JALON brings a new approach to facilitate the emergence and growth of citizen-led energy community projects throughout Europe. The methodology is rooted on the close collaboration of local stakeholders to bring these projects into operation as an instrument of social innovation, especially for rural regions where there is a lack of specific legislation adapted to their own reality and specific needs which could cause them to be left behind in the energy transition. In fact, there are so many hurdles that prevent energy communities around Europe from developing their full potential and especially in rural areas.

JALON proposes to run a large-scale regional energy community engaging 5,000 citizens, 40 local authorities and 75 business to really empower EU inhabitants in rural areas and local stakeholders towards the achievement of a solution suitable to their expectations and needs. This challenges the classic approach, moving from the energy community seen as something to be socially accepted and promoted to the energy community as an instrument to solve local social needs, requested by the people. 87 rural villages in Spain will cooperate in a large energy community that will promote legal and regulatory changes, in a learning-by-doing way, to achieve energy communities which will really be a useful instrument for the local development of depopulated areas.

The project aims at mobilizing 13M€ to invest in photovoltaic-energy facilities with a total generation of 23GWh/year, avoiding 3,452 tonCO₂e emissions/year. JALON will be the demonstrator that will be followed by other 6 EU regions, committed to developing an implementation plan during the project together with JALON partners, so that they can start to act quicker. In addition, dissemination and communication actions are addressed to reach 82 underdeveloped (NUTS3) regions and promoting the key results of JALON to foster the replication of this approach across the EU.