On 9–10 September, Vienna hosted a ANEW–LIFE consortium meeting. Partners reviewed progress to date, discussed the technical and economic feasibility studies prepared for the Ukrainian pilot communities, and planned activities for the project’s final year.
ANEW–LIFE is funded by the European Union’s LIFE Programme. Its goal is to support Ukrainian municipalities in the transition to clean energy, working with communities to select specific СET projects and identify financing mechanisms for them.
The meeting brought together representatives of EnGreen (Italy, project coordinator), Blue Energy Revolution (Italy), Ecoclub (Ukraine), DIXI Group (Ukraine), 5thVolt (Austria), ENERSAVE (Luxembourg), Climate Alliance (Germany), AFIN (Romania) and REUKRA (Ukraine), together with delegates from the three participating communities: Zhytomyr, Nizhyn and Kalush.
A Local Example: Energiepark Bruck an der Leitha
The final part of the meeting was a study-visit to Energiepark Bruck an der Leitha, an energy park around 40 kilometres from Vienna. It show cases how a community can build up renewable energy capacity step by step – starting with wind generation, then adding a biogas facility, and later agrivoltaics.
The park’s own history began with a setback. In 1995, initial wind measurements suggested the area was poorly suited to wind power. Only after the local team carried out additional, more accurate measurements was this assumption disproven, and construction of the first wind farm went ahead.
The park today combines several technologies: 54 wind turbines, a small run–of–river hydropower plant, a biogas facility, and the “Sonnenfeld” agrivoltaic installation (3 megawatts, operating since 2022), which combines agricultural use and solar power generation on the same land. Together, these have a total installed capacity of 167 megawatts, fully covering the electricity needs of around 112,000 households in neighbouring communities. During the visit, the park’s representative described the practical difficulties encountered at each stage – lessons directly relevant to Ukrainian local authorities planning decentralised renewable systems.
From Feasibility Studies to Implementation
By 2027, the ANEW–LIFE consortium aims to finalise implementation plans for the selected measures.
Of the six interventions currently being developed across Zhytomyr, Nizhyn and Kalush, the goal is to move at least one concrete project in each community to physical implementation.
Two Educational Tracks
Alongside this, partners are finalising two capacity-building tracks. An open online course on EduOpen will introduce the clean energy transition to a general audience in plain language, in English and Ukrainian, open to anyone. A more technical programme will train specialists from the three pilot communities, with each partner covering its own field: Blue Energy Revolution (thermal renewables, storage, hydrogen), EnGreen (electricity, grids, building retrofitting, energy communities), 5thVolt (energy modelling and planning) and ENERSAVE (financing instruments).
The ANEW–LIFE project is implemented with the financial support of the LIFE Programme of the European Union.