Power to the people? Implications of the Clean Energy Package for the role of community ownership in Europe’s energy transition

• Date: 01 July 2020
• DOI: http://doi.org/10.1111/reel.12346
• Author: Joshua Roberts
• Published date: 01 July 2020

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  wileyonlinelibrary.com/journal/reel RECIEL. 2020;29:232–244.© 2020 John Wile y & Sons Ltd

1 | INTRODUCTION

The need to tack le climate change and el iminate the use of fossil

fuels present s many daunting societal challe nges. At the global leve l,

sufficient cl imate ambition has yet to em erge. Filling the ga p left by

policymaker s, citizens – both ind ividually and coll ectively thro ugh com-

munity initia tives – are taking ac tion by investing and t aking ownership

of renewables, energy efficiency and other clean energy technologies.

In Europe, commun ity energy is not new. In the earl y twentieth

century, many distr ibuted electr icity and heating n etworks were

constructe d and operated by local auth orities and cooperative s.1 In

the late 1970s in Denmark , local communit ies started deve loping

wind project s to present an alternat ive to nuclear energy.2 C opied in

the Netherla nds and Germany in th e 1980s, these communi ties

helped pioneer the community renewable energy movement in

Europe.

While communit y energy has main ly developed accordi ng to

local and natio nal socio-political an d legal contexts, it has ga ined in-

creasing atten tion from European Union (EU) pol icy for several rea-

sons. First , the integration of renewab les into the European intern al

energy market (IEM) has negatively impacted community energy

projects. F or instance, Direc torate-Gener al (DG) Competitio n’s

 1L Holstenka mp, ‘The Rise an d Fall of Electric ity Distrib ution Cooper atives in Germa ny’

(1 September 2015) <https://papers.ssrn.com/sol3/papers.cfm?abstr act_id=2727780>.

See also RES coop MECISE, ‘T he Transition to Ene rgy Democra cy’ (REScoo p.eu 2019) 17.

 2J Roberts , F Bodman and R Ryb ski, ‘Commun ity Power: Mode l Legal Framewo rks for

Citizen-Owned Renewable Energy’ (ClientEarth 2014) 34.

Received: 28 Janu ary 2020 

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  Revised: 11 May 2020 

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  Accepted: 15 May 2020

DOI: 10 .1111/reel .12346

SPECIAL ISSUE ARTICLE

Power to the people? Implications of the Clean Energy Package

for the role of community ownership in Europe’s energy

transition

Joshua Roberts

Correspondence

Email: josh.roberts@rescoop.eu Abstract

Since the 1970s, citizens have organized t hrough community ene rgy initiatives to

take ownership of renew able energy produc tion. The European Unio n’s (EU) new

Clean Energy for A ll Europeans Legislative Pac kage (CEP) now formally recognizes

this set of actors as ‘ren ewable’ and ‘citizen’ energy commu nities. This articl e aims

to assess whether th e CEP – namely the recast Ren ewable Energy Direc tive and

the energy mar ket design legislation – guarantees the rol e of energy communities in

Europe’s energy tra nsition. The article demonst rates how, due to their lack of recog-

nition at EU level, internal e nergy market and compet ition rules, including t he 2014

Guidelines on State A id for Environmental Protection and E nergy (EEAG), have over-

looked the unique char acteristics and challe nges of energy communities, r aising legal

issues around equal ity and non-discrimination. Ultimate ly, the article conclu des that

the CEP establish es an unprecedented fram ework with potential to suppor t com-

munity ownership in the energy sector. However, transposition and implementation

will test the legal s trength of the new rule s, as will the revision of the EEAG . The

results of these pr ocesses will reinforce or impede t he growth of energy commun ities

throughout Europe.