Wind production

Zeeuwind and Deltawind from the Netherlands are two local citizen energy cooperatives that successfully developed a 102 MW wind project worth EUR 215 million in 2018. The name of the project is “Krammer”, and is still in 2020 the biggest wind park developed by community energy organisations. The two cooperatives were initially forced to sell 50% to the wind turbine manufacturer (Enercon) simply because they could not raise enough equity themselves. Now that the project is actually constructed and the wind turbines are operational, the two cooperatives launched a second financing campaign. In only two days, they managed to raise over €10 million to buy out the wind turbine manufacturer. This large project also mobilised cooperatives across Europe. The cooperative movement, through the MECISE project, offered to participate in bringing this wind park back into the hands of citizens.

Viure de l’Aire del Cel is the first community-owned wind project in Spain. The turbine is located in Pujalt, close to Barcelona. The installation did not benefit from any subsidies or a feed-in premium. The development was made possible thanks to the support of another cooperative Som Energia. which pushed through the development. The project is financed by Viure de l’Aire del Cel, a cooperative owned by Eolpop. Som Energia provided the co-op with a EUR 1 million soft loan so that it could get its first project operational. After raising the funds from local citizens, the loan was paid back. The project consists of the installation of a turbine of 2.35 MW peak. This turbine is to be installed in the municipality of Pujalt in Catalonia. The project brought together 615 members (private and legal persons), that together invest 2.8 million euros by the end of 2018. The entire process of approbation and construction of the wind turbine took 9 years from start to finish. The whole installation and approbation process faced significant administrative and legal challenges, despite strong support from local citizens and professional organisations. The push back was especially strong from the national Spanish DSO. The whole timeline of the project as well as the description of activities is described in details on the website of the initiative.

In 2009 Hvidovre Wind Cooperative and the utility DONG Energy built three 150-meter-high off-shore wind turbines close to the coast of Denmark. The turbines serve as test models for off-shore wind parks. Each turbine has a capacity of 3.6 MW peak (so 7.2 MW peak for the whole park). For testing reasons, the wind turbines are placed only 15 m away from the coast line and can be seen from the whole region of Hvidovre. Remarkably enough there was very little opposition against these turbines. On the contrary, the citizens of Hvidovre and the suburban area of Copenhagen raised the required capital (above 100 million Danish crones) in 5 months. The turbines were placed within 18 months. A professionally managed process with good communication, the involvement of local stakeholders and the REScoop participation model makes Hvidovre Wind Cooperative a best practice in the speed of the authorisation process. The work of the three partners: the municipality of Copenhagen, DONG energy and the citizens grouped in a cooperative, allowed for the project to move swiftly. The civil participation process was one of the key focuses considering the closeness of the turbines. The role of the cooperative was unique in that sense that it also allowed for the local citizens to participate and express their transition objectives for the country.

Ecopower is one of the largest REScoops across Europe in terms of members. It gathers nearly 60 000 citizens from the Flemish region in Belgium that jointly take ownership of RES production installations, including 24 large onshore wind turbines (above 3MW). The green electricity that these installations produce is sold to the members at a cost price. That is a self-covering service on which Ecopower does not make any profit.

Allons en Vent from Belgium built one wind turbine called “L’éolienne des enfants” which literally means “the wind turbine of the children”. Parents and grandparents from the community were invited to purchase shares in the cooperative and give their (grand)children access to renewable energy. The small wind turbine (800 KW peak) faced little opposition and was built in only 24 months. The turbine is installed in 2006 and inaugurated by a children’s orchestra. One cooperative share costs 100 euros. This low share allowed for the 1 200 members (350 tutor and 350 students – i.e. the adults and the children) to collect 200 000 euros for the project in 2005. The rest of the financing (600 000 euros) was lent to the community by the bank Triodos. During the inauguration of the installations, the children used colourful paint to write their names on the turbines as a sign of hope. The parents and grandparents also guide and support the children in running the cooperative. Today the children have grown and are now running the cooperative, developing more local transition projects. This project allowed for a whole territory to be educated on the impact of energy communities, as a school was also built around the project, in order to provide education to more children in the region. The cooperative has since also invested in other similar projects in Belgium and France. It provides a 6% yearly dividend to its members.

De Windvogel from the Netherlands, developed and currently operates five wind turbines and 3 solar PV installations (5 MW total) that can all together cover the energy needs of about 2 500 families. The cooperative gathers 3 400 citizens from all over the country who all share in the profits. The cooperative continues to grow and invest, taking on more investments in large wind parks and local development projects.

Middelgrunden Wind Cooperative was the first offshore wind cooperative in Denmark. The project was initiated by the Copenhagen Environment and Energy Office (CEEO) after Middelgrunden had been listed as a potential site in the Danish Action Plan for Offshore Wind. Together with the CEEO a group of local people formed the Middelgrunden Wind Turbine Cooperative and established a cooperation with Copenhagen Energy, the local electric utility. In 1997 about 8 600 local citizens jointly invested. The project is one of the most photographed wind farms in the world. Middelgrunden is an offshore wind farm in the Øresund 3.5 km outside Copenhagen, Denmark. When it was built in 2000, it was the world’s largest offshore farm, with 20 turbines (2 MW peak each) for a capacity of 40 MW peak total. The farm delivers about 4% of the power for Copenhagen. Today, this project is 50% owned by the 10 000 investors in the Middelgrunden Wind Turbine Cooperative, and 50% by the municipal utility company.

Hydro production

The Island of Eigg in Scotland is not connected to the mainland for its electricity supply. The islanders changed their energy system from importing fossil fuels to local renewable production, including hydro and wind energy. A key part of this transition process was saving energy to limit the capacity needed. The typical Scottish weather provides enough wind and water for the islanders to benefit from clean energy from local sources. Eigg Electric is community-owned and managed by a company that provides electricity from renewable sources to all residents. In 2008 the Isle of Eigg is home to the world’s first standalone energy grid that provides electricity from a combination of three renewable energy sources: 11km of underground high voltage cable connects residents to energy generated from three hydroelectric plants (100 kW, 5 kW and 6k W), four 6 kW wind turbines and 50kW solar photovoltaic capacity which produce approximately 90% of the electricity needed locally. A battery bank able to provide electricity for up to 24 hours helps smooth out supply and demand and two 80kW diesel generators are used for backup. These changes were financed largely by EU funds received by the Eigg Electrics, a company managed by the Eigg Heritage Trust, which was set up and is managed by the Eigg inhabitants. The Eigg citizens also each contributed between 500£ and 1000£ to install the necessary connection to the local grid. Local inhabitant and business also committed to limit their consumption (5 kW for private inhabitant, 10kW for businesses), to keep the system balanced.

Whalley Hydro is an energy co-operative based in Whalley (UK) that has successfully developed a 100-kW micro hydro-power generating plant beside the River Calder. Considering the potential ecological impact on fish movements, flood patterns and noise, the co-operative went through an extensive environmental impact assessment procedure to ensure environmental harm was avoided. Rivers in the United Kingdom are protected by the Environment Agency. To build a hydro plant in a river, one needs to comply with stringent and comprehensive environmental regulations. Whalley Hydro’s way of dealing with this regulation, using the expertise of the government agencies, makes this an example of best practice in the environmental integration of RES technology.

The Rumbling Bridge Hydro Coop in Scotland was set up with support from the government-funded CARES development loan and the cooperative Energy4All.The cooperative owns a 500-kW run-of-river hydro power station. So far, the output from the turbine has exceeded the projected output, so the local community stands to earn a considerable community benefit from the scheme over the projected 40 years of operation.

Solar production

Klimaatscholen 2050 is a project for the council of Flemish catholic schools, carried out by a consortium of six REScoops from Flanders (Belgium). This consortium is constituted of BeauVent (Oostende), Ecopower (Antwerp), Energent (Ghent), Pajopower (Halle), Stroomvloed (Leie) and ZuidrAnt  (Antwerp). Those cooperatives were awarded a contract to help catholic secondary schools to save significant amounts of energy in their school buildings by initiating energy efficiency measures and by putting solar PV panels on their roofs. The funds that are needed to make these investments are raised from families and neighbouring citizens of the schools. The cooperatives will be responsible for the project exploitation so that the participating schools get a reduction on their energy bills. Using the energy monitoring tool EnergieID, the cooperatives have supported 16 schools in the region to install PV panels (for a total of 341.5 kW peak) and save energy (both electricity and heat).

Gent Zonnestad, a project put forward by the local energy cooperative EnerGent is resolutely promoting more solar panels in Ghent (Belgium) and its surrounding area. The cooperative offers independent advice to homeowners, tenants and local businesses and successfully developed a map indicating how good buildings in the city are oriented for solar energy production. The cooperative also organises citizens through a group purchasing scheme. The panels bought in bulk are selected and assessed by the cooperative to be socio-environmentally responsible panels, and purchased at competitive, predetermined price. The cooperative also offers support to the interested families to find financing support and to realise the maintenance of the installation. The Gent Zonnestad project resulted in 665 installations for more than 1 500 families (in 2020).

Alcolea del Rio is the first community-owned solar PV project in Spain. The project is close to Sevilla and one of the first projects put forward by Generation kWh, an innovative financing scheme developed by Som Energia. The members of the cooperative provide zero-interest loans, and in return they get access to clean electricity at a cost price. Each member of the collective scheme can buy shares corresponding to its household consumption. The cooperative then supplies KWh to the members at cost prices, following the model of collective auto-consumption. Generation KWh reached members across the whole of Spain, providing them access to truly green electricity for the first time. Despite the lack of subsidies or feed-in premiums for RES generation in Spain at the time, the cooperative decided to proceed because of the project’s environmental and societal value. The project has been operational since 2016 and generates electricity to cover the needs of about 1 300 families. This project is one of the three projects financed by the scheme up to 2020. The installation has a capacity of 2 160 kW peak, and represents an investment of 2 041 025 euros. Generation kWh has brought together 4 479 members for a total investment of more than 4.5 million euros.

Energy4All from the United Kingdom supported the start-up of Edinburgh Community Solar Cooperative, a local cooperative that successfully raised 2 million euros (1.4 million £) to install 24 solar PV arrays on public buildings in Edinburgh (Scotland) for a total of 1.38 MW peak capacity. This project was realised in partnership with the municipality of Edinburg and with the express objective to contribute to the low carbon transition of the city. It is paired with a strong public education campaign specifically targeting children. Residents who join the co-operative and purchase a share also get a fixed return on their capital (5% per year).

In addition, Energy4All has been helping schools and communities in the UK start community renewable energy projects. After the success of the Wey Valley Solar Schools Energy Co-operative in 2011, schools across the country contacted Energy4All to join the financial model the cooperative had set up. Due to changing feed-in-tariffs in England in 2013, Energy4All adapted the Wey Valley model and founded the Schools’ Energy Cooperative to support more English schools in creating renewable and energy efficiency projects. Profits and energy savings are paid back to the schools, reducing their monthly bills. The Schools’ Energy Cooperative now owns and operates 1.76 MW of solar PV on 44 schools. Overall, Energy4All helped the Schools’ Energy Cooperative raise EUR 2 million, and continues to support the schools with monitoring of the systems and administrative tasks.

Enercoop from France successfully enabled the creation of “Lum del Larzac”, a solar PV project in the Midi-Pyrénées region in France. The project consists of 18 roof-top solar PV installations with a total capacity of 162 kWp. Enercoop is a network of local cooperatives generating clean energy from renewable sources. The cooperative buys the electricity from a local project and supplies it to its members. Enercoop brings together 11 cooperatives from each French region, and supplies in total to 70 000 French citizens.

The cooperative Jurascic operates a 108 kWp photovoltaic installation worth EUR 153 000 on the roof of a riding arena in Courlans in France. The panels were originally installed in 2011, but the plant was taken over by Jurascic in June 2017 and now belongs to 650 local citizens, contributing to a local and solidarity-based economy.

The cooperative ZEZ (Green Energy Cooperative) from Croatia is a workers’ solar cooperative that brings together 18 members. The cooperative has developed and funded several solar projects, including a 60 KWpeak project in the city of Krizevci. This installation, included in a collective self-consumption scheme also involves a blockchain trading platform to allow businesses occupying the buildings to purchase the electricity directly from ZEZ. The cooperative also has helped develop an open licence crowdfunding platform to help cooperatives and municipalities of Croatia to fund renewable projects: Nasuncanojstrani.hr. The cooperative has the goal to finance projects to equip 1 000 solar roofs in Croatia.

Biomass production

Ecopower from Belgium operates a wood pellet factory in Ham with an overall production capacity of 40 000 tonnes of wood pellets per year. The wood pellets are used by citizens to heat their private homes. The cooperative provides pellets and briquettes. Ecopower offers a complete solution to its members, using waste heat to dry recycled wood, and delivering it to the members of the cooperatives as well as electricity and efficiency consulting.

Bürgerenergie Genossenschaft West gathers 900 citizens from Neustadt an der Waldnaab in Germany and aims to shift their local energy system to renewables. By issuing EUR 500  shares, the cooperative raised more than EUR 7.4 million to do RES projects and operate a local district heating network using biomass. Throughout the winter, the members from the region of Trabitz get access to heat produced from manure. The region of Trabitz covers an area of 26.67 km² and is home to approximately 1 300 inhabitants. The district heating system spans the entire region. The cooperative also provides advisory services for solar installation and renewable supply.

Geothermal production

Thermo Bello is a district heating cooperative owned by residents of a district in Culemborg, Netherlands. Since 2009, the cooperative is running a district heating system that heats the water with a geothermal heat pump on the drinking water reservoir. In addition to the energy supply, the residents are also closely involved in the development and layout of the district, the landscape and maintenance of public green spaces, traffic safety, water management and the production of local food. The cooperative produces 9 000 Gigajoules per year to serve 192 homes and 8 business premises via an underground distribution network located in the district. In 2019, the Dutch government has launched a plan to support the deployment of district heating across the Netherlands. This program aims to reduce the country’s dependence on natural gas. Cooperatives in the Netherlands have been at the forefront of this implementation.

Efficient consumption

The best way to consume less is to understand the energy bill. To simplify the bill for its members, Ecopower from Belgium used a single tariff structure, meaning that they charge a single unit price regardless of the electricity consumed. This price includes taxes, transportation costs and energy prices. The transparency of this measure helps citizens to better understand their energy bill and helps members to save a considerable amount of energy. Emphasizing that energy savings also lower your energy bill makes it a best practice. This pricing scheme had to be changed following drastic changes in Belgian grid tariffs.

Through Dr. Watt Enercoop from France is training its members to become energy experts and save the energy within their communities. This “cocktail of a solution” includes an in-person training course, an online platform and a peer-to-peer learning group. The members singing up for this training program are offered three training days to learn how to measure, assess and understand the energy consumption in their homes. The cooperative provides the trainee with Wattmeters in order to carry out the measurements. This training is supported by an online platform where members can track their consumption and progress. The group is then organised in peer-to-peer learning groups called “tupperwatt groups”. Those groups allow people to physically meet and exchange ideas on how they can save energy at home and in their communities. Dr. Watt allowed members of Enercoop participating in the training to save up to 11% on their energy consumption.

Som Energia (Spain) is using interactive invoicing called “InfoEnergia” to inform its members about their private energy consumption. Som Energia started with InfoEnergia as an extra service for their members. Instead of just sending invoices Som Energia also sends reports on the energy use of their customers. In this report customers are compared with similar household benchmarks, with previous periods. They also get personalized energy-saving tips.  The service desk of Som Energia is trained to know how the system works and how the reports are created. This way they can handle any questions from customers concerning the report. Through targeted tips and tricks, the cooperative helps its members reduce their average energy consumption.

Courant d’Air (Belgium) has successfully developed a programme called Generation Zero Watt through which they train primary school children to become true energy experts and save energy in the classrooms. The children are being taught how to conduct energy audits, about the benefits of renewables and how to save energy. School children get an appealing educational toolkit at their disposal, including a G-book (similar to Facebook) that allows them to exchange ideas and experiences with one ‘s schools. The Generation Zero Watt programme turned out to be highly effective in Belgium as it helped local schools to save up to 25% of energy.

EnergieID is a social organisation from Belgium that provides online energy monitoring services. Users fill out their monthly consumption data and thus gain insights in their monthly energy consumption behaviour. Intelligence triggers energy savings. There’s also a feature on their platform to benchmark your energy consumption against other families. The competitive aspect has a positive impact on the savings achieved. The H2020 REScoop PLUS project showed that EnergieID helped its members lower their consumption by up to 11% per year. The platform of EnergieID is also allowing for community coaches to support a group of citizens to share experiences and learn how to manage their consumption better.

Using LED lighting equipment cuts electric consumption dramatically compared to traditional light bulbs. In 2016, Courant d’Air an energy cooperative based in Eupen (Belgium), decided to encourage its 2 000 members to participate in a collective purchase of LED light bulbs. With a clear and straightforward communication campaign, the cooperative managed to mobilise over 600 of households. They committed to an investment ranging between EUR 100 and EUR 60 000 which resulted in 228 MWh of energy savings per year since then. A similar scheme was set up by Klimaan, a starting cooperative from Mechelen (Belgium).

Building renovation

Efficient and comfortable homes are a priority for many European citizens. It is also a major policy challenge in Europe as Member States struggle to reach the renovation objectives that they fixed for themselves.

As there are many ways to improve energy efficiency in your home, it can be difficult to choose the best action. The cooperative Ecopower from Belgium developed a cost-covering service called Ecotraject. Through this innovative programme, the coop aims to assist its members with deep energy renovations in their private homes. The scheme starts with a quick scan online, which allows members to get an idea of the renovation they could undertake. Upon the member’s request, an energy expert from the coop starts with a thorough inspection of the home, to understand what would be the most effective measures. The experts then come up with a plan, listing down the possibilities, the expected investment, energy savings and payback time. The cooperative even puts its members in touch with reliable local contractors.

Klimaatpunt (formerly known as Pajopower) (Belgium) reaches out to people in socially vulnerable neighbourhoods with their “Klimaatmobiel” a funny-looking vehicle that they park in the community. People usually get curious and go and check it out. This is how they gain trust. They talk to these people about the energy transition, the importance of energy savings and renewables and they teach them how to switch energy suppliers, how to take action in their private homes, and how to apply for subsidies.

Carbon Co-op in the UK is an energy service and innovation co-operative that helps people and communities to make the radical reductions in home carbon emissions necessary to avoid runaway climate change. The cooperative recently introduced the Carbon Co-op Hub, a platform allowing people to keep track of their energy consumption at home. Carbon Co-op also manages several renovation programs in the Greater Manchester area. The cooperative supports it members to renovate their homes by providing an end-to-end service. The team of Carbon Co-op realise a diagnostic and provides a plan and budget to renovate the home. Upon approval by the member, the cooperative will find a select contractor based on a proven local network and carry-out the renovation. The team will then validate the result of the savings. The cooperative also provides advisory services to the member to find financing and subsidies specifically for the renovation project. The service is up and running since 2018 and has already realised more than 100 projects.

Les 7Vents is a cooperative in the North of France. In 2012, the team of 7Vents launched the “Hands for Homes” program (extension from the Enerterre program in France). This program has since been replicated across Europe thanks to the H2020 program. The cooperative created a barter-based market where people in energy poverty and/or with housing in need of deep renovation can find support for renovating their homes. The network promotes SASR (Shared and Accompanied Self-Renovation) which requires the participation of the occupant/owner to the rehabilitation (Self), with the help of volunteers (Shared) and accompanied by a professional (Accompanied). The homeowner participate in the building with volunteers, thus decreasing workforce cost. Everyone can volunteer, without discrimination due to gender, age, culture, resources or competencies, thus fostering social diversity. The building professional on-site accompanies volunteers and beneficiaries in learning technical gestures and skills by transferring her/his knowledge and techniques. Wherever possible, occupants renovate their houses with the help of neighbours and volunteers that want to learn how to retrofit a house. In return, other beneficiaries will benefit from the help of those who they have helped for the rehabilitation of their homes. Thus, beneficiaries get involved in a mutually beneficial system. Their involvement for the rehabilitation of their own house is expected for the rehabilitation of other beneficiaries’ house in a reciprocation process, for instance through the form of a local time-swap exchange.

Through “Wijkwerf” the cooperative EnerGent wants to encourage and help citizens in the city of Ghent (Belgium) to make their homes more energy-efficient. The scheme is set up as a joint purchase, but with high-quality standards and tailored guidance for energy retrofits. The moto of the scheme is “Less costs and less worries”. A similar model is a set-up by Lochem Energie in the Netherlands. The “Energie Coach” is an efficiency specialist from the cooperative that is visiting the homes of members at their request. The coach will take thermic images of the homes and realise a 2 hour diagnostic of the home and deliver a report to the member. Based on this report, the member of the cooperative can get consulting services to realise improvements to their homes or simple advices on how to change their consumption patterns.

Hvidovre Fjernvarme is a district heating cooperative running a network in Denmark. This cooperative of 42 345 members, including the Hvidovre municipality, is providing heat from renewable sources to 53 500 inhabitants in the municipality of Hvidovre. Together with three other district heating cooperatives (FDHvidovre, Avedøre and Rebæk Søpark) deployed a program to support members to optimize their heating installations, allowing them to save energy and money. The technical support is a check of the consumers’ heating installations every second year: The first check is a check of their district heating unit and thorough energy analysis of their houses, i.e. how the consumer can save energy in their house. After the check, the consumer receives an energy report of their house. In the report, the consumer is informed on whether their heating consumption is below or above the average consumption and it entails guidelines for what the consumer can do to optimize the energy efficiency of their house. This type of check is repeated every six years. Two years after the first check, a maintenance check of the district heating unit is performed to adjust the unit in the most energy-efficient and energy-saving way. This type of check happens every two years. The checks are free for the members of the cooperative and allow homeowners to take action to improve their homes.

Energy Community Tipperary Cooperative represents 8 Community Energy Teams (coming from 8 communities) consisting of volunteers living in the area with an interest in working for local benefit. Representing between 1 000 and 1 600 residents, or 300-500 households, per community. Started as a pilot scheme in the Drombane/Upperchurch community (1 000 inhabitants) in rural Tipperary as a way to halt the economic and social decline. The Drombane/Upperchurch project began in 2011 when a local group (Drombane Village Group) as part of a community initiative was looking to stimulate the local economy through developing jobs and ‘keeping money in the area’. The cooperative is launched in 2015. The team of the cooperative performs a preliminary technical assessment of the home. The experts of the cooperative then bundle local projects to a bid for a grant of the Sustainable Energy Authority Ireland. If the bid is successful, the cooperative tenders and manage the renovation projects for individual residents. The residents only have to pay for the remainder not financed through the grant scheme. ECTC works primarily with local contractors.

Energy poverty

In a number of EU Member States, REScoops explicitly pursue social aims, such as fighting energy poverty. They do this by developing solidarity schemes to help vulnerable members with their energy bills, by providing services and education to their members on reducing their consumption, and using revenue from renewable energy generation to improve the living standards of vulnerable and low-income households.

Repowering London is a cooperative in the UK. The cooperative is running a scheme in social housing in the London region. The cooperative volunteers are recruiting and training volunteers from the social housing tenants. Those local champions are then facilitating the creation of a cooperative with their neighbours in the building. The constituted cooperative is investing in solar panels on the roof of the social housing. The share offer is supported by Repowering London. Champions are then trained to install the solar installation. The production is shared amongst the members of the cooperative. Repowering has developed Youth Training Programme, a paid scheme covering sustainable energy, social enterprise and community development. The programme is offered to young people (16-25-year olds), who are lacking opportunities and role models and who may feel alienated from greater society, disengaged with education and uncertain of the future. The programme is carried out in parallel to the development of community energy projects in the local area and includes presentations from industry specialists and knowledge sharing. Upon completion, trainees are awarded UK certified educational certificates and receive career advice, to boost their employability and confidence. The training serves as one of the front lines to inspire and influence action at the home and beyond to combat fuel poverty, a major concern in these communities. One of such projects supported by the cooperative is Brixton Energy in London (UK). This local cooperative trains young people in Brixton and turns them into energy experts. After being trained for several weeks, the young professionals can give high-quality energy advice, or develop RES projects. The cooperative then take additional steps to support the communities in social housing building to create a cooperative, and carry out a photovoltaic production project. The young energy experts are then participating in the construction of the installation.

Enercoop is a cooperative electricity supplier based in France whose members called for the creation of energy poverty mitigation actions. The program Energie Solidaire is a microdonation fund that allows suppliers, clients, to add micro-donations to their energy bills which will then directly support grassroots energy poverty solutions in France. This program is now implemented for the members of Enercoop. Energie Solidaire can now also be added to any supplier’s billing system, allowing for the action to be expanded across Europe. The fund then selects energy poverty tackling NGOs that are implementing local programs to suppress energy poverty. The fund was launched in 2018 and has already gathered and donated back 30 000 EUR (in 2019). The fund is supported by many NGOs involved in poverty alleviation and renovation in France.

An increasing number of energy communities share part of their profits with a community benefit society that provides value to the entire community, not only to those who decided to join the cooperative. This way, everyone can benefit from the projects in the community not only those who can afford to put in money. Community benefit societies can set up campaigns, workshops or help mitigate energy poverty in all sorts of ways.

In Eeklo (Belgium) the cooperative Ecopower shares ownership of a wind turbine with the local authority. This will give local citizens that already have problems paying their energy bills and where a budget meter was installed access to clean and more affordable electricity of Ecopower – without having to buy a cooperative share of 250 EUR. This scheme allows for citizens in poverty to benefit from the lower kWh price in the region of Flanders, which is provided by Ecopower to its members. This price is “electricity at cost price”.

Storage

Tenants mainly live in apartments and older terraced houses, which makes it difficult to install private solar panels. A collective solar project, led by the energy cooperative Energent (BE), aims to offer a solution. By 2022, Buurzame Stroom intends to install 5 000 square metres of solar PV panels spread across a district in Gent accounting for 750 kWp. Buurzame Stroom aims to increase renewable energy production in that district and wants to set up an innovative business model for collective self-consumption. In addition, the project wants to test whether the district can be turned into an integrated local energy system powered by renewables. Electric vehicles operated by Partago and battery systems are put in place to buffer excess solar energy. Buurzame Stroom benefits from the expertise of various cooperatives including Ecopower and EnergieID and the WiseGRID project.

The cooperative EWS Schönau from Germany provides its members with a grant to purchase and install private battery systems in their homes. EWS is a distribution system operator and supplier for the area of Schönau im Schwarzwald in Germany. This 30-year-old cooperative is looking to provide only renewable energy to the families connected to its grid and installation, and for this they decided to promote the development of decentralised electricity storage units. The cooperative provides a grant of 200 EUR to households looking to install a sustainable storage system, and to manage it to benefit local grid stability.

Electricity supply

Coopérnico is the first cooperative energy producer and supplier in Portugal. Citizens from all over the country were invited to become a member and purchase a share. These revenues are then used to finance RES investments including solar PV panels. The energy that is supplied is sustainable energy from their RES projects. So far, the cooperative has nearly 800 clients. Similar business models have been put forward by many other energy cooperatives. Enostra from Italy has 4 000 clients, Goiener from the Basque region in Spain supplies energy from local and renewable sources to over 13 000 clients. The largest energy retailers within our network are Ecopower from Belgium/Flanders with nearly 55 000 clients, Enercoop from France with nearly 90 000 clients, Som Energia from Spain with nearly 115 000 clients, Greenpeace Energy (Germany) with over 180 000 clients and EWS (Germany) with over 200 000 clients.

German cooperative Bürgerwerke is aggregating RES generation capacity from citizen- and community-owned RES installations so that citizens can supply themselves with clean energy from local sources independently of energy companies with citizen power.

A few years ago, the energy cooperatives from the French-speaking region of Belgium decided to join forces and set up Cociter, their own cooperative energy supplier. The energy that the coops jointly produce covers the needs of 15 000 families. With over 3 000 members, Cociter still has space for 12 000 new families to join in.

Heat supply

The best examples from within our network come from Denmark. The Danes have about 340 local district heating cooperatives. Hvidovre, a district of Copenhagen, is a typical example. The cooperative Hvidovre Fjernvarme is a district heating cooperative that brings together a majority of the citizen of the area (42 345 members). The cooperative has been deploying a renewably powered heating grid since the 1980s. The production is based on woodchips and pellets, coupled with solar thermal and heat pumps. Renewable production covers 100% of the consumption of the area. In the next 10 years, the cooperative expects to continue its investment to reach 98 million EUR. Today the cooperative delivers 340 000 MWh per year to its connected households. The water that runs through their cooperative network gets heated with the waste heat from a local CHP plant.

In Belgium, we often refer to BeauVent who are operating a cooperative district heating network in Oostende. This project started in 2017, is operational since 2019. It provides 7 GWh/year to connected households. BeauVent is continuing the network’s development to provide residual heat captured from industrial sites to the citizen of Oostende. Today, the network is 7 km long.

Also in Belgium, Ecopower is currently installing a district heating network in Eeklo. Eeklo – a small city in Flanders of about 30 000 inhabitants – is a signatory of the Covenant of Mayors. The city is looking to become carbon neutral by 2050. One key element in realizing this ambition is putting to good use the 15 MW of condenser heat that is lost at the waste incineration plant on the territory of Eeklo. To turn its plans into action, the city tendered the right of using the public underground for a district heating system. The requirements in the tender were rather innovative: Partners needed to allow at least 30% financial participation of citizens, partner had to turn to 100% green heat in the system by 2036, and they had to supply heat at a cost comparable to heat from fossil fuels. Belgian cooperative Ecopower teamed up with waste and energy industrial giant Veolia and won the tender. The municipality being keen to involve all kind of local stakeholders, any party connecting to the DH system, individual citizens, but also SMEs, schools, elderly homes and the hospital are allowed to co-invest and have a say in the entity that is being set up to own and operate the project. Thanks to this district heating project, Eeklo will reduce its greenhouse gas emissions by over 40% by 2030.

E-Werk Prad Genossenschaft (Italy) is a cooperative in the municipality Prato allo Stelvio in Bolzano-Bozen. The electric cooperative was founded in 1926 and started with a hydropower plant. Today, they produce electricity from different energy sources and they also supply heat to their members.

Greenpeace Energy from Germany does not only supply electricity to its members. Excess wind energy is converted into hydrogen and can be fed into the natural gas grid. This way, members can benefit from biogas to heat their private homes.

In Germany, the cooperative of Oberrosphe created a district heating grid extract from biomass. The grid benefits both from a collective biomass digestor owned by the cooperative, but also private smaller biomass-based electricity production from local farmers. In February 2007, the people of Oberrosphe founded a cooperative called “Bioenergiedorf Oberrosphe”, with the aim of supplying the village with climate-neutral electricity and heating. The cooperative has invested in a biomass heating installation and a local heating network. These have been in operation since 2008 and currently supply local heat to 135 houses through approximately 7 Km of pipes. In addition to heat supply, Bioenergiedorf Oberrosphe eG also operates several solar PV installations scattered around the village. The biomass heating installation also has a photovoltaic roof that generates green electricity. In 2015, Bioenergiedorf Oberrosphe joined up with 7 other community-based biomass producers from neighbouring villages. Collectively, the citizens and farmers of these villages now buy wood materials, operate machines, remove waste and exchange experiences.

Distribution grid

Historically, the development of energy infrastructure has been a key battleground for modernisation and access to electricity. In some Member States, this deployment has been unbalanced and has left certain regions behind. In those regions, cooperatives have been created by local citizens to get access to these services. Energy democracy in its purest form is based on local ownership and control by citizens. In some Member States, the needs of the citizens were not taken into account. To meet those needs (local control, renewable only sources, decentralised production, etc.), citizens had to take over grid infrastructure.

E-Werk Prad Genossenschaft, a cooperative of the Südtiroler Energie Verband in Italy, recently started an innovative smart grid project to obtain a better balance in their energy production and consumption. This Italian cooperative network was started in 1897 to develop a production in the Alto Adgani region of Italy. A group of cooperatives from the region got together to take over the regional grid. The fact that most consumers are also members of the cooperative makes it easier to organize the demand-side response. This gives an extra and improved dimension to the project.

When citizens of the small city of Schönau in the Black Forest in Germany, organised in ElektrizitätsWerke Schonau (EWS), decided to buy the local distribution grid in 1991, the energy market was not yet liberalised and financial support systems were absent. By buying the grid, the cooperative aimed to reorganise it in an ecological manner. In order to transform the grid and the energy production, EWS encouraged citizens to install renewable energy production units by facilitating their connection to the grid and by paying special feed-in tariffs. At the moment, the produced energy of citizens is exported to the grid and they are compensated through the EEG (renewable contribution tax). EWS proves that by taking the grid and the sale of energy into your own hands, you can change the business model to meet the needs of your members. EWS supports other communities in Germany to do the same.

Today, this need for local control and development is standing top of mind for many citizens. New examples of cooperatives and citizen-led initiatives taking over the grid infrastructure are emerging. In Berlin and Hamburg, the municipalities cooperate with cooperatives of local citizens to take the grid over from large, carbon-based, international companies. In Flanders, local citizens rose up to stop the sale of a majority share of their regional DSO (currently in the hands of municipalities) to an international company. Across Europe, citizens are organising to participate in the management, maintenance and development of those priority infrastructures.

Blockchain technology

Consumption or production data is often registered by meters that are owned by distribution grid operators, giving end-users little control over what is actually private and sensitive information. The Pylon Network from Spain has been working on a solution and successfully developed an independent and neutral database based on blockchain technology. Through their technology, production and consumption data can be stored and shared safely. End-users or prosumers can thus keep control over their data and decide with whom they want to share information with.

FairCoop based in Austria, developed a FairCoin, an innovative blockchain technology that requires less energy and enables fast and secure transactions. The cryptocurrency has been built with a clear set of values in mind, to bridge economic gaps on a regional and global level. It is by far the most ecological and resilient cryptocurrency in the world.

Electro-mobility

When thinking about the future energy market, we have to consider electricity, heat and transportation. A few years ago, REScoop.eu facilitated an international collaboration between three e-car sharing cooperatives through a dedicated working group. These cooperatives eventually set up a new cooperative called The Mobility Factory (TMF). TMF features a jointly owned European platform that enables energy communities from across Europe to share e-cars within their communities.

Partago is an e-car sharing cooperative operating in the city of Ghent (Belgium). With support from 500 local citizens, the cooperative invests in and operates a fleet of nearly 50 electric cars. These cars are shared within the community through the TMF Platform. Similar business models have been developed by Som Mobilitat (Spain), Coöperatieauto (Netherlands), UrStrom (Germany), Alterna Coop (Spain), Mobicoop (France) and Conecta Movel (Spain). Altogether mid-2020, this network represents about 190 cars and 71 000 EUR of investments. To join the cooperative MobilityFactory SCE, the minimum investment is 4 shares for an investment of 1 000 EUR. Together this network has produced a software tool estimated at 177 000 EUR in 2020.

In Bruges (Belgium), CoopStroom developed an innovative collaboration with the City Council. Throughout the day, the e-cars are used for professional reasons by civil servants of the city, whereas at night and during the weekend these cars can be used by the members. A similar model was put in place in several Belgian municipalities (Elsenborn, Scherpenheuvel-Zichem, Leuven).

Energy sharing

Energia Positiva is a citizens energy cooperative from Italy taking joint ownership of renewable energy projects. Members get access to clean energy and can use it to cover their own needs. In that sense, it operates like a “virtual power plant”.

OurPower is a cooperative from Austria that offers the opportunity to its member to perform share energy. The cooperative is hosting a regional electricity marketplace allowing for its members to buy and sell kWh directly from other members.

In the Netherlands, the municipality of Loenen took a bold stance to support the local transition with a goal to make the municipality carbon neutral by 2050. In order to support this initiative, the citizens of Loenen have created the Loenen Cooperative. The municipality established a fund supporting citizens that wish to invest in roof solar production. The cooperative is aggregating those production units and provides a smart grid system to ensure the matching of consumption and production in the village. The cooperative is running active demand response programs, in addition to renovation actions and heat pumps. This community is also trying to get away from gas, and is therefore looking to get support from the national government to do so.

Municipalities

Municipalities are often the first allies, primary supporters and often members of energy communities. Municipalities are the first representation of local citizens but are often faced with little capabilities and limited tools for action to engage with their citizens. Below are some examples of how municipalities and cooperatives have collaborated. More of those great projects can be found in the guide “How cities can back renewable energy communities” [99] of Energy Cities.

In the city of Halle in Belgium, the cooperative Pajopower recently replaced 445 traditional public street lights with LED. The investment worth EUR 225 000 was financed by the cooperative and helps the city to save both energy and money. This is a typical example of third-party financing through a collective ESCO model. Citizens were invited to adopt the public street light in front of their doors buy purchasing a collective share and replacing the street light by LED.

The city of Leuven in Belgium has been looking to develop an energy community group. For this purpose, the city teamed up with a group headed by the cooperative Ecopower to deploy the “Licht” program. Licht Leuven is a community-building program through which the municipality offers the opportunity for citizen to get training from cooperative coaches of Ecopower and several other experts NGOs. This program allowed the city to create citizen groups looking to become a cooperative themselves. The program was so successful that it was picked up by the provincial government and became “Licht Vlaams Brabant”, coaching more than 9 groups across the province. The outcome of the whole program which started in 2017 is the creation of 4 energy cooperatives.

In Spain, the city of Barcelona worked to create a participatory tool that involved citizens, called Decidim. This tool is at the heart at the deployment of Barcelona Energia, a municipal operator, bringing together 200 GWh/year of local electricity production. This operator is also distributing the electricity to the citizens of Barcelona. It further supports citizens to develop their own production, with the ultimate objective to grow the renewable potential of the city. Decidim is an open-source public participation tool that allows the citizens of Barcelona to vote and communicate directly with the institution of Barcelona Energia. This platform was also provided free to other municipalities and cooperatives like Som Energia.

Odenwald Energy Cooperative (EGO) in Germany created an “Energy House” where the citizen of the region could find training on energy topics, cultural events and communal infrastructure. The cooperative financed the transformation of this old brewery into a passive building to create a renovation service building where citizens can find support to renovate their homes and buildings. The building also serves as office buildings for the public administrations from the Odenwald municipality.

The city of Krizevci in Croatia took a bold engagement in 2018 – to be carbon neutral by 2030. Together with the cooperative ZEZ, the municipality supported the creation of a local cooperative: KLIK Cooperative. This cooperative brings together an engaged group of citizens looking to invest in renewable production projects. It further supports the work of the municipality in engaging its neighbours.

Networks

Energie Samen is a cooperative owned by several energy cooperatives in the Netherlands. Unlike REScoop.eu, they are not a federation but a cooperative providing services to Dutch community energy projects with regards to financing, legal issues, communication, technical studies, project development, etc. That means that starting energy cooperatives get support from Energie Samen to conduct wind studies and obtain all the licenses needed to erect a turbine within a community. If the project goes through and the starting co-op gets in the position to make an investment, Energie Samen charges a price for the service delivered. This is how Energie Samen maintains its revolving character.

Electra Coop from Greece offers several services on solar and renewable energy, energy efficiency, energy certification of buildings and homes. At the same time, they provide consultancy services to the public sector on community energy investments and innovative PPP collaborations involving the local community. The project Hyperion is one of the new models available to Greek cooperatives. This project relies on citizens and SMEs investing together following the Greek collective self-consumption scheme available for energy communities in the new Greek legislation. Members invest in solar cells placed in a rural area neighbouring the city of Athens and consume the energy produced by a netting scheme. Through this project citizens in Athens, SMEs in Athens and local farmers providing the grounds are investing together and benefitting from the scheme.

Energiegenossenshaften Schweiz provides support and expertise on the planning, construction and maintenance of solar PV projects in Switzerland. In the French-speaking part of Switzerland, another federation was created to provide similar services: Association Suisse pour l’Energie Citoyenne (ASEC). ASEC is currently working a map of all citizen-led initiatives in the country. Together, those federations are supporting the development of community projects at national level.

Collective financing

Energie Partagée (France) is a social fund looking to invest in citizen-led projects. The team at Energie Partagée supports citizen groups who are looking to develop local production projects. The network provides technical support, coaching and financing. The fund takes shares of projects looking for early financing and then gets out of the project once it is stable and more money is raised from the local community.

Energy4All is a federation of cooperatives from the UK. This network of cooperatives supports local groups in creating a cooperative, and in developing their share offers. This makes it a lot easier for new community energy projects to raise money for renewable production projects. The cooperatives then become members of Energy4All and help finance the share offers of future community energy groups.

Technical, administrative and financial barriers to energy communities

The Best Practice Guide is showing the wide scope of the activities and the ingenuity of energy communities. Yet, many energy communities are still faced with high barriers to access many of the activities described above. The COMPILE pilots have faced those barriers head-on and tried to identify solutions. Those barriers are coming in four main types:

• Disproportionate or irrelevant administrative procedure: Energy Communities are a new concept, so the Member States are still experimenting with supports and administrative mechanisms. Some of these mechanisms, as well as existing market imbalances, are creating an inequitable situation and damaging the level playing field for Energy Communities.
• Lack of readiness of the infrastructure and actors: Many system actors are adapting to the new energy market rules. This creates difficult situations for Energy Communities as they need to support and compensate for the lack of maturity of system actors and municipalities.
• Lack of transparency and information: Energy is a complex topic, and many consumers do not understand the possibilities offered to them by the Energy Community definitions. This lack of information and transparency is reinforced by misinformation.
• Lack of access to financing: Energy communities, by their value-based investment, have specific needs for financing. Those needs are currently not met, and the traditional financing solutions are out of reach for projects with limited equity and portfolios.

Disproportionate or irrelevant administrative procedure

Many of our pilots have been facing disproportionate administrative procedures in the process of the creation of their energy communities. The barriers faced are:

Inappropriate registration procedures: energy communities are facing barriers relating to their identification to regulators through registration platforms. Specifically, the issues are the format of the platform, the detailed information requested is making it impossible for non-professionals to perform those registrations. This is especially true in Portugal, where condominiums looking to create energy communities have had to hire external consultants for the registration process only.

Punitive regulations for members of energy communities: citizens should be allowed to keep the protections afforded by their employee status while being members of an energy community. In Croatia, members of our pilot lose the protections linked with employment as they become a member of the cooperative.

Absence of procedures and regulations on municipal participation: the participation of municipalities has been highlighted in both the renewable energy community and citizen energy community definitions. However, municipalities are operating under strict regulations. In Greece, Any procurement procedure linked to a municipalities above 2000 euros must be performed under the public procurement rules. This is creating an impossible burden for small organisations like energy communities. This makes the opportunity of participating in energy communities void for municipalities.

Disproportionate regulatory barriers for supply activities: in all our pilots, supply activities were crucial to allow for citizens to get access to the energy they are producing and to share it with their neighbors. Our pilots faced high barriers to obtain the right to supply, even in a geographically limited space and to a small group. The licensing model used the majority of member states is putting the same burdens on large suppliers with millions of clients, and an energy community with 5000 to 9000 clients. This makes it impossible for energy communities to supply energy to their members.

The origin of those barriers is mostly coming from the lack of understanding and appropriate structures in the regulators to manage energy communities. Most of our pilots highlight the fact that procedures and requirements are often not made for the specific organizational form and participants (private consumers) acting in energy communities.

Lack of readiness of the infrastructure and actors

The second major barrier is the lack of readiness of infrastructure, which puts a stop to many activities or innovative schemes that energy communities are working to implement.

Lack of smart meters deployment: all the partners of the project COMPILE are currently facing issues with the deployment of smart meters. Smart meter deployment is a crucial part in many cases of the implementation of local community-based schemes (self-consumption, flexibility services, energy efficiency). In some member states, the cost to obtain smart meters on a voluntary basis is higher than when deployed in a centralised way. This is preventing energy communities to obtain this necessary tool.

Limitations by System Operator: the security of the infrastructure is important for all actors of the energy system, including consumers. In many of our pilots, energy communities are participating and supporting grid management and security of supply. But they are faced with arbitrary limitations on their activities. In Portugal, the only distribution key allowed for collective self-consumption is static, and therefore not encouraging citizens to improve their self-consumption levels. In Slovenia, the limitation of the substation is making it impossible for the energy community to act with the entire local community.

Lack of municipality maturity: In Croatia and Greece, our pilots have collaborated intensely with municipalities. But the lack of readiness of municipal services and capacity at the municipal level is a barrier to the development of the energy community. Municipalities are lacking the funds and know-how to participate and collaborate with their citizens to create energy communities.

In our analysis, those barriers are linked to the novelty of energy communities. Local governments and system operators need to be familiarised with the specific needs and capabilities of energy communities. However, in some countries, the lack of effort and flat-out refusal to collaborate is making it difficult for citizens to access the rights provided to them by the REC and CEC provisions.

Lack of transparency and information

In the continuation of the two previous barriers, the lack of information is a burden on energy communities. Our pilot had to be pioneers in many cases in their countries. We participated in the creation of national legal frameworks around energy communities. But the challenges are not stopping for the energy communities coming after us.

Lack of continuity in the legislation: the most important part of the scaling of the energy community concepts for citizens is continuity in the legislative framework. The fear of a changing legal framework can destroy any initial motivation of local actors to create an energy community. Especially in our pilot in Slovenia, the lack of stable and continuous regulation has been a major barrier to engage citizens and municipalities in that path.

Lack of support and information to citizens and municipalities: in all our pilots, the lack of information, knowledge and capacity at the municipal level has been the most difficult challenge to face. We also faced the spread of disinformation on the definitions and the purpose of energy communities. It is crucial that the Member States make a specific effort to communicate on the nature and benefits of energy communities to citizens. This is the only way to put this concept at the service of consumers throughout Europe.

Member States are requested by the Renewable Energy Directive to create enabling frameworks for Renewable Energy Communities. This enabling framework is key to the development and scaling of the energy communities concepts. Without efforts from European and national authorities, the concept of Energy Communities will become a missed opportunity.

Lack of access to financing

Energy communities are facing specific barriers to access financing for their projects. Those barriers are often due to their size, the shared ownership model and the lack of understanding of financial institutions. Energy communities often have no difficulties raising capital from citizens once a project is defined and moving forward, however there is often a gap between financing from founders and financing from the broader community. This financing gap is usually addressed by a banking institution in traditional businesses, but in the many Member States, energy communities are poorly understood and often discriminated against by traditional banking actors.

For instance, in our pilot in Greece, no bank would support the loan necessary to kick start a collective self-consumption project. The project was shown to be profitable, but the organization had no track record and a limited portfolio. The innovative activity was considered more risky by the banking institutions. In Portugal, a similar issue was met as the size of the loan request by small condominium was not producing enough return to support banking conditions (even though the cooperative could raise the financing later on).

An example of this lack of understanding is coming from Spain, where equity capital from cooperative members (which is the bulk of the balance sheet of cooperatives) is deemed volatile by financing institutions. This is blocking cooperatives from accessing loans necessary for the development of their projects.

Finally, the fact that the energy community must stay autonomous has been stopping the influx of private capital. Traditional investors are often refusing the democratic governing principles of energy communities and requesting exponential returns for their investments. This is perverting the roles of energy communities and is rejected by most citizen-led organisations. Some private investors have sometimes successfully perverted the energy community model in their favor, in order to benefit from specific enabling frameworks. We touch on those examples in the Financing Guide of COMPILE, in the debate FINcoops vs REScoops.

Proposed solutions

The Clean Energy Package requires the Member States to develop an enabling framework for Renewable Energy Communities. In order to tackle the barriers listed above, the COMPILE project proposes the following solutions to support alleviate those issue:

Simplified administrative procedures: It is crucial that national energy regulators recognise and support the different types of actors that make up energy communities. Simplified administrative procedures and one-stop-shops are uniquely relevant to solve those issues. This support is better provided at the municipal or regional level because of their close contact and capacity to dialogue with citizens.

Capacity building and technical support for municipalities: Municipality will play a crucial role in the development of energy communities. But for many municipalities it is hard to engage because of the complexity of public procurement rules and the lack of understanding around new market actors like energy communities. Capacity building and technical support must be available to help municipalities better understand the ways they can support energy communities. Clear governance models and stable regulations allowing for specific municipal tendering rules in favor of energy communities can also help the development of those community-based organisations.

Appropriate financing tools that recognise citizen-centered ownership models: Since the start of the transposition process, misinformation and misunderstanding have been spreading across Europe. It is crucial for the Member States to develop financing tools specifically for energy communities that will reward citizen involvement and ownership. Some best practices in this regard are national and regional grant-to-loan funds like the CARES fund in Scotland.

Supportive framework for energy communities that tackle social issues: Energy communities are usually created as territory transition projects (local projects to promote a local energy transition). Therefore energy communities tackle several activities benefiting the system, including energy efficiency, energy poverty alleviation and flexibility. However, those activities are often difficult to develop and require heavy investments. In order to promote the development of such activities, Member States should create additional support schemes for communities looking to tackle broader societal challenges.

Resources

This guide should help you get inspired for your path to energy democracy. You are not alone on this road, and we hope that you will reach out to one or more of the cooperatives presented here. If you are ready to take the next step to explore how to finance your project, how to mobilize your community, we invite you to open the other guides of this toolbox.

If you wish to get to know more about the projects and organisation cited above, as well as receive support to develop a similar activity, we recommend contacting the relevant organisations directly. You can also contact network organisations bringing together all those organisations under one umbrella. More information and support can be found at www.rescoop.eu and www.compile-project.eu.