Mechelen leveraging the citizen energy community initiative Klimaan

With a population of 87.000 inhabitants, Mechelen is the 5th biggest city in Flanders (Belgium). Its climate goals are ambitious: a 40% reductions of GHG emissions by 2040, fully decarbonised buildings, and 100% renewable energy by 2050.

To achieve them, Mechelen relies on strong partnerships - most notably with the citizen movement Klimaan. Founded in 2018, Klimaan has set up an energy cooperative and a renovation cooperative to modernise privately owned social housing. The energy cooperative mobilises citizen funding into rooftop solar on community buildings, shared vehicles, windmills and district heating networks. All assets are collectively, owned by the energy cooperative, giving nearly 2,000 shareholders (mid-2025) a direct stake in the city's green transition.

Mobilising Collective Action 

With limited humain and financial resources, Mechelen recognised that it could not achieve climate neutrality by 2050 alone. Instead, the city chose to support and involve other stakeholders, citizens foremost, in collective climate action. This support comes in many forms: small start-up subsidies, risk-sharing, providing access to communication channels, and public space for initiatives. 

One of the most successful examples of this approach is the collaboration with Klimaan cvso + vzw, a citizen-led energy cooperative that has built an energy community in Mechelen and is now expanding its activities to serve all its shareholders.

Klimaan in Action

Energy Community

Klimaan's core activity is its energy community. The cooperative now counts 400 active volunteers and 1,700 citizen shareholders. 

It pools citizen investment to install solar panels on private and municipal buildings. For the municipal roofs, joint campaigns with the city use official channels to engage the community. To date, the citizen energy community has invested in 1,700 kWp of solar capacity - mostly on municipal rooftops - producing 2,500 MWh of electricity annually and reducing 574 tonnes of CO₂-equivalent emissions. 

Beyond public and private buildings, the cooperative also invests in solar panels for social housing, aiming for maximum renewable energy generation. To reduce risks, the city guarantees a Purchase Power Agreement for excess energy, but it asks Klimaan to continue exploring ways to ensure all energy benefits social renters, as an effective means to combat energy poverty. In 2026, plug-and-play batteries were added to maximise self-consumption. 

Advising Households on Energy

The energy community is only one part of Klimaan's mission. Its citizens-focused side offers the “Zonnewijzer” service, advising households on energy efficiency, solar panels, batteries, EV chargers, and smart management systems. Citizens also get market prices references for investments and the option of collective purchases for solar panels or batteries.

The city and Klimaan collaborate on renovations too. Mechelen manages a One Stop Shop (OSS) for energy retrofits and housing renovation, while Klimaan provides more technical advice, giving citizens a clear overview before engaging technical consultants. Businesses can also access the service. For this consultancy, the municipality pays Klimaan a small subsidy €200 per consultation trajectory.

The Zonnewijzer service has supported 1,369 citizens, enabling them to collectively install 2,026 kWp of solar capacity. 

Promoting Shared Mobility

Klimaan also promotes shared electric vehicles, now spreading throughout the city. Citizens who invest at least €300 in the cooperative can use the EVs at a fixed price per ride, plus a small charge per kilometre. The cooperative’s main risk is underuse of a vehicle. To address this, a win-win arrangement was created: if ride revenues fall short, the city covers the difference in exchange for free access to the vehicles.

Here’s how it works in practice: when citizens take enough rides, the city pays nothing while still enjoys free use. If usage falls short, the city only covers the missing rides needed to break even. This ensures that Klimaan’s investment is secured while the city benefits from shared mobility.

Today, shared mobility initiatives include 34 electric vehicles with guaranteed minimum usage and Klimavelo bicycle taxis completing 2,900 passenger rides annually. A social use scheme has also been introduced to support access in vulnerable neighbourhoods.

Fighting Energy Poverty in Social Housing

Lessons learnt

The success of Klimaan’s projects reflects Mechelen’s strategic approach, which places civic engagement at the core of its climate action. Rather than leading initiatives directly, the municipality empowers civil servants to identify ways to complement and amplify existing citizen movements. Through targeted subsidies and risk-sharing mechanisms, the city leverages citizen crowdfunding, creating a multiplier effect that goes far beyond public spending alone.

Establishing effective partnerships - such as those developed in Otterbeek or in shared mobility - requires flexibility, active listening, and a strong understanding of stakeholders’ needs and constraints. Success also relies on the presence of a “pivoting civil servant” able to navigate these dynamics and strategically support partners with public resources.

Together, these interconnected programmes show how a supportive municipal framework can deliver broad sustainability outcomes, addressing climate goals, energy poverty, and community resilience at once. Ultimately, the key lesson lies in the city’s willingness to let citizen initiatives emerge and grow. By prioritising support over control, Mechelen creates the conditions for grassroots action to take root and scale effectively.

Replicability

The replication potential of this model lies in combining minimal municipal intervention paired with strong citizen empowerment. Small-scale municipal support - including risk-sharing mechanisms, access to rooftop, modest subsidies, and participation in joint European projects - proves sufficient to mobilise citizens to volunteer and invest in accelerating the energy transition. 

This approach fosters the emergence of strong, self-sustaining citizen organisations rather than creating dependency on public leadership. Crucially, the model demonstrates that cities need not occupy the central role of facilitator or coordinator; instead, they can rely on "pivoting civil servants" to strategically complement and support citizen-led initiatives. 

By keeping leadership within the cooperative itself, the framework ensures local ownership and adaptability, making it highly replicable across different municipalities seeking to support community-driven energy transitions without overextending public budgets or bureaucratic capacity.

Mechelen, Belgium

Energy Community in Focus

Klimaan cvso and czw

Active since: 2018

Stage of implementation: Active Energy Community

Key Energy Figures

• Total capacity installed: 
  • 1700 kWp of solar installations producing yearly 2500 MWh 
  • 2026 kWp of private installations, thanks to the advices to 1369 citizens with “Zonnewijzer”
  • 34 shared electric vehicles
  • 25 empty buildings renovated per year to become additional social houses
• CO2 emissions' reduction: 574 T Co2eq (1000 considering the private installations)
• Approximately 2,900 passenger rides per year provided by Klimavelo, a volunteer bicycle taxi service

Type of support from the Municipality

• Facilitation: setting targets, access to meeting rooms
• Support: access to public roofs/land, buying energy from the community, municipal guarantees, buying energy from the community

Covenant Figures

• Signatory to the Covenant of Mayors since: 2012
• Emission reduction ambitions: 
  • - 40 % GHG emissions reductions by 2030
  • Climate neutrality by 2050

City Awards

• 2020 Green Leaf City
• 2025 EUSEW Award best local energy action (Otterbeek, social housing energy community)
• 2025 Covenant of Mayors Award for heatplan and heat coalition