What are energy communities and how are they spreading across Europe?

Energy communities have the potential to accelerate the energy transition, by providing affordable energy, democratising access to markets, and supporting energy independence and security of supply. Last year saw a greater focus on energy communities due to drivers such as the energy crisis.

After the European normative introduced Renewable energy communities and Citizen energy communities, European countries needed to transpose them on a national level. With a few exceptions, most of the countries completed the transposition. We are now seeing more energy community offerings being developed. At the moment, the most promising markets are Italy, Spain, Portugal, and Austria.

In some of these countries, subsidies are being used to boost the profitability of energy communities.
We expect energy communities to improve their profitability and become a more widespread solution, especially for the residential sector and SMEs.

This evolution will require the participation of multiple parties, such as suppliers, DSOs, municipalities and more.