PROSEU was an EU-funded research project that brought together eleven project partners from seven European countries (universities, research institutes, consultancies, non-governmental, and non-profit organizations). It aimed to enable the mainstreaming of the Renewable Energy (RE) Prosumer phenomenon into the European Energy Union. Prosumers are active energy users who both produce and consume energy from renewable sources.

The growth of RE Prosumerism across Europe challenged existing energy market structures and institutions. PROSEU’s research focused on collectives of RE Prosumers and investigated new business models, market regulations, infrastructural integration, technology scenarios, and energy policies across Europe. The team collaborated with RE Prosumer Initiatives (15 Living Labs), policymakers, and other stakeholders from eight countries, following a quasi-experimental approach to understand how RE Prosumer communities, start-ups, and businesses addressed their own challenges. It also identified incentive structures that would enable the mainstreaming of RE Prosumerism while safeguarding citizen participation, inclusiveness, and transparency.

Moving beyond a fragmented, case-by-case research approach, PROSEU built an integrated knowledge framework for a cross-sectoral understanding of RE Prosumerism. This was achieved through a comprehensive identification and assessment of incentive structures to support the mainstreaming of RE Prosumers within the energy transition.

The project was coordinated by the University of Lisbon. ICLEI was primarily responsible for developing and implementing the communication, dissemination, and exploitation strategy, including the creation of a Prosumer Community of Interest.