As part of the European Sustainable Energy Week (EUSEW) 2025, the oPEN Lab project participated in two sessions focused on enabling the transition to Positive Energy Neighbourhoods (PENs). These sessions brought together city representatives, researchers, policymakers, and innovators to share insights and strategies for building climate-neutral and socially inclusive urban environments.
Breaking free from the pilot trap
The EUSEW 2025 session, “Escaping the Pilot Trap: How Cities Can Scale Clean Energy Solutions by Designing for Bankability,” was introduced and moderated by Dominic Stephen, Local Energy Systems Consultant at Bax Innovation. The session addressed challenges cities face in scaling local energy projects such as energy communities, positive energy neighbourhoods, and industrial energy hubs in Europe, transitioning from initial pilot demonstrators to widespread implementation across a city or region. The session focused on the gap between technical feasibility and financial scalability in local energy projects.
City Experiences:
- Rotterdam: Daisy Visser (Innovative Economy Project Manager) shared the city’s efforts to support local start-ups, with an emphasis on talent access, market access, capital, media exposure, and networks.
- Aarhus: Søren Winther Lundby (Energy & Climate Project Manager) presented the city’s journey towards climate neutrality by 2030, focussing on its recent “Aarhus Climate Company” model to scale up municipal solar PV through the creation of a publicly-sponsored SPV financing vehicle
- Pamplona: Leyre Iriarte Oyaga (Project and Strategy Officer) discussed the city’s energy community model, focusing on citizen engagement, legal complexities, and the role of local authorities in facilitating energy transition efforts.
- Genk: Pieter Bosmans (Senior Researcher & Project Manager) addressed how Genk’s living labs are attempting to overcome the legacy of fossil fuel-based heating infrastructure and energy renovation, despite outdated and counterproductive policy.
Investor Perspectives
Magnus Agerström (Manager, Cleantech Scandinavia) then outlined the investment gap needed to achieve climate neutrality across cities, emphasising the need for capital mobilisation through institutional investors, green bonds, and public-private partnerships.
Panel Discussion
Dominic then facilitated a panel discussion, where panelists proactively discussed key principles for public sector-driven local energy project design for scalability and bankability, ensuring long-term success and wide adoption.
Watch the full session here.
The missing piece: how sufficiency complements EU energy goals
The EUSEW 2025 session “The missing piece: how sufficiency complements EU energy goals” focused on energy sufficiency, a systemic approach to shaping the places that make up our communities, housing and energy policies, and the way we think about “enough”.
Emily B. (BPIE – Buildings Performance Institute Europe , ComActivate Project) shared how tools like Neighbourhood Energy Sufficiency Roadmaps and local Resource Centres are essential tools connecting stakeholders with the resources they need to understand and embark on renovations for better energy sufficiency across neighbourhoods. As she put it: “Sufficiency means enough for everyone, forever.”
Katarzyna Jasik-Caínzos (Habitat for Humanity Europe & Middle East, ComActivate Project) called for a shift in how the EU approaches vacant buildings, proposing a unified framework to map and convert unused spaces into affordable homes, embedded in the renovation wave and backed by community-driven governance. Her call was for “Access over ownership.”
Pieter Bosmans (VITO, oPEN Lab) demonstrated how neighbourhood-scale renovations can preserve heritage, lower emissions, and future-proof homes. His message: if sufficiency is to scale, collective systems and smart investments are key so that homes are not only efficient, but heat-pump ready and socially inclusive.
Energy sufficiency isn’t about limits; it’s about designing systems that serve people and planet. With the right policy signals, we can make better use of the buildings we already have, fight energy poverty, and tackle emissions.
Watch the full session here.
