City Stories by Energy Cities

Food is our everyday fuel and we often don’t really know in detail how it has come to our plate. In our Energy Cities network, many cities are figuring out healthy and local food can be provided to everyone and how to grow awareness around it. Albertville in the French Alps is one of those cities. Albertville counts around 20,000 inhabitants and is running several programs as part of its sustainab...

There is this one shirt that you won’t wear anymore. It’s too good to be thrown away, but is there any alternative in your town? Each European generates 16 kilos of clothing and shoe waste per year, but only about 15 % is separately collected. The rest still ends up in mixed household waste. That’s why many European cities struggle with that textile waste: Shirts, shoes and towels pollute through...

In many European cities, residents struggle to find affordable housing, whether it’s for rent or purchase. And paradoxically, at the same time, many cities register a growing number of real estate space that is empty and unused. How can we better match housing supply with demand? And how can public administrations regain control over the housing stock? We asked Mr Dennis de Vries, who was our gues...

Today we’re heading to Central Greece, to the municipality of Domokos. Domokos with its 9000 inhabitants is the recent winner of the Covenant of Mayors award. I’m joined by the Mayor of Domokos Mr Liolios and his colleague Mrs. Zisopoulou from the Mayor’s Office. Together, they’ll walk us through the project that earned them the award: how it came about, who got involved, and what it really takes...

In this episode of City Stories, I’m joined by two community energy experts I know well and I loved working with lately: my colleague Anna Francis from Energy Cities and Dimitris Katsakaprakis from Minoan Energy Community, the biggest energy community in Greece. Together, we’ve been working in the LIFE LOOP project, helping cities and communities set up joint local renewable energy projects. We’ll...

In this episode we interview Ilkka Räsänen, a 63-year old jovial Fin who is one of the innovation leaders in his municipality. Electricity prices in Finland are amongst the cheapest in Europe and one reason for Finland’s big move towards electrification of heat. lkka Rasanen works for the municipality of Lappeenranta in the South East of Finland. The 700.000 inhabitants are essentially getting the...

This is quite a special episode of City Stories: Our host Miriam Eisermann moderated a live session with city makers recorded on the occasion of Energy Cities’ 35th anniversary and the Annual Forum in Besançon. Tune in to the discussions around community engagement and also what role AI can or cannot play in participation and citizen engagement. In this episode you will see that cities and citizen...

Mechelen has already started its heat journey a while ago. The goal? To switch to a renewable heat supply for all its buildings by 2050. But what political strategies, resources and players does it take to make such a municipal heat shift happen? Ighor Vandevyver may have some answers: Ighor belongs to the climate team of the municipality of Mechelen. When you hear him talk about the city’s very r...

The shortage of decent and affordable housing, both for purchase and rental, is getting deeper and deeper. Millions of homes in the EU need urgent renovations. But how can we scale up retrofitting efficiently? How can local governments best guide the citizens who would like to improve their home’s energy performance? One-stop-shops are seen as a powerful tool and I’m delighted to have a one-stop-s...

At the next 2025 Annual Forum, many European cities will gather in Besançon. Over two days, cities will exchange knowledge with each other and with other experts. Challenges and strategies to tackle them, concrete practices, tools with tangible outcomes, and thought-provoking discussions—this is what we have prepared for you at this event. Join us: https://annualforum.energy-cities.eu/agenda/ To g...

This is our second and final episode on how energy poverty affects people not only financially but also through poor health. In the previous episode we looked into coping strategies and needs of people in energy poverty. In this current episode we want to discuss the different pathways we can take for making people’s lives at home healthier. This show is about how local governments can provide ans...

Since the energy crisis started a few years ago, we hear more often about energy or fuel poverty. But how often do we talk about the concrete challenges and also the coping strategies of the people affected by it? And what does it mean for people’s health when they live in very cold or very hot homes? Our guests today are two brilliant researchers from the University of Leeds: Lucie Middlemiss and...

No risk, no fun. No risk, no failure… This is what experienced somme energy community pioneers on the Aland islands, an archipelago between Finland and Sweden. In the municipality of Kökar, an energy community around solar, urban wind and storage was meant to bring new flexibility to the island’s energy system. You will hear that this has turned into a bad adventure with 1 or 2 strong and loud opp...

Ugo and Franjo are, respectively, President and Manager of this energy cooperative called Apsyrtides. In this episode they tell us how community work is driving their island’s energy transition, but also how Croatian law is still not ready for it. They are about to design a voucher model in cooperation with the water management company to allow residents to co-finance smaller solar projects. We al...

The wind has turned again for energy communities in Greece: a recent change in law now forbids, for example, the participation of businesses. This shift leaves more than one community energy initiative puzzled. And still, community leaders keep on fighting for it as a means to bring environmental and social sustainability – ultimately also as a means to turn the blurry degrowth concept into someth...

Today we are in Zwolle, around 1h20 drive from Amsterdam. The town of 130.000 inhabitants has a beautiful medieval centre. Today’s guest, Olaf Heinen, lives in the neighbourhood of Assendorp, more specifically in the area of Sallandsweide. This area is composed of very different types of houses and holds a very diverse group of residents. This is also where most of the city’s low-income people liv...

Some say the energy transition is a great opportunity to create a more equal society. Others are more pessimistic and predict that the transition will worsen inequalities. How does reality look like and what solutions do we already have at hand to guarantee fair access and good lives to all, no matter their income, race, religion, gender? I’m delighted to talk about inclusive cities and communitie...

We all try to make green choices for a more sustainable world. And so do local authorities as public buyers. Through public procurement authorities buy work, goods or services. Green public procurement means those authorities use their purchasing power to support the clean energy transition. In this episode of City Stories, Efren Guillò Sansano who is the Head of Innovation at the Spanish cooperat...

This episode is with Carlo Tacconelli. Carlo is an international energy expert and CEO of EnGreen, anItalian renewables start-up. Carlo has 16 years of experience in distributed renewable energy systems in Europe and in developing countries. Carlo shares some of that experience in this episode, with a special focus on the incredible power of energy communities. We left our conversation with much o...

He is an ultra-runner and an ultra-communicator. When Michal Svoboda talks to Mayors about new energy practices he demonstrates both, endurance and creativity. This Czechman who used to work for the leading big energy company is now a fervent advocate of local renewable energy. Michal is an energy consultant and involved in several municipal networks. He also participated in the recent creation of...

For this episode we traveled to Croatia: From Zagreb it takes between one and two hours by car to the much smaller towns of Koprivnica, Varazdin and Virovitica in the North-East of Croatia. It's in Koprivnica, a city of 30.000 inhabitants, where today’s guest Ivan Simic lives and works. Ivan is managing director of the regional energy agency REA North. The energy agency supports the three city cou...

Mantova, West of Venice, is a beautiful city with a UNESCO protected core. Unfortunately, it is also surrounded by three artificial lakes that suffer from last century pollution. But the local administration is determined to give nature back to citizens both in and around the city centre. The city even already hosted the World Forum on Urban Forests! In Mantova, the journey to carbon neutrality st...

Mise à part son excellence culinaire, la région métropolitaine a également été reconnue par la Commission européenne comme étant un leader climatique. Elle fait partie de 100 villes phares en matière de climat. Mon invité aujourd'hui est Jean-Patrick Masson, vice-président chargé de la transition énergétique à Dijon Métropole. Jean-Patrick est l'un des moteurs politiques de sa région et très actif...

What do you think of when you hear Dijon? Mustard? Wine? Certainly not energy planning, right? Yes, Dijon is located in the famous Burgundy region and it is known for quite some delicious goods. But it’s good you’ve tuned in today: food and drinks are not the only thing in which this city and its surroundings excel. The Metropolitan area has also been recognised by the European Commission as a cli...

In this episode we welcome Cristina Daniel who is the managing director of the regional energy agency ENA – Energy and Environment Agency of Arrábida in Portugal. ENA connects the dots between 3 municipalities that are located within the Lisbon Metropolitan Area and the agency helps those cities with their energy and environmental strategy. How is this meant to improve the lives of around 250.000...