Fundação Calouste Gulbenkian

The Fundação Calouste Gulbenkian is an international foundation, based in Portugal, which promotes the development of people and organisations through art, science, education and charity, with a view to creating a more equitable and sustainable society.

The foundation has created a dedicated funding programme for energy communities, which aims to help overcome structural barriers to the creation of these communities, notably the initial investment required to implement the projects, as well as the insufficient technical capacity of local communities and citizens’ low levels of energy literacy.

Funding will be awarded to proposals that contribute to:

- Increasing local-level initiatives for decentralised energy production and local energy consumption;
- Increasing the involvement and commitment of local authorities (parish councils) and community support organisations (associations, cooperatives, etc.) in community energy projects;
- Promoting collective organisation based on models of participatory governance;
- Promoting the inclusion of economically vulnerable citizens in projects;
- Promoting the participation of rural communities and the territorial diversity of projects;
- Promoting representativeness in the leadership or coordination of projects.

The prize will fund up to 10 energy communities with a maximum amount of 30 000 EUR per community.

- Financial support will only be awarded to legal entities that are duly incorporated and registered in Portugal; 

- The amount of each grant is determined at the time of the final selection of the application and shall never exceed thirty thousand euros; 

- Administrative costs relating to the establishment of Renewable Energy Communities are eligible for funding, as are the licensing, purchase and installation of renewable energy generation equipment for self-consumption and local energy sharing. 

This call for proposals aims to provide opportunities for Renewable Energy Community (REC) projects in their early stages of development; therefore, at the time of submitting their application, applicants must not have any licence applications currently pending or already approved by the Directorate-General for Energy and Geology, nor must they be receiving support from other funding bodies, whether public or private, for projects within the scope of Renewable Energy Communities or Collective Self-Consumption.