When co-benefits become core benefits
About
It’s about producing energy collectively, but not only: Community energy schemes bring many local benefits beyond contributing to climate objectives. Projects designed and carried out by energy communities, involving citizens, city administrations and maybe even SMEs don’t just reduce CO2 emissions. If ownership is truly shared trhough strong democratic governance structures, they also contribute to other strategic local policy objectives.
Projects that are steered by local cooperatives or non-profit foundations have helped local and regional authorities to:
- Improve energy efficiency and reduce energy poverty, either through cheaper tariffs or dedicated schemes to actively involve and support vulnerable consumers
- Enable a more active form of local citizenship, as these initiatives encourage people from the area to feel more involved and concerned about their neighbourhood, encouraging them to engage in other sustainable activities such as urban agriculture, recycling initiatives, repair cafés, shared mobilityand so on.
- Boost local economic development, as projects owned by local community members can contribute up to 8 times more to local added value creation (e.g. by commissioning local craftsmen like solar installers or retrofitting companies).
Municipalities have a role to play and are well placed to connect the different local stakeholders around this common objective. Across Europe, the level of maturity is very different: Your municipality may either need some more knowledge or would want to showcase their already ongoing community energy efforts.
