AURORA aims at an innovative long-term citizen engagement with energy sustainable behaviours empowering civil society to adopt a leading role in the energy cycle and to be real actors of a sustainable change via the promotion of citizen science practices. AURORA Energy Awareness will be implemented as a demonstrator in five European countries. AURORA rationale is based on the upgrade of social communities - four university communities and one rural deprived area, to new civic consortia, established as local energy communities- to act as Citizen Science hubs.
There citizens will crowdfund a local *solar photovoltaic facility in an inclusive system enabling low-cost shares. Participants will also monitor their individual energy mix demand behaviours, which together with their energy production in the facility, will generate accurate information on the carbon footprint related to their energy mix behaviour, which will be managed through the AURORA app.
AURORA proposes a novel labelling system to help citizens to better understand their energy-related impacts. Interventions to modify their energy behaviour towards a more climate-neutral impact while fostering energy-savings will imply the involvement of citizens in individual and collective actions. This would be inclusive of both civic innovation workshops to home-made low-cost sensors, or community infrastructures fabrication to environmental observation, for creating civic local roadmaps.
The final objective is to generate the first generations of Near Zero-Emission Citizens acting as ambassadors for sustainable energy behaviours. As a consequence of the activities performed by citizens, data collected AURORA will also be able to improve energy transition scenarios including citizens' behaviours and learning periods and generate reliable data on the impact of climate on energy infrastructures.
* Photovoltaic systems (PV systems) are a renewable energy technology which transforms the energy from the sun into electricity using photovoltaics. These photovoltaics, also known as solar panels, provide a reliable green energy solution.
