Is energy sharing possible? Empowering communities for inclusivity

Hybrid session

The session will explore how energy sharing can become a cornerstone of a fair transition with energy communities as the ideal mediums for it. In the context of current discussions around the Clean Industrial Deal and the Citizen Energy Package, EU provisions on energy sharing must be properly transposed and implemented at the national level to allow energy communities (ECs) to contribute to ambitious EU targets.

Through activities like energy sharing, energy communities could contribute to a more flexible and inclusive energy system, offering solutions to energy poverty and improving social acceptance of renewable energy. Energy communities can be an entry point for vulnerable people to get involved in the whole energy chain from planning to consumption. However, especially where ECs start small, they cannot become suppliers from the get-go. This is also why energy sharing is so important as it allows ECs to be set up also in many Member States where the concept is rather new and where ECs are stifled by legal barriers. Regulatory uncertainty and a lack of tailored incentives often favor large-scale corporate players over citizen-led initiatives, undermining the principles of the Clean Energy Package.

Five LIFE-funded sister projects focusing on energy communities, spanning 17 countries, join forces to take stock of legislative developments in Member States based on their work on the ground. During a session where speedy and visual (Pecha Kucha style) expert talks will alternate with audience feedback, practitioners will witness in their everyday work the tensions between community energy ambitions and limiting legal and administrative realities. The expertise shared by panelists and participants from city governments, NGOs or cooperatives shall give new perspectives on effective solutions for business and cooperation models around shared energy. The session is split in two so as to pair speakers and the audience around 2 major topics to harvest collective knowledge and advance conversations between stakeholders and policy-makers at every level.

Participants in the room shall include local, national and EU policy-makers, energy regulators, local authorities, citizens.

Event organised in the framework of EUSEW, The European Sustainable Energy Week (EUSEW) is the biggest annual event dedicated to renewables and efficient energy use in Europe. It is organised by the European Climate, Infrastructure and Environment Executive Agency (CINEA) and the Directorate-General for Energy.