Telheiras/Lumiar Renewable Energy Community

Our renewable energy community is an emerging local clean energy project promoted and managed by citizens. It stemmed from the dynamics of the local community, namely from a collection of ideas organised by a local partnership of around 20 NGOs during a community festival. From the motto “let’s produce our own energy and share it among neighbours” a volunteer-based working group was launched with the raison d’être of contributing to a more sustainable, just, accessible, and democratic energy transition at the local-scale. To achieve these aims, collaboration was established with the local government (Lumiar Civil Parish) and scientific and technical support was obtained from a university-based energy and climate research center (CENSE NOVA-FCT, NOVA University of Lisbon) and from a well-established renewable energy cooperative (Coopérnico), respectively.

In this context, the main purpose of the energy community is to generate environmental, social, and economic benefits for its members and for the local community. Membership status in the energy community is reserved to households, central or local public administration, non-profit organisations, condominiums, and small- and medium-sized companies which must be located within a 2 km radius from the renewable energy production system (mandatory by Portuguese law). Our energy community adheres to the principles of open, voluntary, and democratic participation in all its processes and has established energy poverty mitigation as a foundational objective.

Currently, the energy community has 16 members, including the local government (producing member) and 15 local families (12 non-producing members and 3 non-producing social beneficiary members). It features a small pilot solar photovoltaic system (13 solar panels, 7.15 kWp) installed in a public building, with energy sharing operational since June 2025. The Telheiras/Lumiar Renewable Energy Community has been officially active since June 2025. According to recent data from the Portuguese Distribution System Operator, as of September 2025, it is one out of only two renewable energy communities active in Portugal (the other project being unknown to experts and practitioners) and the first in the Greater Lisbon Region. Plans for a first upscaling phase are underway with the installation of a solar photovoltaic system with 25.74 kWp in a nearby sports pavilion which is expected to allow around 60 new members to join the energy community.