Sustainable plus energy neighbourhoods (SPENs) can contribute to decarbonising the building stock, while providing additional benefits for residents both at the building and neighbourhood level, enhancing wellbeing and a sense of community. SPENs can provide a range of shared spaces, services and facilities, such as shared heat pumps, PV panels, EV charging, EVs, bicycles, and common spaces with greenery, water and biodiversity. A neighbourhood approach provides additional benefits to demand-side flexibility (DSF) compared to single apartments or buildings. The optimisation of electricity and heat production and sharing renewable energy from various sources is managed by a system of twin modelling and automation.

Shared assets, services and collective energy production installations interact differently with the urban infrastructure thus they often require new legislative frameworks. The Clean Energy Package of 2019 has important provisions to fill in these gaps and allow collective forms of producing, sharing and selling of energy, as well as to encourage prosumers to enter the market.

Written as part of the EU-funded project syn.ikia, these factsheets provide an overview of existing gaps and barriers in the development and market uptake of SPENs, and provides policy recommendations for four countries: Austria, the Netherlands, Spain and Norway. They also map their progress in implementing provisions of the 2018 Energy Performance of Buildings Directive, the Energy Efficiency Directive, the Renewable Energy Directive, and Electricity Market Design. Looking at the latest developments in national, regional and municipal policies, three main aspects are included: i) energy performance, ii) renewable energy and energy communities, and iii) digital technologies and demand-side flexibility.

The factsheets also list the drivers, potential business models and policy support measures that enable investments and wider uptake of SPENs. The policy mapping and recommendations are based on desk research, ten interviews and two workshops with experts from the private and public sectors, including developers and local authorities involved in projects of SPEN and energy communities.