Thanks to trailblazing work by local governments, an exciting new future for the European energy system is emerging, which envisions a central role for each and every European community.

For many years now, communities and local governments have been advocating for the critical role that people must play, in order to reach Europe’s ambitious climate goals, and to become the first climate neutral continent. Now, European policy developments have finally included concrete instruments to make that happen. These developments include the legislative package “Fit to 55%”, which was officially presented this month, and this summer’s revision to the EU’s Renewable Energy Directive (RED II).

Putting people at the centre of energy planning

Relevant EU texts, like RED II, feature keywords, such as empowerment, participation and fairness, that come up again and again. In other words, Europe has responded to local calls to centre communities and place the energy transition as an opportunity to rethink the entire energy system, far beyond the mere technological innovations that shift energy production and consumption.

In other words, and as explained by Commissioner for Climate Action and Energy, Miguel Arias Cañete, Europe’s energy future is an “Energy Union with citizens at its core”.

Energy communities

One example of Europe putting this new systemic vision into practice is the prominence of two new legal entities: Renewable Energy Communities and Citizens Energy Communities – which were introduced to European legislation in the Renewable Energy Directive (RED II,2018/2001) and the Internal Electricity Market Directive (IEMD, 2019/944), respectively. These legal entities enable locals to group together to take ownership of the energy system, not only with respect to energy generation, but also with active roles in energy storage, selling, aggregating, sharing and with providing energy services.

Despite some differences between them, these forms share the same primary purpose to provide a local area with community-generated environmental, economic and/or social benefits.

Local governments are taking on key roles in helping with energy community set-up, becoming shareholders, acting as energy community springboards, and more.

Energy communities are a way for local groups to claim real changemaking power, taking ownership over the energy transition. Furthermore, they are an effective means of addressing a variety of urban challenges, including energy poverty and low social cohesion.

Local governments and energy communities: perfect partners

Local governments, with their political mandates and proximities to citizens, are in the best position to make energy communities a prevalent and powerful reality. Cities can create – and are creating – new energy communities and support structures that can guide communities and SMEs in setting up their initiatives. In fact, RED II specifically calls upon Member States to build the capacity of public authorities, so that they can better support the uptake of renewable energy communities.

ICLEI Members provide inspiration, showcasing examples of cities taking up their roles as facilitators of energy communities.

ICLEI Member Bologna (Italy), has a long tradition of citizen engagement on climate and energy. Since 2019, their G.E.CO. – Green Energy Communities project has been active in the city’s Pilastro and Rovevre areas, convening building tenants, businesses and enterprises to create one of the first renewable energy communities in Italy. They aim to engage as many of the 7500 building tenants as possible, 1400 of whom live in social housing. These efforts represent a joint undertaking, which engages public and private sector actors and stakeholders at the local, national and European levels.

G.E.CO raises awareness of energy communities and renewable energy, in tandem with exploring new technologies (e.g. blockchain), and business models that utilise several incentives recently approved by the Italian government – including a special rate for energy produced and consumed by RECs, as well as incentives to boost energy efficiency in private buildings.

ICLEI Member Valencia (Spain) is also active in engaging citizens in the energy transition, including by leveraging the potential of energy communities. In 2019, the city set up an Energy Office to provide citizens with information, training and personalised advice on energy-related topics. The Energy Office actively supports energy community setup, and the city aims to have 100 energy communities in the Valencia area by 2030. Furthermore, the city has made civic centre roofs available to energy communities for photovoltaic panel installation.

Another example comes from ICLEI Member Tartu (Estonia), which is setting up its first community energy project, and heralding this as an essential part of their Energy & Climate Plan, titled “Tartu Energia 2030”. With the strong support of the Tartu Regional Energy Agency, the city aims to create a local “solar community,” by bringing together residents of two mixed-use (residential and commercial) buildings. Residential and commercial spaces have differing resources, energy needs, and energy use. Thus, by focusing on mixed-use buildings, the solar community will be able to maximise the flexibility of the PV installations that will be placed on building roofs.

How ICLEI provides support

ICLEI Europe brings to light local governments’ potential to effectively and swiftly support energy communities as a step towards a more just and sustainable energy future. Recent examples include ICLEI’s contribution to a Community Power Coalition position paper on financing community energy, a joint letter calling for higher ambition in renewable targets, as well as ICLEI Europe’s position paper titled “Fit-for-55+: Powering up a sustainable and fair energy transition in Europe.”

ICLEI supports local governments through projects such as DECIDE, PROSEU, COME RES, SONNET, POWERPOOR and WinWind, to name a few. These projects empower local governments to test new solutions (e.g. via Living Labs), access guides and resources, and come together to learn from one another.

Explore the project websites listed above for more information and inspiration.