Energy communities

What do we mean when we talk about Energy Communities?

To put things into context, imagine your community of neighbours, your neighbourhood or an industrial estate and that all of them had as their main objective to collectively benefit from the same generation facilities or other measures located in the surroundings of said community. What would this entail? Mainly, the use of the capacity for electrical or thermal generation, an improvement in energy efficiency or the development of sustainable mobility systems, with the potential for the development of demand management in the future. Through investment in these measures, the actors in the energy community could additionally benefit. On the other hand, the community or the local area would benefit in environmental and social terms. Energy communities are, above all, a social concept, where the governance of citizens, SMEs and local authorities takes precedence.

Energy communities can carry out multiple activities: producing, consuming, storing, sharing or selling energy. An example of this type of activity on which they can be based is self-consumption or distributed generation, which are an important factor for the economic savings of many families, especially for the most vulnerable, thus being able to tackle energy poverty. In addition, dependence on conventional electricity companies is avoided and competitiveness in the industry is increased. The environmental benefits are important, with a decrease in the energy consumed, an increase in distributed renewable energy or a reduction in fossil fuels used, as well as the social benefits, with citizen empowerment, the creation of local employment, the creation of a community fabric or the reinvestment of the profits from the activity in priority aspects for the community. As you can see, greater citizen participation in the energy sector is crucial for change and reinforces the role of citizens and guarantees the right of access to energy.

Advantages of Energy Communities