Residents Owned Heat Cooperatives to Push Urban Decarbonisation

The project aims to research and develop a prototype of an innovative organisation model for decarbonisation of heat supply in urban neighbourhoods based on heating cooperatives (HeatCOOP). The project addresses the organisational, financial, and legal challenges that building owners face who want to decarbonize their neighbourhood. An organizational prototype is developed based on the cooperative model, which has proven to be successful for more than 150 years in Europe. In this case, the innovative aspect includes bringing together building owners and residents of an urban district to form a heating cooperative (“heat transition community”). In contrast to current energy communities that focus on power, the high initial investment costs and co-ownership of the heating infrastructure pose a major challenge. To tackle these challenges organisational and legal models as well as business and financial model are developed. HeatCoops provide a solution to the challenges many urban residents are facing right now: Climate change due to excessive CO2 emissions and fossil fuel dependency on autocratic governments. By joining a HeatCoop, residents collectively reduce CO2 emissions and end dependence on fossil fuels while saving on energy costs. The concept of collaboration within the organisational, legal, and financial frame of a heating cooperative becomes a key factor for participation in transformative processes. The concepts and models that we develop during the HeatCoop project are tested in three Living Labs in all participating countries: Austria, Czech Republic, and Slovenia. Individual cooperatives for heating infrastructure will be developed together with citizens of each Living Lab - based on templates. As we see a demand and a high market potential, we want to build on our findings and experiences, refine and optimize the prototype and ultimately promote this concept on a national and European level.