The Faculty of Engineering of the University of Porto (FEUP) received 5.4 million euros from the European Commission to coordinate the INNO-TREC (Innovative Transactive Renewable Energy Communities) project, aimed at developing digital tools to support the creation, operation and optimization of Renewable Energy Communities (CER).
The consortium, made up of 20 academic and industrial partners, will test solutions in six countries — Greece, Belgium, Ireland, United Kingdom, Italy and Portugal — with the aim of simplifying legal and technical processes, reducing costs and promoting energy transaction and valorization mechanisms in a community context.
The tools will be free, web-based and focused mainly on shared photovoltaic systems, the technology most used in RECs.
INNO-TREC was selected in a call of the Horizon Europe program with only three projects approved among 76 applications (acceptance rate of 3.9%). The project received the maximum score of 15/15 from the evaluators, an indicator of the ambition and innovation potential of the proposal.
Start-up is scheduled for January 2026.
The initiative aims not only at technological advances, but also at increasing the participation and profitability of local communities, promoting business and governance models that facilitate citizen access to clean and decentralized energy.
Validation in several countries will allow solutions to be adjusted to the regulatory and market realities of each region.
The project coordinators at FEUP, professors João Catalão and Cláudio Monteiro, assume scientific and technological leadership. “This project represents a unique opportunity to make a qualitative leap in citizens’ access to renewable energy and in the way communities organize themselves around it”, they highlight.
INNO-TREC’s funding adds to EU-DREAM, another European project led by João Catalão, which also obtained 15/15. Together, both projects make up almost ten million euros in budget, of which around 1.2 million euros will go directly to FEUP.