Community-owned renewables now span all of Europe
In 2019, the EU set into motion dedicated legislation to expand renewable energy communities (RECs) where they already exist, and enable citizen energy in countries – mostly eastern and southern Europe – where there were none at all. The goals: to increase the use of renewable energy, reduce greenhouse gas emissions, enhance energy security, and also empower citizens – to make them part of the Energiewende. Member states had five years to transpose these directives and all of them did, though to different degrees and with diverse results. Paul Hockenos gives an overview at the occasion of the European Energy Communities Forum currently organised in Kraków, Poland. In the five years since the EU’s issuance of directives to expand community energy across the bloc, thousands of new renewable energy communities (RECs) have formed and many of the established ones have expanded. There are no official numbers yet but high-end estimates hover at around 9,000 RECs with several million participants, depending on how one defines community energy. They range from a handful of parents putting solar …
In 2019, the EU set into motion dedicated legislation to expand renewable energy communities (RECs) where they already exist, and enable citizen energy in countries – mostly eastern and southern Europe – where there were none at all. The goals: to increase the use of renewable energy, reduce greenhouse gas emissions, enhance energy security, and also empower citizens – to make them part of the…
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