On Tuesday 7 June, Thriving Communities will be in conversation with Ivana Dubravec (KLIK), Ugo Toić (OTRA) and Tomaž Zver (Kisik) on the subject of community energy in SE Europe.

Energy is an essential action-area for any community. The core of community energy initiatives is that they are initiated and developed by networks of citizens and have strong community-benefit objectives behind their business models.

Community energy initiatives can generate a wide range of social benefits such as cost-savings, employment opportunities, shared financial returns, improved social connections, and people being warmer and healthier in their homes.

Community energy initiatives are also a great place for communities to start building the new collaboration models, experience and investment models that are the platform for launching even more radical change.

Unfortunately, community energy remains very underdeveloped in SE Europe. Many more community energy actions need to be catalysed.

In this session we will hear our guests’ experience of creating community energy actions in Croatia and Slovenia. We will discuss how other communities can follow these examples, and key needs to get more community energy action happening in SE Europe.

Our Guests:

• Ivana Dubravec is at the forefront of KLIK – the Križevci (Croatia) lab for community climate action. She works on solar power plants and advises citizens on renewable energy and climate action. Križevci was the first city in Croatia to install citizen-funded solar power arrays.
• Tomaž Zver is CEO and owner of Kisik (Slovenia). He specialises in the development and management of renewable energy projects and community co-operatives - covering both technical, business and strategy development. Tomaž is CEO of Sončna Zadruga Cooperative, and on the board of Razvojna Zadruga Jezersko Cooperative and Lesna Zadruga Loški Potok Cooperative.
• Ugo Toić is CEO of OTRA (Island Development Agency) in Cres-Lošinj archipelago (Croatia). He is deeply involved in the citizen energy cooperative Apsyrtidies, which was established in 2021 to serve as a platform for raising community investment into the energy transition of the Cres-Lošinj archipelago. He is developing a number of community energy projects in Cres-Lošinj.

Our ‘In Conversation’ sessions are designed to be just that. A conversation through which we discuss the real opportunities and challenges of the journey to create thriving communities. You are welcome to participate with questions, or also to just go for a walk and listen in.