Website: www.ieeprojects.net/treenity.html

The emergence of Sustainable Energy Communities (SECs) across Europe is important with respect to meeting the policy objectives within the areas increased energy efficiency, the uptake of renewable energy sources, better security of energy supply as well as the reduction of greenhouse gas emissions. The main reason being the decision-making authority that is placed with the local governments and municipalities in matters concerning long term planning, energy related infrastructure investments etc

There are a few critical factors that seem to be of general relevance to all successful SECs and the 3-NITY project suggests that the following needs to be in place for successful emergence of Sustainable Energy Communities:

• There is still a need to increase the quality of decision-making support tools to provide security for investments
• Quality management philosophies that support constant improvement
• Citizen involvement that creates momentum in market development

The 3-NITY project is supported by the Intelligent Energy - Europe programme.