together with public authorities to create new mechanism designed to accelerate the uptake of agriPV systems in Europe.