The HORIZON 2020 project ECHOES (Energy choices supporting the Energy union and the SET-plan) which has recently been successfully completed after three years, provided essential information about the energy behaviour of European consumers and prosumers. Based on a representative Europe-wide survey covering 18.000 respondents, 14 European partners answered the questions: How do European citizens - whether individually or as organisations - think and act when it comes to energy choices and energy acceptance, and why? What does this mean for the key technological issues of smart energy, e-mobility and building technology? And how must European energy strategies take this into account in order to achieve a successful energy transition?
The scientific findings, but also the resulting policy recommendations were considered by the Commission to be highly relevant to foster the European Energy transition. JOANNEUM RESEARCH - LIFE made a significant contribution to this success by leading a central work package. The innovative "Energy Lifestyles" approach LIFE developed in this project has become a much noted and sought-after possibility for companies, organisations and political decision-makers to better understand the energy behaviour of their target groups in everyday life and to assess it quantitatively - for example using the JOANNEUM RESEARCH - Lifestylecheck.