HEART

HEART designs, implements and validates integrated NES through three complementary pilots. In Leuven (BE), a NES is built around a large central building (Hal 9), combining solar generation, thermal storage and energy sharing with active community participation. In Seville (ES), the fanbase of football club Real Betis becomes a "social battery," enabling collective self-consumption and grid flexibility around the stadium. On Ameland (NL), district heating, solar energy and strong citizen participation advance an integrated, fossil-free island energy system. Each pilot works simultaneously on three pillars: technical integration, viable governance and financing, and social inclusion. A cross-pilot Learning Community, coordinated by Transition Stories, ties the sites together, refines NES roadmaps and disseminates lessons to cities, municipalities and energy communities across Europe, making the solutions replicable well beyond the pilot regions.

HEART will design, implement and validate three technically integrated Neighbourhood Energy Systems (Leuven, Seville, Ameland), each backed by a socially inclusive and financially viable governance model that gives residents, including vulnerable groups, genuine agency and a fair share of the benefits. Across the pilots we expect higher local use of renewable energy, reduced surplus exports and less grid congestion. A key ambition is a stronger overall business case: value comes not only from new earning models on flexibility, but from actively exploiting the interaction between electrical and thermal systems, so the combined system captures more value than isolated, single-carrier assets. Beyond the pilots, HEART delivers transferable NES roadmaps, governance blueprints and EU-level policy recommendations, plus a Learning Community that lets other cities and energy communities replicate the approach of a pragmatic, scalable pathway to Positive Energy Districts that keeps the transition socially just.