In the preceding article, we addressed the beginnings of building energy communities, the pioneering steps that have emerged, and what the future holds. Energy communities aren’t a new idea – they’ve existed for 140 years!
From the 1970s onwards, energy communities based on renewable energy sources, as we know them today, began to appear in large numbers in Europe. Especially in Denmark and Germany during the seventies and eighties, as a response to environmental awareness and the oil crisis.
Expansion through subsidies took place from the 1980s to the 2000s, and the “triggers” were the liberalization of energy markets and the first state incentive measures for renewable energy sources (RES). There are systems of guaranteed purchase prices that have enabled citizens to finance solar and wind farms more easily, first of all in Denmark, Germany and Scotland.
Then follows energy democracy at the beginning of the financial crisis of 2008 to 2018. The global financial crisis and the nuclear disaster in Fukushima (2011, Japan) contributed to citizens losing the concept of trust in a large energy monopoly and turning to energy democracy (the right of citizens to produce, manage and consume energy). In 2013, REScoop.eu was founded – the European Federation of Energy Cooperatives.
The Clean Energy for All Europeans package (2019) was the first time the EU officially introduced the concept of energy communities into legislation, defining rights for citizens to associate and engage in energy production, sharing, or storage.
This was further reinforced by the Internal Electricity Market Directive (EU/2019/944) and the Renewable Energy Directive (RED II).
More than 9,000 energy communities are currently operating in the European Union, bringing together over 1.5 million citizens. These local initiatives are crucial for the decentralization of production and the democratization of the energy system.
Most of these projects are concentrated in Northern and Western Europe, with Germany leading the way with more than 4,800 communities, followed by the Netherlands with around 700, and Denmark and other Nordic countries, which have a long tradition of citizen ownership of energy resources.
Today, European initiatives strive for an ambitious goal – the establishment of at least one energy community in every municipality with more than 10,000 inhabitants, as outlined in the REPowerEU Plan.
Energy communities are a form of association of local actors to develop joint projects that solve their own and the energy needs of the local community. Members can be citizens, local governments, entrepreneurs, micro and small businesses, from the same local government territory.
They prioritize the well-being of their members and the local environment in which they operate: economic savings, environmental protection and strengthening of social solidarity. Making financial profit is not their primary goal.
Energy communities can perform a large number of different activities, such as energy production, shared energy, consumption, storage, energy efficiency services, and electric vehicle charging.
________________
Featured Image by Janusz Walczak from Pixabay.
