Demonstration of a participatory renewable energy community to increase resilience

Austria's cities and municipalities are facing a variety of social, ecological and economic challenges: the effects of climate change, demographic change, growing social inequalities and coping with structural change or - especially at the moment - pandemics can jeopardise the infrastructural supply of cities in the long term. The introduction of the Renewable Expansion Act will open up the possibility of forming energy communities in the future. These were created, among other things, by the idea of creating incentives to make private capital available for the expansion of renewable energies through additional incentives and, on the other hand, to financially reward behaviour that benefits the system (consumption at times of high renewable production). These trends have therefore been taken up in the recently launched Smart City project "RES² Community" and are being researched in a real-life setting in the market town of Neudörfl in Burgenland.

A renewable energy community in Neudörfl is being developed through the involvement of local stakeholders in a participatory design and thus tailored to the needs of future participants. Awareness-raising on the topics of energy transition and climate protection, the synergetic use of energy technology facilities in the sense of a crisis-proof supply as blackout prevention and new open communication standards for real-time data are part of the research activities in the project. Another important component is the cross-energy source implementation (electricity and heat).