Over Morgen’s Dennis Gudden, together with the University of Highlands and Islands in Inverness (Scotland), is developing ideas and concepts on community participation and renewable energy solutions in Northern Europe. This collaboration is part of the REMOTE-project. A project focusing on the development and implementation of sustainable energy solutions for sparsely populated areas in Northern Europe.
Many remote communities depend on fossil energy sources, while a transition towards renewable energy sources would benefit many stakeholders in the region. Communities would become less dependent on energy suppliers, new economic opportunities for local business and knowledge centers would arise. The scale of these remote communities makes it relatively easy to find and implement promising techniques which can serve as useful examples for sustainable development throughout Europe.
The University of Highlands and Islands (UHI) is responsible for the development of a train-the-trainer framework within the REMOTE framework. This framework aims at a custom-made training for national and regional coordinators who will be working with the remote communities on the renewable energy transition. The main challenge is to match the technological opportunities with the communities’ needs. This challenge overlaps with Dennis’ experience in The Hague, where 4.000 privately owned homes are 
sustainably renovated in the city before 2020. A concept of community participation is developed. This concept is useful for the REMOTE project, as it describes different tools to find, organize, motivate and assist local communities in their transition process towards a more sustainable future.
The first project meeting is at July 26-27th in Inverness. Dennis will share his experiences in a blog over the next weeks, so keep an eye on our website for more information!