For people’s ownership of renewable energy

The European Community Power Coalition promotes the development of citizen and community ownership of energy in the urgent transformation towards 100% renewable energy.

We bring together a diverse network of about 50 like-minded organisations across Europe – including associations representing energy cooperatives, networks of cities and local authorities, the renewable energy industry, legal experts and environmental NGOs.

Read our vision statement

Community ownership is creating jobs, boosting local investment, providing services such as education, encouraging citizens to save energy, and fighting against energy poverty.

We believe that a decentralised and 100% renewable energy system is both possible and necessary – while our energy demand must decrease. It’s time to end the control a handful of large utilities have over our energy system, and to put citizens at the heart of our energy transformation.

Renewable energy sources are common goods. All citizens must have a fair opportunity to take ownership and benefit from participating in the energy transition. The energy transition must leave no one behind.

Benefits of community energy

Latest news, events and resources

Driving the transition: Community Power in National Energy and Climate Plans

Politics | Publication

Driving the transition: Community Power in National Energy and Climate Plans

April 17, 2024April 17, 2024

The NECPs assessment and recommendations on community energy – Letter

Politics | Publication

The NECPs assessment and recommendations on community energy – Letter

October 27, 2023October 30, 2023

Our manifesto for a democratic, resilient, and affordable energy future in Europe

Politics | Publication

Our manifesto for a democratic, resilient, and affordable energy future in Europe

September 21, 2023September 21, 2023

See all News & Events

Get in touch

Please get in touch using our contact form

This website has been produced with the financial assistance of the European Commission (LIFE programme), the European Climate Foundation, and the European Climate Initiative (EUKI) of the German Federal Ministry for the Environment, Nature Conservation and Nuclear Safety (BMU).

The contents of this website are the sole responsibility of Friends of the Earth Europe, on behalf of the European Community Power Coalition, and cannot be regarded as reflecting the position of the funders mentioned above. The funders cannot be held responsible for any use which may be made of the information that appears on this website.

Image courtesy of Westmill Solar Co-operative

More info coming…

Czech Republic

The Czech transposition will be covered by two separate laws. The first, let’s call it “Energy law”, is focusing on the definition of energy communities and their rights, obligations etc. Delays with this law are expected until mid 2021 at least. The second relevant piece of legislation, let’s call it “Support scheme law”, is about special provisions/support schemes. A proposal for this law has not been published yet as the Ministry is focusing on preparing the Energy law first. This second law may contain some of the “enabling framework” for RECs, but it is not yet clear. One of the biggest barriers facing potential projects in the Czech Republic is that the national government does not want to assign national funds to support RECs but only EU money.

Denmark

A public consultation has been carried out on a draft electricity supply law. with a minimal implementation of the electricity directive.
The proposed Danish renewable energy law was a minimal implementation of the RED II, with limited improvements to the Danish regulations. So far no assessment of the potential and barriers has been carried out.

France

The transposition decree was published on the 3rd of March 2021 it is a copy and translate of the directives. This decree is the general framework and the details of the enabling framework will be contained in a secondary application decree.

Germany

The latest amendment to the renewables support law (Erneuerbare-Energien-Gesetz, EEG) passed parliament shortly before Christmas 2020. Germany has so far not transposed any of the REDII provisions related to Community Energy or Energy Sharing. Alarmingly, the German government argues that transposition of REDII is complete. Actually, only one relevant provision from Article 21 has been transposed, that is that for individual self-consumption, the threshold for exemptions from charges has been raised from 10kW to 30kW installed capacity.

Apart from that, there has been no transposition of the requirement to distinguish between individual and collectively acting self-consumers; so there is nothing in the EEG on collective self-consumption No analysis of the barriers and potential of Renewable Energy Communities (RECs) and Citizen Energy Communities (CECs) has been published. The lack of an enabling framework to promote the development of RECs and CECs is well illustrated by the ongoing problems that communities are facing in relation to auctions. It is clear that the specificities of RECs and CECs have not been taken into account in designing the support scheme. RECs and CECs are not given the right to share the energy produced by the community.

Greece

The Greek Law 4513/2018 on Energy Communities was published on the 23rd of January 2018, so before the adoption of both the new Electricity Directive and the REDII. Thus, it can be considered one of the first dedicated pieces of legislation in Europe on community energy. This Law introduced a new type of civil cooperative, the “Energy Community”, aimed at promoting the Social and Solidarity Economy in the energy sector. This legislation defines the activities and some membership aspects of Energy Communities. The membership is open to natural persons, as well as legal persons governed by private and public law. The only local authorities that can participate are municipalities or their enterprises that are located in the region where the community is based. The law sets specific requirements to ensure the democratic governance and effective control of the Energy Community and specifies how their profits can be used. Profit making is limited in certain instances. This legislation also lays out a number of support measures and incentives. Generally the Greek government is expected to transpose both Directives and the definitions of RECs and CECs by the end of the deadline.
However, in spite of the fact that it is a good piece of legislation, the rest of Greek law on the licensing procedure for renewable energy projects etc is not particularly favourable. No assessment of the existing barriers and potential has been made. The Greek Ministry of Energy is working on the transposition of both Directives and the definitions of RECs and CECs. The transposition is expected to be finished by the end of the deadline or shortly after that.

Italy

The Parliament approved in April a fast track law (https://www.gazzettaufficiale.it/eli/gu/2021/04/23/97/sg/pdf) for the transposition of the two directives. The text presents no changes in definitions and regulatory aspects. The Ministers will present law decrees for the transposition, starting with CEC and then REC, that will have to be approved by the Parliament within established times. There is a draft proposal on CEC, but there is no news about a possible consultation. On a positive note the transposition for new plants <200 kW has been approved (article 42bis https://www.gazzettaufficiale.it/eli/id/2020/11/16/20A06224/sg), and all the regulatory aspects have been defined by the authority for energy. This experimentation is useful because it highlights problems that the complete transposition will have to solve, like who can participate in Energy Communities (with unfortunately the exclusion of universities, NGOs and local organizations), and on the information about who is connected to the grid that is inside the area of the electrical control unit (and problems with DSOs).

Spain

On 23 June 2020 the Government approved the Royal Decree-law 23/2020, which, among many other things, incorporates the definition of renewable energy communities into Spanish law (REC are in art. 4, modifying art. 6 of the Electric Sector Law: The language is almost an exact copy of the definition in the REDII so a “copy and translate”.
There is nothing about rights or the enabling framework, so it looks like a very partial transposition.
It seems like a placeholder so that they can call RES auctions including energy communities, with a view to develop more the concept at a later stage.
The spanish institute for diversification and energy saving (IDAE) has undertaken a line of work to promote Local Energy Communities, through the preparation of a guide with the steps to follow for their constitution and the possibility of financing pilot projects. Worryingly however IDAE seems to want to include large industrial entities.

Belgium

Brussels and Walloon Regions
Both the REDII and the IEMD are going to be transposed through one revision of electricity market law. The Parliament is going to adopt the revision by the end of the year. REC and CEC definitions are a copy and translate of the text. The Government will have to specify them through bylaws. The assessment of the barriers and potential will be made by the end of 2023 in order to feed a first revision of the law. Grid tariffs should “encourage” energy sharingA “light” supplier licence will be put in place under some thresholds regarding the electricity volume sold, numbers of clients,…
The DSO will have the obligation to put in place free access to a web platform, which gives all the data about consumption and production among a energy community.
A one-stop-shop will be put in place to support energy community projects by the end of the year. There is no other elements to create an enabling framework, but it will maybe comes later

More info coming…

More info coming…

More info coming…

More info coming…

More info coming…

More info coming…

More info coming…

More info coming…

More info coming…

Czech Republic

The Czech transposition will be covered by two separate laws. The first, let’s call it “Energy law” ,is focusing on the definition of energy communities and their rights, obligations etc. Delays with this law are expected until mid 2021 at least. The second relevant piece of legislation, let’s call it “Support scheme law”, is about special provisions/support schemes. A proposal for this law has not been published yet as the Ministry is focusing on preparing the Energy law first. This second law may contain some of the “enabling framework” for RECs, but it is not yet clear. One of the biggest barriers facing potential projects in the Czech Republic is that the national government does not want to assign national funds to support RECs but only EU money.

Denmark

A public consultation has been carried out on a draft electricity supply law. with a minimal implementation of the electricity directive.
The proposed Danish renewable energy law was a minimal implementation of the RED II, with limited improvements to the Danish regulations. So far no assessment of the potential and barriers has been carried out.

France

The transposition decree was published on the 3rd of March 2021 it is a copy and translate of the directives. This decree is the general framework and the details of the enabling framework will be contained in a secondary application decree.

Germany

The latest amendment to the renewables support law (Erneuerbare-Energien-Gesetz, EEG) passed parliament shortly before Christmas 2020. Germany has so far not transposed any of the REDII provisions related to Community Energy or Energy Sharing. Alarmingly, the German government argues that transposition of REDII is complete. Actually, only one relevant provision from Article 21 has been transposed, that is that for individual self-consumption, the threshold for exemptions from charges has been raised from 10kW to 30kW installed capacity.

Apart from that, there has been no transposition of the requirement to distinguish between individual and collectively acting self-consumers; so there is nothing in the EEG on collective self-consumption No analysis of the barriers and potential of Renewable Energy Communities (RECs) and Citizen Energy Communities (CECs) has been published. The lack of an enabling framework to promote the development of RECs and CECs is well illustrated by the ongoing problems that communities are facing in relation to auctions. It is clear that the specificities of RECs and CECs have not been taken into account in designing the support scheme. RECs and CECs are not given the right to share the energy produced by the community.

Greece

The Greek Law 4513/2018 on Energy Communities was published on the 23rd of January 2018, so before the adoption of both the new Electricity Directive and the REDII. Thus, it can be considered one of the first dedicated pieces of legislation in Europe on community energy. This Law introduced a new type of civil cooperative, the “Energy Community”, aimed at promoting the Social and Solidarity Economy in the energy sector. This legislation defines the activities and some membership aspects of Energy Communities. The membership is open to natural persons, as well as legal persons governed by private and public law. The only local authorities that can participate are municipalities or their enterprises that are located in the region where the community is based. The law sets specific requirements to ensure the democratic governance and effective control of the Energy Community and specifies how their profits can be used. Profit making is limited in certain instances. This legislation also lays out a number of support measures and incentives. Generally the Greek government is expected to transpose both Directives and the definitions of RECs and CECs by the end of the deadline.
However, in spite of the fact that it is a good piece of legislation, the rest of Greek law on the licensing procedure for renewable energy projects etc is not particularly favourable. No assessment of the existing barriers and potential has been made. The Greek Ministry of Energy is working on the transposition of both Directives and the definitions of RECs and CECs. The transposition is expected to be finished by the end of the deadline or shortly after that.

Italy

The Parliament approved in April a fast track law (https://www.gazzettaufficiale.it/eli/gu/2021/04/23/97/sg/pdf) for the transposition of the two directives. The text presents no changes in definitions and regulatory aspects. The Ministers will present law decrees for the transposition, starting with CEC and then REC, that will have to be approved by the Parliament within established times. There is a draft proposal on CEC, but there is no news about a possible consultation. On a positive note the transposition for new plants <200 kW has been approved (article 42bis https://www.gazzettaufficiale.it/eli/id/2020/11/16/20A06224/sg), and all the regulatory aspects have been defined by the authority for energy. This experimentation is useful because it highlights problems that the complete transposition will have to solve, like who can participate in Energy Communities (with unfortunately the exclusion of universities, NGOs and local organizations), and on the information about who is connected to the grid that is inside the area of the electrical control unit (and problems with DSOs).

Belgium

Brussels and Walloon Regions
Both the REDII and the IEMD are going to be transposed through one revision of electricity market law. The Parliament is going to adopt the revision by the end of the year. REC and CEC definitions are a copy and translate of the text. The Government will have to specify them through bylaws. The assessment of the barriers and potential will be made by the end of 2023 in order to feed a first revision of the law. Grid tariffs should “encourage” energy sharingA “light” supplier licence will be put in place under some thresholds regarding the electricity volume sold, numbers of clients,…
The DSO will have the obligation to put in place free access to a web platform, which gives all the data about consumption and production among a energy community.
A one-stop-shop will be put in place to support energy community projects by the end of the year. There is no other elements to create an enabling framework, but it will maybe comes later

Spain

On 23 June 2020 the Government approved the Royal Decree-law 23/2020, which, among many other things, incorporates the definition of renewable energy communities into Spanish law (REC are in art. 4, modifying art. 6 of the Electric Sector Law: The language is almost an exact copy of the definition in the REDII so a “copy and translate”.
There is nothing about rights or the enabling framework, so it looks like a very partial transposition.
It seems like a placeholder so that they can call RES auctions including energy communities, with a view to develop more the concept at a later stage.
The spanish institute for diversification and energy saving (IDAE) has undertaken a line of work to promote Local Energy Communities, through the preparation of a guide with the steps to follow for their constitution and the possibility of financing pilot projects. Worryingly however IDAE seems to want to include large industrial entities.

More info coming…

More info coming…

More info coming…

More info coming…

More info coming…

More info coming…

More info coming…

More info coming…