The latest deliverable of the European oPEN Lab project sets out an ambitious roadmap to transform Positive Energy Neighbourhoods (PENs) into a structural component of European urban policy. The document begins with a clear observation: the necessary technologies—deep renovation, photovoltaics, storage, and smart management—are mature, yet their large-scale deployment remains confined to pilot projects. The so-called 'pilot trap' has generated technical and social learning, but has failed to consolidate standardised and bankable models capable of attracting private investment at scale.

In response, the report calls for a strategic shift: moving away from viewing PENs as experimental demonstrators and instead treating them as urban energy infrastructures aligned with Europe’s objectives of competitiveness, resilience, and strategic autonomy. To this end, it introduces a 'Mission-Driven Innovation' framework that assesses the political, economic, social, and technological readiness of cities, analysing twelve European cases. The diagnosis is uneven: while technological maturity is high, regulatory, administrative, and business model barriers persist, hindering project aggregation and financial risk reduction.

The main recommendation is to simplify procedures, standardise urban typologies — particularly in social and industrial housing — and strengthen the role of local governments as integrators of energy ecosystems.