Inspiring Examples and Best Practices

OVERVIEW OF ENERGY COMMUNITIES

In the following chart, you can see an overview of energy communities in Europe.

About

Based on the island of Crete, Minoan was established during the COVID-19 pandemic as a response to the social and economic consequences of lockdowns (across the region). The purpose of Minoan was expanded after a destructive earthquake (27 September 2021) severely affected its home region of Arkalochori.

Mission

To eliminate energy poverty by creating equal access to the energy generated by the potential of the island for all Cretan Citizens. The Minoan Energy Community will play an integral and leading role in the energy transition in Crete, ensuring the transition is democratic and fair, claiming the maximum possible benefits for the local community.

Activities

Minoan has developed two energy-sharing projects for collective self-consumption known as Virtual Net Metering. Through virtual Net Metering, Minoan’s members, among whom are citizens, local businesses, and municipalities across the region of Crete, generate their electricity from solar power and feed unused electricity back into the grid, thus giving members reduced electricity bills. The first project has a 405kWp capacity and the second is of 1MWp. In addition, Minoan has a wide variety of projects under development, which aim to diversify Renewable Energy Sources (RES) to include solar thermal collectors, small wind, biomass, hydro storage, district heating networks, geo-exchange, and energy-saving measures.

The community also engages energy experts who offer non-profit advice to citizens for energy-saving measures and energy-efficiency upgrades of their residences and to public authorities for energy-saving and energy-efficiency measures to their buildings. It is also active in scientific research and the organization of capacity building and informational events for local stakeholders and citizens aiming to raise awareness in the Cretan insular community on energy the transition focusing on its necessity, risks and identified opportunities.

Distinctive Good Practice

The community has been engaging and collaborating with local stakeholders including over 11 municipalities that are now members of Minoan and the island’s Regional Authority. This unified approach allows the community to actively contribute to the development of energy projects tailored to the specific needs of these municipalities, promoting localized energy production that directly benefits the region’s citizens. Furthermore, the community plays a significant role in shaping energy policy that emphasizes the importance of energy communities in fostering local well-being. Its commitment to innovation is underscored by collaboration with local academic and research institutes to implement pioneering and pilot projects. Additionally, the community organizes open public information days and events tailored for schools and professional groups such as those in the tourism sector and agriculture, ensuring that knowledge and resources are widely accessible and fostering a culture of sustainability within the community.

Active in the engagement and collaboration with local stakeholders including more than 11 of the island’s municipalities and the island’s Regional Authority who are now members of the community. Through these partnerships, the community can contribute to the development of energy projects for the municipalities’ energy needs supporting in turn community energy and the localized production of energy benefiting the citizens of the region.

Barriers & How they were addressed

Even though the Minoan Energy Community focuses on a diverse portfolio of RE technologies necessary for an effective integrated transition of the island, challenges related to project licencing by the regulator are creating barriers for the community development in terms of the development of new projects.

Benefits to Participating individuals

Each member is offered the opportunity to benefit and gain access to renewable energy sources available on the island and to become a co-owner along with other members with equal vote in decision-making processes. Members are no longer independent of energy companies. Contribution to the development of the region as the capital invested will remain in the region. Access to improved customer service.

Media:

• Common Power: Minoan Energy Community in Crete, Greece
• https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=A2EsTY1SD0c
• https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=lYR9wF0_jvs&t=182s
• https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=byD8ak3Lkdw&t=14s
• https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Npop0SplcOQ&t=116s

About

In Thessaly, the energy community of Karditsa (ESEK) is active in the exploitation of biomass from forest and agricultural residues (with strict environmental criteria) and wood processing residues and constitutes one of the first and most successful ventures with more than 300 members.

Mission

ESEK aims to contribute to the region’s democratisation of energy and the use of renewable energy sources by utilising the area’s significant potential of residual biomass that stems from agricultural, forestry and wood processing activities as well as urban sources.

Activities

Since 2017 ESEK has operated a pellet factory that processes residual biomass into 1,200 tons of pellets annually. The biomass is composed of forest residues, agricultural residues, urban tree prunings, etc. coming from the Karditsa region. ESEK has created a value chain that benefits biomass suppliers, transporters, and local citizens.

The pellets produced are used for heating or cooling and its 350 members enjoy the benefit of acquiring these pellets at a reduced price, creating a localised and sustainable energy solution.

In 2022, in the framework of the BECoop project funded by Horizon 2020, ESEK started using residual coffee grounds to produce pellets. To implement this idea, the energy community, in cooperation with the non-profit organisation InCommOn, created a system to collect coffee waste in dedicated bins used by citizens and local coffee houses.

ESEK also collaborated with the municipality of Karditsa to install a biomass boiler fuelled by coffee pellets in a local kindergarten. This new boiler replaced an old oil boiler, meeting the building’s heat demand at a lower cost and with reduced environmental impact. In the future, they plan to extend the initiative to other schools.

ESEK is also in the process of developing a 1.2MW PV park to cover the electricity needs of members through the process of virtual net metering.

Distinctive Good Practice

Awareness raising and interventions in schools. ESEK has managed to create a local ecosystem of actors (municipal authorities, citizens, small and medium-sized enterprises, and other initiatives) that, cooperating, utilise the local wealth and produce their energy proving that Energy Communities can be a great ally for local and Regional Authorities.

Benefits to Participating individuals

ESEK’s 350 members enjoy the benefit of acquiring these pellets at a reduced price, and will be consuming the energy produced by the community’s PV park, creating a localised and sustainable energy solution.

Media:

• Energy Community Of Karditsa (ESEK)
• For photos

About

Hyperion is a non-profit Energy Community and is the first virtual net-metering solar energy community in Athens, Greece. Its creation was led by Electra Energy Cooperative.

Mission

Creation of a replicable example of energy democracy in Greece through a viable model of collective self-consumption, offering skills, knowledge and capacities. Hyperion aims to provide its members with clean and cheap energy to develop services and actions that contribute to a fair energy transition to tackle energy poverty and offer support to vulnerable communities.

Activities

The community’s activities include the production, distribution and supply of Renewable Energy to its cooperative members, with a special focus on the development of community-based solar self-consumption schemes (collective-self-consumption).

The first solar park is located in Stymfalia and consists of a 500kWp solar PV installation powering more than 120 members, 9 vulnerable households and 2 social centers generating more than 750.000 kWh /year.

The community is also active in awareness raising, citizen empowerment, and capacity-building activities transferring knowledge and fostering networking with local authorities, organisations, Universities, and energy communities in Greece and abroad. Recently, they started working on energy efficiency and demand-response as additional ways to achieve sustainability and informed consumption.

Hyperion has also set up internal working groups addressing different topics such as 1. Energy Poverty, 2. Legal and Administrative, 3. New Technologies, 4. Public presence, with high engagement from the members.

Distinctive Good Practice

Virtual net metering provides an opportunity for residents of urban environments who are living in rental housing to participate in the energy transition by becoming prosumers as it allows for energy production to be geographically decoupled from energy consumption, thus bypassing various obstacles regarding rooftop or on-site installation of RES. Through this project citizens in Athens, SMEs in Athens and local farmers providing the grounds are investing and benefiting together.

Barriers & How they were addressed

Some initial barriers included the heavy bureaucracy around setting up an energy community which demanded a lot of working hours to bypass. The access to the grid is also extremely limited and although Hyperion members researched the capacity in the area and selected a field which already had a power plant installed, their first permit request for an 80kW PV park was denied. They, then, decided to scale up to 500kW to meet the needs of the members interested and requested a permit for Medium voltage which was supposed to be easier to access and managed to get approval. Again, at the primal stage, Hyperion explored different funding options such as crowdlending tools (namely Genervest), small grants from institutions or bank loans (in this last option they didn’t get a positive answer) to make sure all members could move forward even if they didn’t have the needed capital.

Benefits to Participating individuals

Active participation in the acceleration of the clean energy transition. Build resilience against wildly fluctuating market energy prices resulting from reliance on expensive fossil gas and the broader (neo)liberalisation of the energy market. Access to information and the sense of community in an urban place.

Media:

• Photos
• https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ptwRBKVnRVU&ab_channel=ElectraEnergyCoop
• https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=0veKDcj2xYI&ab_channel=EuropeanSolarDay&fbclid=IwY2xjawE6X8RleHRuA2FlbQIxMQABHYvL-22zCyBhgBl7itFLeXbKbh2ZaQ1N2N6gM6glBpJmJS4PH2THGTAbYA_aem_hAZZY9nkyR92dDTzUA0ziQ
• https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=2Idty4eUt2k&ab_channel=News247gr&fbclid=IwY2xjawE6X-FleHRuA2FlbQIxMQABHSE_RAA3h583rTZwva7MV4kBz9b3str1VDrSEAb0FkpgoorwXrLzj2bSxg_aem_bFe9Ej3w8Yn-E3lejSjcsw
• https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=2X8EzIdP9ys&ab_channel=SolarPowerEurope&fbclid=IwY2xjawE6YARleHRuA2FlbQIxMAABHUZkcR9lvGXLGMnukYv8FIExdzDiCeoaJIb_ODgy7E7sP3XvHKVwlK3lHQ_aem_IQ6SP-nfUneEkZjRlVHzeQ
• https://open.spotify.com/episode/6yu8LvabRdMUsTWtkvX7wG?si=SQdRUY_nQIuczHtJDt11WA&fbclid=IwY2xjawE6YI1leHRuA2FlbQIxMAABHcR3VMRAysVC3HdTl8gP7_8lTFq72gh6spKhy9Ny0F4YMxPaMMxo9kvuMA_aem_TWWrASMgvhANwVYjZE9aAQ&nd=1&dlsi=915ff1fd90d740b6

About

CommonEn is a non-profit energy community established in June 2021 in the city of Ioannina, Greece. It has two solar parks with a total capacity production of 199,73 kW.

Mission

CommonEn aims to promote energy democracy and the social and solidarity economy in the energy sector, de-escalate energy production, tackle energy poverty and make sustainable use of local energy resources.

Activities

CommonEn has two solar PV parks under operation with a production capacity of 100 kWp each. The energy produced is supplied to its members through a virtual net metering system. Moreover, the community is working on the development of energy-saving services and the renovation of a traditional watermill to produce electricity.

Other than the production of clean energy for self-consumption the community is also exploring activities in energy storage and demand-side management, sustainable mobility, energy saving, consulting and awareness raizing activities.

Distinctive Good Practice

In 2023 members of CommonEn received negative electricity bills for the first time through their collective net metering project becoming the first energy community in mainland Greece to do so.

Barriers & How they were addressed

After the community’s park was up and running, beneficiaries had to rely on electricity suppliers to apply the virtual net-metering contracts and distribute energy to their households and businesses. As the supplier was failing to do so, the community with the support of other environmental groups and communities brought this topic into the public lens prompting parliamentary intervention.

Benefits to Participating individuals

CommonEn provides benefits to its members, which are mainly households and local businesses who beyond receiving the financial benefits of the community’s virtual net metering scheme are becoming more independent of the energy market and are contributing to the de-carbonization of their region.

About

SOLARITY R.E.C. is an energy community-based in the region of Attica. It was founded in 2023 and operates as a civil cooperative. It constitutes and promotes the Social Solidarity Economy, focusing on people and not on financial profit.

Mission

Aiming to produce and consume clean energy collectively and to implement green solutions in everyday life, The main objectives of Solarity are:

• Reducing energy costs for its members through collective self-consumption projects
• Application of the cooperative principles in the energy sector
• Social economy and solidarity
• Research, experimentation, training seminars, and dissemination of know-how for innovative green solutions
• Participative design for a just energy transition
• Promote electromobility, shared EVs and charging stations
• Do business with a social dimension
• Achieve equality of membership – elimination of discrimination of any kind
• Support innovation in the energy sector through training workshops and seminars
• Cooperation with academic institutions, local authorities, and other energy cooperatives

Activities

In 2023, the cooperative completed a full economic and technical study for the creation of a photovoltaic park (400 kWp) that will operate with the “Virtual Net Metering” model.

As of July 2024, their solar park is under construction and by the end of 2024, their photovoltaic park will be ready for energy production.

Distinctive Good Practice

Solarity Renewable Energy Community is the first open-in participation energy community established in Athens, following the provision of the Greek Law 5037/2023. It was established very soon through digital procedures, probably a case study for other energy communities being under development.

Barriers & How they were addressed

1. Legal framework for energy communities
2. Not available economic incentives for energy communities
3. Very limited grid availability
4. Extensive bureaucracy to establish a new energy community
They addressed many of the barriers they faced through the experience of some of their older members and with the help of other energy communities participating in the Hellenic Cluster “Desmi”.

Benefits to Participating individuals

1. Reducing energy costs through our collective self-consumption project.
2. Capacity building for a just energy transition.
3. Usage of community and cooperative principles.

Social Media:

• https://www.linkedin.com/in/solarity-coop-046a60291/
• https://www.facebook.com/solarity.coop
• https://x.com/SolarityCoop

About

The Green Energy Cooperative (ZEZ) was established in 2013 as part of the project Development of Energy Cooperatives in Croatia implemented by the United Nations Development Program (UNDP). Upon completion of the project, ZEZ continues to operate independently and to this day becomes the umbrella organization in the field of citizen energy in Croatia and the region.

Mission

To promote energy cooperatives as a model for energy transition and renewable energy as a solution to the energy crisis and climate change and assist citizens in their involvement in the development, investment and use of renewable energy sources enabling citizens’ participation in planning, decision-making, construction and energy production, as well as in profit sharing.

Activities

They encourage the development of social entrepreneurship in the energy sector and develop concrete and sustainable solutions that enhance the development of local communities including educational and consulting activities.

ZEZ has developed the “On the Sunny Side” platform to connect people without solar with solar designers, processes, economic considerations and installers offering high-quality advice, education and daily support to citizens across Croatia in the implementation of solar power plants for households. This support includes advisory assistance, project creation, and connection of individuals with verified installers.

Additionally, ZEZ co-founded the ZEZ Sun cooperative which provides Croatians with the opportunity to invest in and own solar projects on municipal buildings. The first ZEZ Sun project, a 200 kW solar PV plant at the City Market in the City of Križevci, was funded in March 2024. In 2018 and 2019 and in collaboration with the City of Križevci, ZEZ also successfully implemented Križevci Solar Roofs, the first community energy projects in Croatia with 30 kW solar PV plants at two citizen-funded public buildings.

Distinctive Good Practice

ZEZ carries expertise in the development of new, innovative economic models for the use of renewable energy sources that are adapted to the needs and problems of local communities.

In autumn 2022, ZEZ launched ‘Ease Their Troubles’ (Umanjimo im brige), a donation campaign to help older citizens living in energy poverty save on their monthly bills. With the help of local organisations working with similar target groups, such as the Red Cross Initiative, ZEZ identified vulnerable citizens who would benefit from an Energy Savings Package through which a household can save up to 1,300 kwh of thermal energy and up to 370 kwh of electricity annually. While at the home.

Benefits to Participating individuals

ZEZ’s efforts have resulted in financial benefits for investors, creating a sense of community ownership and fostering stronger ties with local municipalities. Plans for the future include uniting citizens through local energy communities, and using solar energy as a tool for social cohesion, and sustainable development.

About

Som Energia is a non-profit green energy consumer cooperative and the first energy to be established in Spain. The cooperative was founded in 2010 by 150 citizens. It started by purchasing local green energy from existing sources, so members could buy affordable electricity.

Mission

To promote a renewable and efficient energy model that remains in the hands of citizens while supporting the growth of a more social and supportive economy breaking the existing energy oligopoly and providing transparent access to information.

Activities

Their main activities are the marketing and production of renewable energy. With its local groups, the cooperative has built its own solar installations and renewable production projects aiming to produce enough electricity to meet 100% of the members’ consumption. Today, Som Energia has about 85.201 members and nearly 117.936 clients.

It offers services including the production of electricity from renewable sources (sun, wind, biogas, biomass, etc.) financed with voluntary financial contributions from partners, and
markets green electricity by managing, purchasing and invoicing the electricity consumed by its members (individuals and companies) who have chosen to contract the cooperative as a green electricity marketer.

This allows their clients to use affordable electricity in their homes – while playing a part in transforming Spain into a sustainable and environmentally friendly place to live.

Distinctive Good Practice

Som Energia is using interactive invoicing called ‘InfoEnergia’ to inform its members about their energy consumption. Instead of just sending invoices they also send reports on the energy use of their customers where they are compared with previous periods and get personalized energy-saving tips helping the cooperative’s members reduce their average energy consumption.

Barriers & How they were addressed

After the Spanish government stopped providing financial support, Som Energia came up with an innovative new financing system called Generation kWh, to set up new projects against market price offering a way for citizens to produce part of their energy collectively when they do not have the possibility of having an individual or collective installation nearby. Most citizens can’t afford to build wind, hydro or solar projects alone, but Som Energia offered the possibility to work together to support renewable energy from regional sources.

Benefits to Participating individuals

Som Energia offers the opportunity for thousands of people who support the idea of powering their homes with locally generated, clean, sustainable electricity the chance to come together to make the concept a reality.

Media:

• https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=4McesjuhS00&ab_channel=SomEnergia

About

C-COOP – Culatra Island Cooperative for Sustainability, was founded in 2022 by the locals of the Culatra Fishing community in the island of Culatra. C-COOP is the result of the intention of some locals to prepare the future of the next generations and, at the same time, defend the preservation of the identity of their fishing community. It serves as the promoter of the Renewable Energy Community Pilot Project stemming from the ‘Culatra 2030 – Sustainable Energy Community’ initiative which aims to give a legal and governance framework to the energy community on the island.

Mission

Culatra’s electrification is done through a medium voltage submarine electrical cable prone to failures, which causes many blackouts on the island. Both Culatra2030 and C-COOP’s mission and vision is to create a decentralised energy market and consequently a unified community spirit that will empower the population of Culatra Island. C-COOP’s objective will/should be achieved by implementing a participatory economic model, which enables both the distribution of costs and income that results from renewable energy generation, thus rewarding/supporting community involvement.

Activities

The Culatra Renewable Energy Community currently has five photovoltaic production installations located at different points on the island’s low-voltage electrical grid, an energy storage unit, a community solar boat at the service of the fishermen, and a few home support electric vehicles. totalling around 28% of the island’s energy needs.

The Culatra Island Cooperative for Sustainability (C-COOP) is the manager entity of the Renewable Energy Community, and so, the main responsible for sharing the energy produced by the five photovoltaic production installations between the several homes and small businesses, via the low-voltage electricity grid. To this end, the energy produced by the community will be deducted from the consumption measured on the meters of the cooperative’s members, who will become self-consumers.

At this stage, the participating consumers include two mini-markets, two restaurants, the primary school, the social centre, the fishing working zone, the service centres (the headquarters of the Clube União Culatrense, the headquarters of the Culatra Island Residents‘ Association, the Faro Parish Union delegation and the telemedicine post), and sixteen homes.

The Energy Community will support research activities that will enable the implementation of new forms of consumption management, including the integration of energy management systems, (which will make it possible to control the consumption of its members, integrating demand forecasting and renewable generation, taking into account the limitations of the existing electricity grid); while implementing a participatory economy model, (which allows for the distribution of costs and profits from renewable generation), and supports community involvement and investment in new equipment and the implementation of an intelligent electric boat charging system, capable of controlling charging according to generation, respecting user preferences and maximising self-consumed energy.

Distinctive Good Practice

Community engagement was emphasised as a crucial component of the process of organising Culatra into a renewable energy community and involving locals in the decision-making processes. In collaboration with the Culatra Island Residents Association (AMIC), the University of Algarve, the organisation MakeItBetter, and local and national government they launched a Participatory Diagnosis process during which, the island stakeholders co-decided on a new governance system for the participatory exploration of transition paths and appropriate solutions, taking into account the specificities of the island context.

Barriers & How they were addressed

Ilha da Culatra (Culatra Island) is a sandy island located just south of the cities of Olhão and Faro in Portugal. The island is part of the Ria Formosa National Park and therefore has to follow strict rules for its development. As Culatra is part of a national park, it has significant challenges in the areas of waste management, energy security and human pressure on natural habitats during the high season. Aware of the clean energy opportunities on Culatra, the local community decided to take their future into their own hands and partner with the University of Algarve, to design a roadmap and implement a clean energy transition framework on the island. Their common goal is to convert Culatra into the first Portuguese clean island community.

Benefits to Participating individuals

Individuals participating in the island’s energy community will be able to produce, consume and share their own energy, while reducing electricity bill costs and investing in increasing solar energy production to reach the island’s energy self-sufficiency.

Media:

• https://www.youtube.com/channel/UCmY4X79_n67qIDAvpT2XQ2Q

About

Coopérnico is a renewable energy cooperative that harnesses solar power for the benefit of the local community. It started with 16 citizens seeking the opportunity to invest their savings in renewable energy. The community now has more than 6000 members, that have invested over 2 million Euros.

Mission

To promote citizen involvement in the creation of a new social, economic and environmental paradigm through the development of renewable and decentralized energy projects and the sharing of the benefits between investors, society and the planet.

Activities

Coopérnico is the first cooperative energy producer and supplier in Portugal. Citizens from all over the country can become members and purchase a share. These revenues are then used to finance RES investments including solar PV panels. So far, the cooperative has nearly 6900 clients.

The cooperative focuses on three main areas, renewable energy production, energy supply and energy efficiency. Through their projects, they seek to create social value through local collaborations and the sharing of revenues with organizations operating in the social economy.

One way that the cooperative works is that it rents the roofs of socially-orientated institutions for its PV projects, providing those institutions with extra income. At the end of the lease, the cooperative will offer solar equipment to the hosting institutions for free. The energy produced on these rooftops is fed into the grid and bought by the distributor.
Coopérnico can directly sell electricity to its members at a fair price, guaranteeing that the amount of electricity produced by Coopérnico’s projects is more than the one consumed by its members.

Some of the services Coopernico offers are investment opportunities in renewable energy projects, Community engagement actions, education, project support: development, financing, implementation, access to green energy (electricity commercialisation) and support and counselling for energy-vulnerable families.
In order to finance its renewable production projects, Coopernico created a crowdfunding platform open to members of the cooperative. The members are lending funds for the development and installation of solar PVs on roofs. members are getting 3% interest rates on their investments through the platform.

Distinctive Good Practice

Since Coopernico’s activities and beneficiaries are spread throughout Portugal, local groups were created to serve as the voice of Coopérnico in the community, in favor of a fair and democratic energy transition. The Local Groups are made up of Coopérnico members, who organize activities, such as workshops and information sessions about the cooperative, or ensure their presence in debate panels, information stands and other street events.

Barriers & How they were addressed

Coopérnico initially struggled to secure funding for their first installations as citizens didn’t trust the project yet and were hesitant to invest. REScoop.eu connected them with other like-minded energy cooperatives in Europe. Som Energia from Spain, Beauvent from Belgium, and Waterland from the Netherlands provided the capital and skills needed to kick off these first projects. Together they established a consortium in which Coopérnico had 17% of shares and could gradually buy back up to 100% as the cooperative´s member base and social capital would grow.

When people started seeing the PV panels on the roofs and revenues began to flow, the membership started growing rapidly. After less than two years, they had already returned all the borrowed capital.

Benefits to Participating individuals

All of the cooperative’s projects create social value through direct collaboration or by attributing part of the results obtained to social economy or educational organizations. Individuals and organizations can become members of the cooperative supporting its mission towards building a fairer more democratic renewable energy model and can make investments in Coopernico’s collective crowdlending in renewable energy projects. Both individuals and companies can also hire Coopernico’s services paying a fair, transparent non-profit price and purchasing 100% green energy.

Media:

• SolarSaves – Transforming the energy landscape with energy communities

About

The first and largest renewable energy cooperative and supplier in Italy, Ènostra has played a crucial role in the creation of energy communities and is involved in the establishment of several others across Italy. With an annual production of over 3 GWh generated by the cooperative power plants and over 35 GWh of electricity supplied per year, Ènostra has built valuable expertise that can benefit new energy communities.

Mission

Ènostra aims to to develop and spread the use and production of energy in a conscious, sustainable and participative manner through a sustainable energy model, cooperative, resilient and based on the exclusive use of energy from renewable sources.

Activities

Ènostra carries out services and activities for the community creating opportunities for participation and involvement of individuals and social networks in favour of the energy transition from the bottom up. They produce and purchase energy from renewable energy plants, favouring production companies linked to local communities and promoting the growth of the share of energy from renewable sources in the national energy mix and then supplying it to its members and clients.

They also invest in the construction of new renewable production plants through collective capital and offer their members efficiency services, creation of turnkey solutions for energy saving (photovoltaic, storage systems, heat pumps, charging stations) and tools for monitoring consumption.

Distinctive Good Practice

In the spirit of cooperative principles, Ènostra offers a comprehensive five-step framework for creating an energy community, including feasibility study and stakeholder mapping, community engagement and membership campaign, legal consultancy and establishment of the legal entity, installation of renewables plants, and registration of the energy community for the acknowledgement of the premium tariff. Currently, ènostra is involved in the creation of around 30 energy communities, including Villanovaforru and Ussaramanna.

Barriers & How they were addressed

Ènostra faces the challenges of creating something that did not yet exist in Italy: a cooperative selling electricity that also aimed to become financially sustainable. Soon, after observing other examples of energy communities in Europe, they realized that they needed to expand their activity to al also producing renewable energy. They then merged forces with Retenergie, which had been producing (but not selling to end-users) RES electricity since 2008.

Ènostra was created at a difficult time for the renewables sector in Italy, just after the termination of the main feed-in-tariff scheme for photovoltaic generation. Subsequently, regulatory uncertainty had been the main exogenous factor having a negative impact on the cooperative challenging them to cope with regulatory uncertainty and adapt to contingencies.

Benefits to Participating individuals

Enestro acts as a bearer of the interests of the bottom up, such as those of local administrations and energy citizens, the true protagonists of this new energy scheme.

Their founding values ​​include sustainability, sharing and active participation, the same values ​​that guide a renewable energy community.

Because we are committed to going beyond energy and proposing the renewable energy community also as an activator of collective actions not only related to energy, which revitalize local communities and promote inclusion.

Media:

• What is an energy cooperative and what does ènostra actually do?