The EU energy market is undergoing major changes (e.g. liberalisation and progressive decentralisation, clean energy transition, ICT innovation) which are bringing about a change in the relationship between energy generation and usage. Energy users can become “prosumers”, that is producers and consumers at once.
Consumers become prosumers when they install a solar panel to get hot water or a photovoltaic unit on their roof.
Prosumerism can be at household level or aggregated into communities, which is sometimes the case of wind farming.
The WinWind project showed how energy communities and community ownership allow fairer benefit sharing, since revenues from wind farm operations can contribute significantly to the overall municipal budget, and can be utilized and invested to finance projects of community interest.
This is why the EU Directive on renewable energy urges the Member States to establish regulatory frameworks to ensure the possibility for the EU citizens to be active participants in the energy market.
The WinWind project studied cases of citizens/community ownership in Germany and Spain and carried an analysis to assess their effectiveness and transferability.
Find out more
The WinWind project collected data and information about community ownership; Here below further readings:
Technical and socio-economic conditions pages 28-29
On community ownership in the WinWind best practices
Screening of Technical and Non-Technical regulations, guidelines and recommendations pages 59-65