What can citizens do to drive Europe’s energy transition?

Is clean air, sustainable profits and a just energy transition too much to ask for Europe? Not if you ask its renewable energy communities. 

Amid rising energy costs and growing concerns about climate change, non-profit renewable energy communities are on the rise. In Europe, these cooperatives offer affordable and sustainable solutions for sourcing energy, allowing regular people to come together and invest in alternative energy systems that drive the green transition. 

In order to scale up, however, Europe’s energy sector must shift its thinking away from centralised systems and big players towards decentralised systems driven by people power, with the right incentives and infrastructure in place.  

What does the people-powered energy sector look like?

Today, Europe is home to at least 2,250 energy communities, involving approximately 1.5 million citizens who actively produce electricity. This number is expected to rise significantly in the coming decades. Research from CE Delft in the Netherlands predicts that by 2050, around 83 per cent of EU citizens could be contributing to renewable energy production—an impressive 187 million households.

To get there, the European Commission and member states have introduced various measures to support the growth of energy consumers—citizens who both consume and produce energy, individually or collectively in energy communities.

Belgium has announced plans to nearly triple its offshore wind capacity to six gigawatts (GW) by 2030 with the construction of three new wind farms. For the first of these, set to begin this month, the Belgian government is encouraging community participation, allowing citizens to benefit from more affordable, cleaner electricity through their involvement. Thirty-three Belgian energy cooperatives have come together under ‘SeaCoop SCES’ to collectively invest in these upcoming offshore wind projects.

Summer 2024 – Hottest on record globally and for Europe

Scaling up renewables in the energy system is urgently needed, stressed Samantha Burgess, Deputy Director of the Copernicus Climate Change Service (C3S). According to recent data, 2024 was the hottest summer on record globally and for Europe.

ADVERTISEMENT

August 2024 marked another dire milestone, with temperatures of 1.51°C above the pre-industrial level.  This marks the 13th month in a 14-month period for which the global average surface air temperature exceeded 1.5°C above pre-industrial levels, according to ERA5 reanalysis dataset from Coperncius’s Climate Change Service (C3S).

“During the past three months of 2024, the globe has experienced the hottest June and August, the hottest day on record, and the hottest boreal summer on record. These temperature-related extreme events will only become more intense unless we take urgent action to reduce greenhouse gas emissions.

“Scaling up renewable energy production, including community-based energy projects, should be implemented to limit the reliance on fossil fuels anyway we can,” she urged.

To support this, C3S has launched an energy services platform designed to provide people and communities with better insights into energy usage, particularly for renewable energy like solar, wind and hydro power. The platform provides predictive data that can help communities manage energy generation, fluctuations in supply, and plan for both short-term operations and long-term strategies.

Scientists believe the platform will support the transition to cleaner energy, with additional improvements planned for 2025. These enhancements will include wider spatial coverage, hourly updates on weather conditions, and more comprehensive data to improve energy generation forecasts.

Raising the stakes: From local assets to large projects

Fortunately, scaling up community-based renewable energy projects is central to the vision of many successful cooperatives across Europe.

In Belgium, cooperatives generate enough electricity to power four per cent of households – approximately 216,000 households – but much more needs to be done, argues Dirk Vansintjan, President of REScoop.eu, the European federation of energy communities.

“To continue our success and achieve our decarbonisation ambitions while making energy more affordable for all, governments need to create an enabling framework so we can invest and be part of larger assets. Bringing people along on this energy transition journey is important too,” Vansintjan said.

Belgium ranks as the second-highest country in offshore wind energy production per capita. The country has incorporated citizen participation into the eligibility framework for its new offshore wind projects in the North Sea, encouraging greater collaboration between companies and citizens.

“Using a regulatory framework, a legislative design, a regulation to enable this citizen participation and to oblige them to work together and not just compete but collaborate with each other is important,” the Belgium Minister for Energy, Tinne Van der Straeten said.

ADVERTISEMENT

“Because energy is all about people and about citizens. It’s about producing it locally, distributing it to those who need it, not only into industries and companies, but also to citizens. Energy communities in the future will be very much in people’s homes and in society as a whole,” she said.

An energy community approach for EU as a whole

Across Europe, countries still have work to do to strike the right balance between all stakeholders and increase awareness amongst the broad community about the benefits of energy cooperatives.

In Portugal, for example, energy-producing communities face being treated in an “undemocratic” way, argues Ana Rita Antunes, coordinator and a founding member of Coopérnico,  the only national renewable energy cooperative in the sun-drenched country. Antunes explained that cooperatives are treated in the same way as larger producers, which limits their capacity to compete and grow.

“You only have access to the road if you have a big car. But, even if you have a small car, you should be able to pass through the same road – that’s not the case in Portugal,” Autunes explains, referring to the perceptions energy communities face in the country.

“We need public procurement opportunities that recognise the diverse structures and goals of different entities—not all of us are driven by profit.”

Antunes references northern European member states where public support and understanding of the value of energy communities are more widespread. Fortunately, change may be on its way for the rest of us.

Danish climate minister and commissioner-designate for energy and housing in Ursula von der Leyen’s 2024 European Commission is tasked with creating a citizen energy plan. Minister Tinne Van der Straeten believes this initiative will help accelerate access to affordable, clean energy across the EU.

“I’m very happy that we have now implemented a framework for offshore wind (in Belgium) so that we can also be a guiding example at European level so that we have indeed a broader European legislative framework,” Minister Tinne concluded.  

By Annabel Murphy and Laura Tucker