Community energy
Energy activity organised with meaningful community participation, ownership or benefit.
Example
A local group may develop renewable generation or efficiency projects.
The catch
Legal forms, financial risks and decision rights vary.
In more depth
Community energy, explained.
Community energy can win local support that commercial schemes struggle to find, because the people living beside a turbine or under a solar roof share in the decisions and the income. EU law recognises the model. The Renewable Energy Directive defines renewable energy communities and gives them rights to produce, share and sell energy, and electricity market rules add a separate category for citizen energy communities.
Ownership is the line to watch. A cooperative that owns a wind turbine gives members votes and dividends, while a payment from a commercial developer into a local fund leaves control elsewhere. Both can help, though only the first fits the term in its full sense. Volunteer-run groups also carry heavy workloads, from grid connection applications to insurance, so technical support often decides whether their projects get built.