Spanish Off-grid Eco-Complex Mar de Fulles Voted Best Contributor to Sustainable Energy Future
Community energy portal Citizenergy announced its 2016 Project of the Year Award to Spanish crowdfunding platform ECrowd! and the Mar de Fulles eco-complex during an event in Brussels. Citizenergy lauded the two company’s outstanding contribution to a sustainable energy future.
The results, presented in front of a full house during a special EU Parliament event on citizen engagement, are the outcome of some 430 votes cast in December 2016. Ecrowd! and the Mar de Fulles project took home a solid 79% of the total vote.
“There has never been a more important time to promote low carbon and sustainable projects; a key way to achieve success is by engaging with communities through alternative and collective finance models,” said ECrowd! founder Matthieu van Haperen.
ECrowd! is currently Spain’s only crowdfunding platform for positive impact projects such as Mar de Fulles. The platform joined forces with the Citizenergy portal for cross-border investment in community energy as of April 2016; the Mar de Fulles project was ECrowd!’s first offering as a Citizenergy featured platform.
The 2016 Project of the Year Award was created to recognize the pioneering work of crowdfunding platforms and energy cooperatives across Europe in getting such important sustainable energy projects funded. According to the motto, what gets financed by the crowd should also get judged by the crowd, Citizenergy asked the public to rate the crowdfunded and cooperative based energy projects featured during the portal’s first year online according to their contribution to a sustainable energy future.
Citizenergy believes that “what gets financed by the crowd should also get judged by the crowd.” Citizenergy asked the public to rate the crowdfunded and cooperative based energy projects featured during the portal’s first year online according to their contribution to a sustainable energy future.
The awards ceremony took place within the framework of a special EU Parliament event on citizen engagement. The gathering was hosted by MEP Dario Tamburrano of Italy and organized by the Active Citizenship Network. The audience heard policy recommendations arising from the experience of launching Citzenergy, as well as other concrete examples from cooperatives and crowdfunding platforms working to help finance the energy transition.
Representatives from the EU Directorate General of Energy and Council of European Energy Regulators spoke about the challenge of stimulating demand for sustainable energy across EU markets as well as the need to bolster public involvement in the area.