News – MUSE DHC

Empowering the local grid for an energy-independent EU

Why community-led DHC is the catalyst for our clean future

The ongoing discussion surrounding EU energy policy has undergone a fundamental shift. While initial political strategies prioritised immediate fuel displacement and market stabilisation, long-term climate neutrality and economic independence demand a far deeper transformation. Decarbonising Europe requires moving beyond simple end-use efficiency to embrace a systemic structural redesign of our energy infrastructure.

Developing smart and integrated DHC infrastructures across the EU

Central to this transition is the rapid expansion of modern district heating and cooling (DHC) networks. Heating and domestic hot water still account for roughly a third of final energy demand across the continent, with three-quarters of that supply still bound to fossil fuels. True resilience cannot be built on individual, fragmented efforts alone; it requires an integrated approach where smart heating and cooling infrastructure connects local energy sources into a unified, flexible, and efficient network.

Achieving ambitious climate goals depends heavily on expanding collective thermal networks to cover a primary share of the urban heating and cooling market. The structural advantage of district energy lies in its unparalleled ability to bridge energy sectors—capturing low-grade heat that would otherwise be entirely wasted and directing thermal production into a single, highly efficient facility. Moving away from fossil-fuel reliance is not merely a matter of installing standalone heat pumps in every living room; it requires building high-density thermal grids capable of leveraging diverse local energy sources. From waste heat and data centres to geothermal sources and solar thermal , modern energy systems thrive when they leverage every available local thermal resource through smart sector coupling.

While large-scale infrastructure forms the foundation of this energy transition, its success on the ground is dictated by community-led district heating networks. Smaller, localised systems managed or driven by citizens, municipal entities, cooperatives, and local action groups represent the true engine of thermal decarbonisation. This core realisation directly drove the creation of MUSE DHC: community-led initiatives across France, Ireland, Italy Netherlands and Spain align network expansion with local geography, building typologies, and available waste heat sources and renewable energies.

Addressing local grid challenges with specialised technical expertise

Small-scale networks face a unique set of operational challenges. Unlike massive centralised utility systems, community-owned networks operate with tight capital budgets, unique needs, and zero tolerance for standardised solutions that fail to adapt to their precise operational constraints.

For community-led thermal networks to succeed, they require more than standard solutions or generic software platforms. A small municipality or local cooperative attempting to integrate low-temperature waste heat, seasonal thermal storage, and address variable electricity prices needs expert guidance rooted in deep domain knowledge and optimisation model capable of answering specific financial questions.

Building an efficient third or five generation district heating network at community level requires highly customised strategies that reflect the precise technical and economic realities of that specific community. Success lies in tailored, high-performance solutions designed to maximise system efficiency, optimise the balance between economic and environmental benefits, and guarantee long-term supply security without burdening the operator with excessive complexity.

Navigating this transition and challenges requires partners who bring true, seasoned expertise to the table. Long before artificial intelligence became a dominant, OPTIT – one of the technical partners of the MUSE-DHC project – recognised the potential to build optimisation tools capable of driving decision-making across a broad spectrum of situations, making AI and machine-learning-based something with the potential to drive change and improve our well-being and stability. Leading and supporting the development of community-led district heating networks by joining the effort and objectives of the MUSE DHC project is a concrete example of the implementation of such a vision.

Technical support and community engagement are key to deliver the transition

The modern energy landscape moves fast, and community energy managers require partners who are equally agile and specialised. Whether integrating an unconventional industrial waste heat source, harnessing the potential of biomass, defining the optimal heat pump capacity, or designing a hybrid supply configuration, an adaptable and highly specialised team ensures that every thermal network reaches its peak economic and environmental performance.

The path toward a decarbonised, competitive, and autonomous EU is clear, but its execution relies on smart choices made at the local level. Community-led DHC networks stand as one of the most effective tools to eliminate fossil-fuel dependence, protect citizens from volatile energy markets, and build a sustainable energy foundation. By combining community-driven ambition with highly customised engineering strategies, deep domain expertise, and flexible technology, MUSE-DHC can lead the way toward Europe’s clean energy future.

The importance of a comprehensive business model for community-led DHC projects

Lessons from the MUSE-DHC case study in Larmor-Plage, France

Community-led district heating and cooling (DHC) projects need more than a promising energy source and a well-engineered system. They need a business model shaped around the place, the customers and the way the network will actually operate. The Larmor-Plage case study, developed within the EU-funded MUSE-DHC project, shows why that work must evolve alongside technical design: it helps turn a low-carbon concept into a service that can be financed, operated and trusted by citizens in the long term.

Start with the service, not just the technology

With an expected lifespan of 50 years, DHC networks are long-lived public-service infrastructure. Its performance depends on the relationship between local heat demand, supply technologies, network costs, electricity and fuel prices, customer connections and operating choices. A technically feasible scheme can still face difficult decisions such as affordability, social buy-in, risk allocation, financing and the value of preserving options for future needs.

Also, a useful governance model makes these connections visible. It gives citizens, public authorities, operators, funders and customers a shared basis for decisions about their local energy infrastructure.

Meanwhile, the development of a business model translating engineering assumptions into a long-term view of costs, revenues and risks is a continuous process. It should be updated as the project moves from feasibility into design, rather than treated as a final spreadsheet produced after the key choices have already been made. Each decision has an impact on this document and will need revision.

Larmor-Plage: a local system with several moving parts

At the Kerderff district in the city of Larmor-plage, the studied network will serve a new urban project and municipal buildings, alongside existing and new collective housing, including social housing. As work is ongoing, design (ESQ) updates are recurrent, updating the annual heat and hot-water demand to about 1.35 GWh across ten buildings. The planned network is approximately 1.18 kilometers long. That mix of building types and development stages makes connection assumptions central to both system sizing and revenue planning.

Local geology also shapes this business case. The feasibility work found that vertical boreholes, rather than groundwater-based geothermal energy, were the suitable geothermal option for the site. The concept combines a shallow-borehole field with heat pumps and solar thermal collectors. In the feasibility scenario, the concept included 30 boreholes, each 190 meters deep, and 800 m² of unglased solar collectors. As the project goes on, it is then tested how operating strategy and solar recharge affect performance, cost and the long-term thermal balance of the ground.

Project by Atelier Le Priol Architecte and Manergy

Compare scenarios before locking in costs

The design simulations exposed a trade-off that a single headline efficiency figure would hide. Some operating strategies improved heat-pump performance but risked drawing too much heat from the ground over time. Other options reduced that pressure but changed the contribution of heat pumps, solar recharge and backup heat. The design team therefore compared alternatives, including an option with 1,360 m² of solar collectors and another retaining 800 m² while limiting heat-pump capacity. The final technical scenario remained to be selected.

These choices have material financial consequences. The preliminary design phase estimate places total project investment at about €2.52 million for the 1,360 m² option and €2.391 million for the 800 m² option. These are design-stage estimates, not final tender prices; they require further technical studies and cost refinement. The design phase also shows that the budget objective appears difficult to meet with current information. That is exactly when a business model is most useful: it can test how capital costs, energy purchases, operating strategy, customer uptake and support mechanisms affect the project’s resilience, and show which assumptions deserve attention first.

Design for customers and for change – Living Lab effect

The network’s prospective customers have different profiles: schools and municipal facilities, new housing, and an elder-care facility. Their heat and hot-water needs do not peak in the same way. Choices about substation design, hot-water storage and peak-load management therefore influence equipment sizing, subscribed capacity, operating costs and the service customers receive. That is exactly when the MUSE-DHC Living Lab – local decision-making forums where citizens, municipalities, and local stakeholders decide over their energy infrastructure – come into action. Developed as part of the project, this committee allows stakeholders to take a central part within the business model decisions. Rather than imposing a predefined, top-down solution, this bottom-up approach ensures that both technical and business-model decisions are grounded in the needs, knowledge and priorities of the community, shaping the network locally. In this committee, this was where the idea of preserving the possibility of supplying cooling in the future was raised. Its recommendation is to avoid investing immediately in a cooling system before demand is established, while checking whether the buried network and plant layout can accommodate later adaptation. This indeed will have an impact on the business model in the end.

A tailored business model should connect these design decisions to a clear offer for each customer group: what the network supplies, how reliability is maintained, how prices are set and adjusted, and how responsibilities are shared. It should make the consequences of uncertainty legible, for example, if buildings connect later than planned or if future cooling demand does not emerge. Transparent scenarios help citizens and decision-makers understand both the benefits and the conditions attached to them.

From feasibility to a durable public service

The Larmor-Plage case study illustrates that a community-led DHC project does not have one fixed business model waiting to be discovered. The model is built through successive decisions: validating demand, comparing technical options, refining investment costs, planning finance and subsidies, defining operating arrangements, and agreeing how the service will work for customers. All of that being discussed in a transparent and bottom-up fashion between the relevant local stakeholders and updating this plan as things go on. Each stage should test the assumptions inherited from the previous one.

For MUSE-DHC, the lesson is practical. Tailoring a business model to local demand, resources and constraints helps project teams and the community identify risks before construction, explain trade-offs in a way stakeholders can use, and adapt the design without losing sight of affordability and long-term performance. Strong engineering makes a DHC system possible; but a strong, citizen-centred business model helps make it investable, dependable and valuable to the community it serves.

Stay tuned to know how the project will develop in the coming months!

Join the MUSE DHC free Support & Peer-to-Peer Coaching Programme!

This call is for you: become a MUSE DHC follower!

We are looking for motivated energy communities, energy cooperatives, small utilities or DHC operators, Local Administrations and other potential developers of district heating & cooling (DHC) projects to benefit from our inspiring experience, best-practices and knowledge gained along the way.

By becoming a follower case, you will learn first-hand from the direct experience of the MUSE DHC 9 real case studies in 5 European Countries of truly community-led DHC developments. The project’s transversality will support the set-up of efficient community-led DHC projects based on the MUSE DHC approach. Our method will allow wide replication of its results, no matter the size of the network, geographical location, or energy mix used.

APPLY TODAY!

Heating and cooling account for roughly 50% of EU energy consumption, with more than 75% coming from fossil fuels. Renewable and clean heating and cooling is a key enabler of a sustainable energy transition towards decarbonisation and energy autonomy in the current energy crisis. Increasing energy efficiency and sustainability of this sector is necessary to achieve the targets of the European Green Deal and the REPowerEU plan towards climate neutrality. Furthermore, doing so within an energy community reduces the cost of living and strengthens Europe’s autonomy. According to the European Commission, by participating in an energy community, an average household in Europe can save up to 1100 euros per year (European Commission, ‘Action Plan for Affordable Energy’, 2025).

Because heating and cooling is a fully localised sector, actions must be taken at the local level involving a variety of stakeholders and requiring solutions and technologies adapted to very specific local conditions. District Heating and Cooling (DHC) can be a very effective solution, applicable in a variety of contexts ranging from rural communities to neighbourhoods where the availability of so-called “waste heat sources” often creates extremely favourable conditions to harvest energy to avoid the use of fossil fuels. What is little known is that these projects do not necessarily require the intervention of large, structured and experienced utilities. The community energy concept is proven effective to foster the green transition, although its potential remains significantly untapped in heating and cooling.

By this, we aim to help you develop successful, new community-led district heating & cooling projects that will support the decarbonisation goal.

Scroll down to learn more about the call requirements and fill out the application form.

APPLY TODAY!

WHO CAN PARTICIPATE?

Any potential developer of a community-led DHC project, from all over the European Union, can apply to this call, namely photovoltaic-based (or using other types of renewable electricity) energy communities willing to add also heating & cooling supply to their portfolio, energy cooperatives, small utilities or DHC operators, Municipalities, Regions and other public authorities.

WHY TO APPLY?

Access key knowledge and expertise on the development of community-led district heating & cooling;
Receive direct peer-to-peer support and advice from our experts and engage with key stakeholders from the field;
Enlarge your network and get more visibility;
Speed up your path towards decarbonisation.

WHICH SUPPORT SHOULD I EXPECT?

The peer-to-peer coaching and support activities will start from your specific needs and different project partners will be activated to help you depending on the topics you would like to focus on.

You could, for example:

Receive peer-to-peer coaching with experts from the MUSE DHC team, including first-level technical feasibility of your project, business models and financial plans, reference best practices, etc.;
Learn about the step-by-step process to develop new community-led district heating & cooling projects, from citizen-led governance to technical and financial analysis;
Understand your local context with its key drivers and barriers;
Identify and engage with key stakeholders from your area;
Have exclusive access to studies and analyses conducted within the project;
Benefit from the project’s extensive networking channels to promote your case and engage with stakeholders.

Coaching and support activities will be held through online meetings, email exchange, phone calls or in-person meetings depending on the needs and opportunities.

FILL OUT THE FORM TO APPLY

Applications must be submitted exclusively by completing the following form by 16 November 2026.

The MUSE DHC project consortium will assess the applications received based on the following criteria:

Geographical balance
Commitment to a community-led approach, including the involvement of citizens and local stakeholders.
Main features of the local energy system
Level of experience in H&C decarbonisation plans, in energy strategies and in citizen and stakeholder engagement
Ambition, vision and objectives related to the development of community-led DHC.

TIMELINE

October 6^th, 2026 – Call published
November 16^th, 2026 – Deadline for submitting applications
November 23^rd, 2026 – Selection of the followers which will get support from MUSE DHC
November 30^th, 2026 – Signature of the Memorandum of Collaboration between MUSE DHC and the selected followers
January 2027 – Start of the support activities

Empowering your community-led District Heating & Cooling

Take the survey and let us know what you’d like to learn to develop a DHC in your area

Are you interested in developing a citizen-owned district heating and cooling (DHC) network?

Do you already know what you need to make it happen?

If you are interested, then our next initiative is made for you!

From November onwards, we will be offering free coachings online to energy communities and local and regional authorities interested in Community-led Heating and Cooling (CH&C). These peer-to-peer exchanges will cover several key topics that you need to develop such local system. These include citizen mobilisation, working with your local municipality, financing and business models, choices of technology, and many more.

Are you interested?

The sessions dates will be shared with you in the coming weeks. In the meantime, please help us provide you with sessions tailored to your needs – fill in the (very short) survey below before 2 November and let us know which topics you are most interested in! Thank you!

Survey for local and regional authorities

Survey for energy communities

Mobilising the local community: MUSE-DHC’s Living Labs

The MUSE DHC journey towards democratically owned district heating and cooling by residents has just started

There are countless reasons why we build communities. For protection, for efficiency, for emergence, for escaping loneliness, or simply because we are drawn to other people. Goethe – the German poet from the 18^th century – believed that the world is empty if one thinks only of mountains, rivers, and cities; It is to know someone who thinks and feels with us, and though distant, is close to us in spirit which makes Earth an inhabited garden. It is this same logic of community building that created MUSE-DHC, the European project to democratically decarbonise district heating systems. But why exactly is it better to decarbonise district heating through a community approach?

Firstly, for protection: Producing and consuming local energy locally protects citizens from volatile and expensive fossil fuels, due to the community’s power to control the price of their renewable energy. This is now more needed than ever. Since the onset of the US-Israel war on Iran, the EU’s energy bill has increased by €47 billion. According to the European Commission, this increase is “without a single molecule of energy in addition”, meaning that we are paying much higher bills for the same energy consumption. A community approach to renewable heating and cooling can immediately solve this issue.

Secondly, for efficiency: Communities can better pool resources together. Our national budgets are under heavy pressure, and maintaining the current level of public investment, with the existing taxation, will likely be insufficient to achieve our climate goals. However, by bringing citizens, municipalities, small businesses, and technical partners together, MUSE-DHC will be able to pool our resources and transition our societies using all the currently available funds.

Thirdly, to keep the benefits local: Community-led and financed renewable energy projects generate two to eight times more return for the local economy[1], compared to installations by external commercial developers. A community approach ensures that the product of our labour does not go into the pocket of a faceless investor, but remain instead within the community that built the project.

Lastly, and most importantly, building a district heating and cooling system as a community reinvigorates our democracies and strengthens the link between neighbours.

How are we mobilising the community?

MUSE-DHC is building energy democracy through a bottom-up governance and participation approach. Each of our nine case studies started their journey to develop democratically owned district heating by directly engaging the community.

As a first step, our partners brought together local citizens, municipalities, and small businesses across Ireland, the Netherlands, Italy, Spain, and France. The objective was to inform them about the project, identify their needs, and create a shared vision for renewable energy, and in particular district heating. By giving decision-making power directly to the local community, MUSE-DHC aims to create a truly democratic transition.

Once the local communities were engaged, the second step was to formalise and professionalise the local project through the creation of a Living Lab. Each “Lab” is composed of local community members and prioritises the technical and non-technical aspects of the project. Specifically, the lab enables citizens to decide upon the type of renewable energy, the timeline of the project, and the decision-making process to ensure equality among the community members. The communities participating in the Living Labs will make decisions over their local district heating, which will be implemented by the MUSE-DHC pilots.

What do we expect?

Contrary to traditional market actors – such as big businesses – by engaging the local community, giving them decision-making powers, and creating a regular forum for discussion, MUSE-DHC is creating a truly democratic renewable energy landscape.

We expect that this process will give back control to communities over their local resources and ensure stable prices, while cementing public trust in renewable energy, and strengthening the cooperation between citizens and their municipalities.

Stay tuned!

[1] https://energie-partagee.org/ressource/etude-retombees-eco-2/ ; https://www.rescoop.eu/uploads/rescoop/downloads/RWS_Wind_CDW.pdf

Europe’s journey towards 100% renewables

The new EU’s Electrification Action Plan (EAP) paves the way for the electrification of heating and cooling

Twenty-two years ago, in 2004 – before the onset of the economic crisis, and the COVID-19 pandemic – the European Union’s share of consumed renewable electricity stood at a meagre 15.9%. This was mainly because we still heavily depended on fossil fuel imports; they were cheap, and so we turned a blind eye to its devastating effect on our climate or our independence as a continent. In 2025, due in part to Europe’s awakening moment after two energy crises, the number of consumed renewable electricity reached 49.9%. Renewables provide us with our own source of energy (making us independent from other superpowers), is the cheapest form of energy and they offer us the possibility to leave a clean world for future generations.

However, electricity is only one part of the energy story. Our final consumption of energy – the energy that reaches the final consumer – only stands at 23%. This means that 77% of the energy that we all consume does not come in the form of electricity. This is a missed opportunity, considering the investments that the EU is making in energy storage, grids, and flexibility. Furthermore, other barriers remain to achieve 100% renewable energy, and better exploit electricity: Electricity often costs x3 more than gas (as electricity prices are still tagged to gas prices through what is known as ‘marginal pricing’), grid connections are slow, and companies are not adopting renewable energy fast enough.

To solve these issues, in July 2026, the European Commission has proposed an Electrification Action Plan (EAP). This Plan aims to reduce the price gap between electricity and fossil fuels and incentivise a faster uptake of renewable electricity, two objectives that the MUSE-DHC projects fully supports.

MUSE-DHC: the implementer

The purpose of MUSE-DHC is to facilitate the uptake of renewable district heating, including through electrification. Switching from gas boilers to heat pumps cuts the average EU household’s heating bill by up to 60%, MUSE-DHC is therefore contributing to the Electrification Action Plan’s objective of reducing energy bills, as well as several others.

Firstly, the EAP sets an indicative electrification target of 46% by 2040, and highlights the importance of heating and cooling through an upcoming Heating and Cooling Action Plan. As a renewable thermal energy project, MUSE-DHC warmly welcomes such an Action Plan, and hopes that it will be socially fair.

Secondly, the EAP references district heating and cooling as it sets out to supply 15% of total heating and cooling supply with district heating by 2030. MUSE-DHC is already carrying out the technical analysis required for the delivery of district heating across several pilot areas. We are therefore proud to be a key stakeholder that not only brings renewable district heating to people’s homes, but we do so by giving citizens the ownership over the infrastructure through energy communities.

Thirdly, following the old adage of ‘waste not, want not’, the EAP sets out to supply 11% of heating demand from recovered waste heat by 2050. This is a confirmation that MUSE-DHC is on the right track, as several of our pilots are exploring the use of waste heat.

Finally, MUSE-DHC’s raison d’être: to facilitate an energy transition with citizen wellbeing and empowerment at its centre. To this end, the EAP gives us hope through the inclusion of “social leasing” of heat pumps for low and middle-income households. We do however regret that citizen ownership, empowerment, and energy communities did not become a main pillar of the Action Plan to deliver a socially-fair transition, one that is not based on profit maximisation, but on European values.

What remains?

We look forward to the upcoming Heating and Cooling Action Plan, and hope that it will correct the mistakes of the EAP by putting citizens and local authorities at the heart of the thermal energy transition.

In the meantime, MUSE-DHC will continue its work to implement the district heating objectives of the Electrification Action Plan and deliver a clean, and socially fair Europe to future generations.

Inspiring community-led energy production

MUSE DHC and the NWE AquaCOM project joined forces to explore the potential of community-led energy production at the European Energy Communities Forum 2026

Decarbonising Europe’s heating and cooling sector is one of the most significant hurdles in the green transition. While technical solutions exist, the real challenge often lies in how these projects are governed, financed, and embraced by local citizens. Addressing these social and governance challenges is the core mission of the LIFE MUSE DHC project, which focuses on empowering citizens to take ownership of their heating and cooling energy.

On May 6, in the seaside town of Jūrmala, Latvia, the session Developing community-led heating and cooling tackled these questions head-on. Organised as part of the European Energy Communities Forum, the workshop brought together experts from MUSE DHC’s partners REScoop.eu and Energie Samen to showcase how collective action can turn aquathermal energy into a community asset.

Navigating the EU policy landscape

While electricity-focused energy communities have gained significant traction, heating and cooling often lag behind in policy recognition.

Tom Vasseur, coordinator of the Cool Heating Coalition highlighted that since heating and cooling account for over 50% of Europe’s final energy consumption, they must be central to local energy planning. The discussion underscored a critical gap: many national frameworks still lack specific guidelines for thermal energy sharing, creating hurdles for communities ready to invest in collective heat pumps or district networks. Navigating these regulatory barriers and integrating community initiatives into formal municipal planning is a primary focus of the MUSE DHC’s ongoing work across Europe.

From theory to practice: aquathermal case studies

What does community-led heating look like on the ground? The workshop featured three pioneering “aquathermal” projects from the Netherlands and Belgium, presented by Ilonka Marselis, Energie Samen and Dirk Vansintjan, REScoop.eu.

These examples demonstrate that with the right technical support and community engagement, even unconventional heat sources can be harnessed and heritage sites can be repurposed to provide modern, carbon-neutral warmth.

The path forward: integration and scale

As the event concluded, one message was clear: the heat transition is a social challenge as much as a technical one.

To reach the scale required for EU climate targets, community-led initiatives must be integrated into formal municipal planning. As MUSE DHC continues its work across Europe, the focus remains on empowering citizens to take ownership of their heating and cooling energy, ensuring a transition that is not only green but also fair and resilient.

Communities warming up the heat transition

MUSE DHC contributed to the event “The Leaf: Communities driving the shift to fossil-free heating and cooling“

Heating and cooling account for more than half of Europe’s energy consumption. Yet despite its central role in the clean energy transition, the sector often remains trapped in technical discussions about boilers, efficiency rates and infrastructure upgrades.

On 29 April, at the Energy Cities Annual Forum in Guimarães, The Leaf: Communities driving the shift to fossil-free heating and cooling challenged this perspective. What if the future of heating and cooling depended as much on governance, participation and local ownership as on technology itself?

Bringing together municipalities, researchers and practitioners from across Europe, the discussion highlighted an emerging reality: the heat transition will not succeed without citizens and communities actively shaping it, as MUSE DHC proves.

Heating and cooling is also a social challenge

The day started with a concrete example: a visit to Gymnastic Training Center of Guimarães – GUIMAGYM, the city’s public sports facility. The building combines energy efficiency, renewable energy production and nature-based solutions into one integrated system. A 2,000 m² cork façade provides thermal and acoustic insulation, while 1,300 m² of solar panels and a geothermal network cover heating and cooling needs. Rainwater is also reused for sanitary purposes and HVAC cooling systems.

The inspiring visit was followed by the policy discussion during which Energy Cities presented the broader European context and its EU Tracker on local heating and cooling planning, according to which many Member States still lack clear frameworks, methodologies and support structures for municipalities. Cooling planning, in particular, remains largely neglected.

“Heating and cooling is still treated as a technical efficiency issue — not as a governance, social and territorial challenge” – participants overwhelmingly agreed. During the fishbowl discussions, recurring barriers emerged, such as fragmented responsibilities, lack of public awareness, insufficient coordination between stakeholders, financing difficulties and weak policy support for citizen-led initiatives. At the same time, many saw community-led approaches as one of the most promising pathways for accelerating the transition while increasing resilience and social acceptance.

Beyond solar panels: energy communities are also about heat

What’s your first thought when you hear “energy communities”? Most people think about electricity and rooftop solar panels. Heating and cooling, despite representing the largest share of energy demand, remain largely absent from policy discussions and public narratives. Lessons from the EU-funded projects MUSE DHC and Connect Heat inspired participants. Riccardo Battisti from Ambiente Italia, coordinator of MUSE DHC, explained that there is a gap in Europe’s energy debate and that is reflected in legislation itself. Existing European frameworks on energy communities rarely address heating and cooling explicitly, creating uncertainty for local actors trying to develop collective heat projects.

Yet examples already exist across Europe. The Connect Heat project identified several key policy priorities to unlock the sector: clearer legal recognition of heating and cooling communities, support for heat sharing models, incentives for “heat prosumers”, risk reduction mechanisms for district heating investments and stronger financial participation tools such as crowdfunding and collective ownership schemes.

Riccardo also stressed the importance of connecting community initiatives with formal planning processes. Local heating and cooling plans — now required under Article 25 of the Energy Efficiency Directive for many municipalities — could become powerful tools for integrating citizen-led projects into long-term territorial strategies. The new MUSE DHC project will work with several local authorities to test solutions.

The challenge, however, remains practical: “Energy communities are also about heat.”

Dijon shows how district heating can decarbonise at scale

Decarbonising is feasible! Nathanaël Leblanc, from Dijon Métropole, proved, through the example of the RESPONSE project, that large-scale transformation is possible. The results are significant: 75% lower CO₂ emissions and an 80% reduction in fossil gas consumption in the pilot neighbourhoods. The project combines waste heat recovery, biomethane, heat storage and smart energy management systems.

What made the Dijon example particularly relevant to the workshop discussions was its systemic dimension. The district heating network evolved through long-term territorial planning, linking public infrastructure, housing providers, waste management facilities and energy systems into one coordinated approach.

For many participants, it illustrated that scaling up clean heating solutions requires both infrastructure and governance capacity.

Cities are central actors of the heat transition

What role do municipalities play? Through the ESCALATE project, Antonia Kranz (IREES) showed how cities are increasingly expected to coordinate local heating and cooling planning under the revised Energy Efficiency Directive.

Yet many local authorities still lack the staff, tools and financial capacity needed to implement these new responsibilities. At the same time, energy communities can help fill part of this gap by mobilising local investment, increasing participation and supporting implementation on the ground.

“Community-led heating and cooling will never deliver at scale unless municipalities integrate it into formal planning, public policies and regulated energy systems” – If Europe wants to accelerate the heat transition, citizen-led approaches must become part of mainstream local energy planning.

The future of the transition lies in citizen-led approaches

The discussions in Guimarães made one thing clear: decarbonising heating and cooling is not simply a technological challenge. It is also a democratic one.

Whether through geothermal public buildings, district heating systems or citizen-led heat networks, the transition requires cooperation between municipalities, utilities, citizens and local organisations – community-led heating and cooling initiatives are the future of the clean transition.

Warm homes, lower bills, stronger EU: the power of citizen-led energy networks

How can  we all enjoy comfortable homes while paying fair bills? 

The EU has many solutions to reach climate neutrality and become energy independent, but none will succeed without active citizen participation to ensure a just and effective transition. 

Efficient district heating and cooling (DHC) networks powered by clean sources replace individual heating systems, reducing maintenance and lowering bills.

As change starts in cities, citizen engagement is essential. EU-funded projects such as MUSE DHC are a great example of how community energy initiatives can foster social acceptance, co-ownership, and long-term commitment, making cities, thus Europe, more sustainable, resilient and energy independent.

Click on the button to explore the full article, published by the European Sustainable Energy Week (EUSEW), which highlights the strategic importance of DHC networks through the MUSE DHC case studies of  Sant Cugat Sesgarrigues and  Zwolle.

Read the article!

The European Sustainable Energy Week (EUSEW) is the biggest annual event dedicated to renewables and efficient energy use in Europe. EUSEW 2026 marks the 20th edition. EUSEW organises a series of activities that bring together the community of people who care about building a secure and clean energy future for the next generations.

The EU’s Citizen Energy Package: ambitions built on quicksand?

The Commission’s new recommendations to fight energy poverty and enhance consumers’ rights are welcomed, but Member States might not implement them without binding targets and new funds

On 10 March 2026, in response to the second spike in fossil fuel prices in less than 5 years, the European Commission published its Citizen Energy Package (CEP). The Package is a non-legislative initiative giving recommendations to Member States’ governments on how to decrease energy bills, enhance consumers’ rights, fight energy poverty, and encourage capitals to properly implement existing legislation.

The CEP highlights community-owned renewable energy as a key tool to achieve affordability, local energy control, and energy independence. It does so through 9 actions, ranging from reduced taxes on renewable energy compared to fossil fuels, to guidelines on how to establish energy communities.

In a context of geopolitical instability and painful fossil fuel dependencies, the logic of the Citizen Energy Package is a solid one: empower citizens, decrease dependencies, and fight energy poverty. The question, however, remains whether the CEP has enough bite to deliver on its promises.

From reducing taxes to encouraging innovative financial tools to lower bills

The CEP includes both positive elements and suggestions for improvement.
Let’s start with the main positive elements. The Commission encourages Member States to:

Remove non-energy levies from bills — as some countries include public broadcasting taxes in energy bills — and lower VAT to the maximum amount possible. The Commission expects these reductions to save households up to EUR 200/year.
Lower network costs, encourage flexibility in the grid, and pledge to work with national regulatory authorities to define network tariffs in such a way that they incentivise matching energy production with consumption.
Encourage the use of innovative financing tools such as social leasing, where citizens can procure renewable technologies at zero upfront cost, paying them off instead through instalments.

It also recommends that companies increase transparency in their energy bills to make them understandable, offer customers the best tariff for their consumption profile, and provide them with early warnings when consumption goes beyond the expected level.

Additionally, knowing that 1 in every 10 Europeans can no longer adequately warm their homes, the CEP empowers national, regional, and local authorities to tackle energy poverty through the Social Climate Fund, the Cohesion Funds, the Energy Poverty Advisory Hub, as well as the LIFE programme that MUSE-DHC benefits from. Moreover, the Commission will also publish guidance for Member States on how to design appropriate disconnection safeguards, so that citizens no longer face the threat of energy disruption.

Finally, to strengthen its action, the Commission will soon deliver an Energy Communities Action Plan to increase citizen-led energy by a factor of 10, in order to reach 90 GW by 2030. To do so — and considering the patchy implementation of energy community legislation across national governments — the Commission will issue guidance to Member States on how to set up well-designed enabling frameworks for community energy. This is certainly a welcome development for initiatives like MUSE-DHC, which bring renewable district heating and cooling into citizens’ hands.

The quicksand: no binding targets, no extra funds, no real commitment

A closer look at the file shows that it does not include any enforcement mechanisms to reach its objectives, and no reference is made to the need for national governments to implement the current energy community framework. Considering Member States’ inability to abide by EU law to deliver energy democratisation, a voluntary framework seems to be based on goodwill. A key lesson learned from the past is that national governments are unlikely to move a finger unless there are legally binding targets to meet and appropriate enforcement from the Commission.

Secondly, the CEP ignores the growing issue of corporate capture, where private entities disguise themselves as energy communities, leading to the embezzlement of public funds that were meant for community initiatives.

Thirdly, the Citizen Energy Package’s objectives are not accompanied by additional sources of funding. This is particularly short-sighted, as complex community projects such as community-led district heating require funding streams, particularly for the first development stages of the project. While there are some good practices in the EU for community-led heating and cooling funds, such as in Ireland and the Netherlands, this is by no means the norm across the EU-27.

MUSE-DHC will continue its work to democratise thermal energy across the EU. However, the replication of its results might be negatively affected without an appropriate Citizen Energy Package.

Overall, the CEP would have the potential to decrease bills, empower citizens, and protect the most vulnerable, were it not built on a foundation of quicksand.