City Storage and Sector Coupling Lab (CSSC Lab) is an INTERREG-financed project, which will run from July 2020 to December 2022. It tests and supports the roll-out of innovative city storage and sector coupling solutions at the municipal level in Europe. For this, it relies on the know-how of its 17 project partners and 12 associated strategic partners. Since the partnership is made up of representatives from 11 Danube region countries including the Western Balkans, it demonstrates the relevance of city storage and sector coupling solutions in a variety of contexts.

It is widely recognised that there is immense potential for city storage and sector coupling in small and medium-sized cities in Europe. However, for this potential to be seized, capacities must be built at municipal level. Equipping local administrations with the necessary skills to implement city storage and sector coupling solutions will help boost such initiatives. This in turn will enhance energy security and energy efficiency locally while equally contributing to meeting the EU’s climate targets.

In order to achieve this, CSSC Lab also supports the launching of 4 demo centres in four partner regions namely, Austria, Bulgaria, Croatia and Slovenia. Each lab tests a different technology and features a range of solutions for energy production, storage, utilisation and management. The main purpose of these centres is to serve as an example for municipal and city representatives as well as potential investors to encourage them to start similar projects at local level.

Other activities in the project such as the regional action planning process, the creation of model solutions and the capacity building programme for municipal actors will contribute to reaching the project goal of enhancing the application of CSSC technologies in the Danube region. The CSSC Lab Platform is a key tool for capturing all this expertise and making it available to relevant stakeholders and interested parties.