‘The cooperative idea’: that’s how the Danish concept of ‘andelstanken’ translates into English. Andelstanken was one of the key principles of the AURORA project in Aarhus, Denmark, where citizens collectively invested 100,000 EUR in the installation of solar panels. By investing, each citizen became part of a cooperative that had shared ownership of the solar project. They could also monitor how much energy their investment in solar had generated through the AURORA app.
Beyond Denmark, the AURORA initiative ran solar investment programmes in Madrid and Ljubljana. RESET spoke to Dr Ana Belén Cristóbal López to learn more about how the project encourages people to become ‘net zero citizens’ by investing in solar energy and tracking their own carbon footprint.
Funding solar energy improves users’ sustainability “label”
The EU-funded AURORA initiative spans five countries and brings together nine universities and institutions. Beginning in December 2021, the project has involved approximately 7,000 citizens across Denmark, the UK, Spain, Portugal and Slovenia.
In Aarhus and Madrid, citizens crowdfunded solar panel installation and received a return on their investment once the solar panels began generating energy. “The financial return comes from the operation of the solar plant itself,” Dr López tells us. “Revenues from [the solar energy] repay the citizens who financed the project.”
The AURORA app estimates the renewable electricity generated by each investment. “This contribution is then incorporated into the user’s environmental profile and used to reduce their calculated carbon footprint and electricity impact,” Dr López explains. “The app’s labelling and scoring system reflects these investments positively, improving the user’s sustainability “label”, even if the user is not directly consuming the solar electricity themselves.”
2,100 users track their carbon footprint
Beyond solar investments, the AURORA app also lets users track their heating, electricity and mobility data. Then, they receive a real-time visualisation of their carbon footprint. “The app acts as a “personal consumption diary,” helping users better understand the relationship between their behaviour, energy use, and carbon emissions,” Dr López says. The 2,100 users have so far logged tens of thousands of entries. The aim of the AURORA app isn’t to track energy reductions, but focuses on increasing individuals’ awareness of how their daily decisions contribute to their carbon footprint.
According to Dr López, “One of the strongest outcomes has been behavioural engagement; users become much more conscious of the environmental impact of heating, mobility, and electricity consumption once they begin systematically tracking them.”
The AURORA app in action. Reducing friction in data collection and reflecting local policy contexts
What’s next for the AURORA project? The team is currently in discussion with international organisations about developing a programme focused on climate-change awareness and engagement. “We want to build on the experience gained through AURORA in the field of energy behaviour and citizen engagement,” Dr López tells us.
However, expanding globally comes with its own challenges. “[It would] require much more than translating the app into different languages,” Dr López points out. “We would need to adapt the methodology country by country to reflect differences in energy systems, regulation, mobility patterns, environmental priorities and socio-economic realities.” Imposing European environmental thresholds and behaviour patterns onto other continents or areas in, for example, the Global South wouldn’t be appropriate: “Any meaningful international rollout must reflect local realities and policy contexts.”
A second challenge is that of automation. The AURORA team noticed that while users were motivated to share their environmental data, they found manual data entry tedious. “Long-term engagement depends heavily on reducing friction in data collection,” Dr López says. This could be done by integrating the AURORA app with existing services, such as importing mobility data from Google transport or location apps, or retrieving electricity and gas consumption data from utility providers or smart meters. “This would significantly improve usability, participation rates, and data quality,” she adds.
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A repeatable methodology for boosting climate awareness
The AURORA app has proven that tracking environmental data boosts citizens’ awareness of their carbon footprint and helps them become ‘net zero citizens’. Other institutions or companies could recreate this methodology; for example, electricity providers could inform users on how their individual consumption meets climate and energy targets. However, reducing emissions shouldn’t just be up to us as individuals. Governments must take inspiration from the AURORA project and establish the necessary systems for a climate-friendly society.
“The long-term goal,” Dr López tells us, “is to move towards more integrated, automated, and internationally adaptable systems [that support] citizens in understanding and reducing their environmental impact.” In this way, “the AURORA project is a foundation for future citizen-engagement tools around climate awareness and sustainability.”
