URBAN LEARNING gathers capitals and other large cities across Europe facing the common challenge of considerable population growth while being committed to significantly reduce fossil energy consumption and CO2 emissions. E.g. Stockholm grew by more than 12.000 people / a (1.5%); in the next 10 years Vienna has to build for 200.000 new people. Efficient and effective planning processes will be crucial for climbing this mountain. Vienna, Berlin, Paris, Stockholm, Amsterdam/Zaanstad, Warsaw and Zagreb aim to enhance the capacity of their local authorities on integrative urban energy planning, as response to new challenges from EU EPBD and RES directives as well as to changes of technologies and market conditions and the pressure to provide sufficient, affordable homes. The focus is put on the governance processes related to the (re-)development of concrete sites. While some cities already started ambitious urban development projects, the institutionalisation of these experiences is missing - despite awareness and willingness, due to lack of knowledge, lack of time and the need for collaboration across departments, which is not a common practice in many administrations in Europe. External stimulus is needed to overcome these barriers, and to address these issues collectively with external key stakeholders, such as DNOs and energy suppliers, and across cities. Focus will be on multi-disciplinary learning – concentrating on innovative technological solutions, instruments and tools as well as on innovative governance elements - and to capitalise this learning to institutionalise integrative urban energy planning. Improving the governance processes is expected to have significant energy impacts on homes and workplaces to be built and refurbished for over 3 million more people in the participating cities in the next 20 years: more than 1.700 GWh/a of energy savings and over 2.000 GWh/a renewable energy produced. Special emphasis is put on knowledge transfer to 150 more cities.

The untapped potential of energy efficiency will be addressed by the GEAR@SME consortium by substantiating the role of a local Trusted Partner to bridge the gap between SMEs (demand side) and suppliers of energy services toward SMEs (supply side) such that SMEs will effectively undergo energy audits and implement energy saving measures. The Trusted Partner will be supported by the GEAR@SME methodology, which aims to catalyse the implementation of energy efficiency measures by taking a local, collective approach based on multiple benefits, tailored to the specific locality. After demonstrating the effectiveness of the common methodology in four use cases, large-scale rollout will be supported by an online platform offering documentation, stand-alone tools, and an interactive platform to support a Community of Practice for Trusted Partners. The GEAR@SME methodology will be tested and validated in four countries (Germany, Italy, Netherlands and Romania), reaching out to a minimum of 300 SMEs per location. While four locations will be targeted within the project as use case, another 80 locations will be reached through the communication and exploitation activities within project lifetime. Beyond project lifetime, another 600 locations will be reached through dissemination events and the online portal. The GEAR@SME consortium has extensive expertise on activating, organising and enabling SMEs to take energy efficiency actions, from concept to validation to implementation. The team includes research organisations (TNO, C-MAC), consultancies with expertise on SMEs and energy efficiency (CIT, CCS). Validation of the methodology will be carried out by CCS, C-MAC, BEA and SERVELECT all of whom have track records in engaging with SMEs on energy issues. Finally, an exploitation strategy and further roll out will be carried out by SYNYO and multiplier organisations (CNA, CLOK and TUCN).

The ProRetro project aims to - Overcome barriers to residential building refurbishment by offering new one-stop-shop services to customers in five German cities/regions - base the one-stop-shop design on the needs of customers so that - they are attractive to customers, - conceptualise, plan, implement and monitor and evaluate the new one-stop-shops - prepare their continuation beyond the project lifetime - cover the whole customer journey of a building renovation from audit/advice, planning, contracting, implementation and monitoring and approval – and involve respective stakeholders/experts in the service offer - build on information and experiences in designing and implementing one-stop shops from best practice examples in other European countries and establish peer-learning structures with those organisations

Energy Performance Contracting (EPC) is a proven model for modernizing mostly public buildings by ESCOs with guaranteed energy and cost savings. Nevertheless, a broad roll-out of EPC is being prevented mainly because of two unresolved issues: the split incentives dilemma and the lack of adequately flexible contract models. The guarantEE project will address prevailing barriers to EPC in a team of 14 experienced partners, covering large parts of Europe in a mix of advanced and emerging ESCO markets. Based on a concise market analysis, guarantEE will develop innovative business and financing models addressing and overcoming the split incentives dilemma in performance based ESCO projects. This will be done by adequately sharing costs and benefits between user, building owner and ESCO (triple-win approach), thus opening up new project opportunities. Furthermore, EPC contract variants will be elaborated and tested, addressing the need for enhanced flexibility (e.g. exit clauses, simplified M&V, future energy market needs, storage). The target groups are public and – especially in advanced EPC markets – private sector clients. The developed models will be applied in 33 pilot projects involving private and public building owners. The project will achieve 78 GWh PE and 18000 tCO2 savings per year and will trigger investments of >11 M€. Particularly in emerging EPC markets, guarantEE will support market development by providing standards, an online EPC pre-check, good practice examples, EPC information and project facilitation for mainly municipal clients. Broad dissemination activities, including the European Energy Service Award, will maximise the project visibility. The project will address or consult at least 1000 building owners and EPC facilitators and will inform at least 2000 energy sector stakeholders on EPC. The guarantEE project will unlock additional EPC project opportunities, contribute to standardisation, and provide political advice and steps towards a common energy service market in Europe.