Digital Platform Co-design

In November 2021, OLA had the opportunity to get involved in the development of a digital platform for the internal functioning of energy communities with cooperative Sociality and Greenpeace Greece. OLA was responsible for the co-design process of specific functionalities of the platform, but the workshop structure worked also as an overall rethinking of Energy Communities in the fields of Funding and loans, Internal organization, Legal Compliance, Diffusion, Network, Direct democracy and Prioritization. The process of the online workshop had 6 parts and a round table in the end to reflect on the ideas and data collected. The co-design square kit was used to organize the themes of interest and the succession of canvases.

Prioritization canvas of the workshop.

Co-design of the Energy Democracy Cluster

From December 2021-July 2022, OLA coordinated a series of 3 workshop in order to specify the crucial elements for the creation of network with the participation of 12 Energy Communities (EC). The main objective of the initiative was

  • to create an entity that could claim and defend the interests of EC in formal state procedures
  • to diffuse the model of EC as a cooperative structure with the principles of horizontality, solidarity and environmental justice

The following diagrams illustrate the work fields in each of the three sessions of the co-design process.

“Before starting developing a new energy production project in rural areas we should firstly engage members of the local communities to become members of the EC. It should be our priority to educate people relating to their rights in terms of energy democracy. It is important to guarantee that people in rural areas are those who decide about the future management of the natural resources”.

words of a member of EC in the second workshop