Community energyAbout
Over the last two years, the European Commission’s Energy Community Repository has been supporting energy communities through a range of activities and tools. Discover all the support provided to energy communities and access many resources.
26 case studies have been published to inspire energy community’s activities.
When developing a new project, learning from others can often help avoid mistakes and get inspired. The Energy Communities Repository has published a set of case studies of communities who have successfully implemented projects and / or who follow an innovative approach. These range from solar to wind to e-mobility to waste heat from a data centre.
There are many more energy communities on the EU energy communities map
An energy sharing reference guide has been developed.
This document aims to provide a reference guide for energy communities looking into setting up an energy-sharing initiative. It provides information and an overview of resources on different business models, and regulatory approaches from different Member States related to energy sharing within energy communities.
A roadmap to developing a policy and legal framework that enables the development of energy communities
To help EU Member States in developing an enabling framework for energy communities, the Energy Communities Repository has published a Roadmap outlining key Building Blocks and steps that can be taken to provide strong frameworks for energy communities, namely:
- A clear definition to identify and acknowledge energy communities
- Access to information and awareness-raising
- Access to finance and available support schemes
- Minimum regulatory conditions
- Framework to monitor the types of initiatives that emerge and persistent barriers
A map of Europe and set of ‘country fiches’ outlining the differing regulatory frameworks for energy communities per country is also available on the site.
188 communities benefited from technical assistance (TA).
23 communities from 11 countries (Bulgaria, Croatia, Czech Republic, France, Greece, Hungary, Italy, Poland, Portugal, Romania, Spain) benefited from between 7 to 10 days of direct technical assistance from national experts.
In addition to the direct technical assistance, 16 ‘twinning’ sessions were organised and 46 communities from 9 countries (Cyprus, Germany, Greece, Hungary, Italy, Portugal, Romania, Serbia, Spain) took part in these sessions. Thanks to this programme, the participants had the opportunity to learn and ask questions directly to national experts and other communities.
To boost understanding and further support energy communities in the focus countries, 13 capacity workshops were held, attended by 390 people from 119 existing or emerging energy communities.
Find out more about the technical assistance here.
Many practical tools such as webinar replays and a toolbox are still available.
More than 120 practical resources and useful reports are accessible in the toolbox.
Six webinars’ replays are available to not miss a step in the journey of setting up an energy community.
Many energy communities took a step forward in their project, such as “Les Brasseurs d’énergie”, an energy community in Strasbourg. Gerard Pol Gili, in charge of the renewable energy department of the City of Strasbourg, shared that ‘the training we received via the Repository was crucial in understanding, finalising and adopting the business model for the Brasseurs d’énergie. This had an immediate positive impact and is enabling us to successfully install our first community solar project in January 2024!’
