New Self-Assessment Tool to Support Cooperative and Community Bionergy Projects

Following the International Energy Agency’s publication of a 10-Point Plan for reducing the European Union’s reliance on Russian natural gas, BECoop is launching a new assessment tool to help cooperative and community organisations realise the full potential of bioenergy projects.

Earlier studies by BECoop, a project funded by the Horizon 2020 programme, have demonstrated wide variations in knowledge and acceptance of biofuel initiatives across Europe and suggest the renewable energy source offers significant potential in comparison with better known alternatives such as solar or wind.

Designed for non-specialised, non-experienced users seeking to assess the current state of a
cooperative or community bioenergy project, the new tool supports various users (including provider, facility operator, RESCoops and local/regional authority) by providing an evaluation methodology, a set of indicators, metrics, definitions and technical as well as business recommendations, after they answer few questions on the resources available, the activity that best represent their initiative, and more. A spider web rating visualises the final results.

To allow entry into the market by potential parties, the self-assessment tool also supports communities to prepare and realise their full bioenergy market potential, making them aware of the potential of projects. Users can assess the current status and future potential of community bioenergy, revealing and better understanding the gaps, maturity levels for the adoption of bioenergy heating, their level of community engagement, as well as the complexity of the existing framework for procurement and policy design.

Users can select the type of biomass resources available – agricultural, forestry, agro-industrial, biomass from urban parks and garden management, and finally wet biomass-, the activity they want to implement and answer few questions.

Their answers will help define the level of user engagement, the technical, business and financial
solution maturity, as well as the social and environmental impact. Recommended actions appear when the user has answered all questions, guiding them to supporting resources and a score will be assigned depending on the option chosen, building in a graphical output (a spider-net) the project outcomes.

Users can also access all BECoop tools with a single login, such as the e-market environment, supporting stakeholders when developing a community bioenergy project and defining the required services and activities for supporting their own cases and the future Knowledge Exchange Platform, a one-stop shop lifting collaboration barriers across regions and sectors to share information and knowledge,

The tool will be available shortly – visit https://becoop.fcirce.es/self-assessment for additional information.