Launched in 2005 by French ecological and ethical business organizations, Enercoop is a cooperative supplier of renewable energy. Since its creation, Enercoop objectives have been to promote and develop renewable energy, encourage energy savings and decentralize the energy system so as to give every citizen the opportunity to get involved in the energy transition. Based on the cooperative model, Enercoop is able to gather among its members producers and consumers of green electricity as well as key partners; all willing to work together to promote renewable energy and rational energy use.
By supporting the emergence of new local REScoops since 2009, Enercoop is fostering a network of cooperatives within which every citizen can invest and participate. Today, Enercoop is a network of 10 local cooperatives with 42,000 customers, 27,000 members, 130 producers and more than 140 employees.
As of last month, in addition to supplying renewable electricity and following several years of experimental phase, the Enercoop network of cooperatives has launched an “energy savings” offer, allowing consumers to reduce their energy consumption and consequently their electricity bill.
This new service is available for everyone, both individuals and businesses, customers of Enercoop or not. It consists of three modules:
The "energy saving wiki", available free of charge directly accessible from the Enercoop website - this web page, inspired by the Wikipedia online encyclopedia, is a collection of resources and tips for saving energy, including a forum for people to openly discuss energy efficiency issues.
The "Dr Watt" training - this personalized support aims to train individual consumers to energy efficiency through self-diagnosis in a concrete and educational way. Based on specific advice to apply in their homes, Dr Watt teaches how to reduce energy consumption by adopting the right simple everyday actions without sacrificing their comfort. The training includes a section on understanding the different energy performance standards for appliances and how to choose them. This service was already available in several regions of France in its pilot phase, including the Rhône-Alpes region in the South-East of France since 2013, but is now available from anywhere in the country.
The "Support to businesses" – this strategic and tailor made coaching for businesses combines theoretical training and dedicated support for energy-saving actions. This module is only available for food stores for now but we hope to open it to other type of businesses in the future.
For Enercoop, the current French energy model is no longer adapted to the current environmental or social challenges and is no longer economically viable. Faced with this alarming fact, the cooperative is convinced of the urgency of building both individually and collectively a new French energy model.
This essential energy transition, must be based on three pillars[1]: the reduction of energy consumption through the adaptation of our consumption habits (energy sobriety), the use of more efficient infrastructure and equipment (energy efficiency) combined with systematic development of renewable energy installations. This is why the launching of our energy savings services is for us another step to empower consumers towards a citizen-led energy transition.
Just like the other REScoop partners in the REScoop PLUS project, Enercoop is also launching a survey next month to collect its consumers points of view on energy efficiency. This survey will be sent in 6 countries by the REScoops part of the project. Moreover, Enercoop will soon be promoting its Dr Watt self-diagnosis tool in order to disseminate this practice to other REScoops in Europe and improve the support to European citizens in consuming less energy at home.
[1]. As described in the negaWatt scenario and available on the negaWatt website.