Energy Communities

Why energy communities?

Energy communities are one of the most important tools that citizens have to implement participatory and democratic actions so that they can have an active role in energy-sector related activities.
Energy communities were first introduced the Clean Energy for All European Package (hereinafter referred to as the Clean Energy Package) in 2019. There are two forms of energy communities: Renewable Energy Communities (RECs) and Citizen Energy Communities (CECs), both introduced by Renewable Energy Directive (RED II) and the Internal Electricity Market Directive (IEMD). The main differences between these two forms are the type of members that can participate (e.g natural persons, local authorities, small enterprises etc), the location and proximity of the member’s buildings to the project installation, the activities that the community can undertake and also the technologies that can be used.

According to the definition of the two forms of energy communities (RED II), they should be based on and incorporate cooperative principles. The International Cooperative Alliance defines the cooperative as “an autonomous association of persons united voluntarily to meet their common economic, social and cultural needs and aspirations through a jointly owned and democratically-controlled enterprise”.