The energy cluster is about finding solutions to current challenges: climate crisis, energy crisis, rising prices, households affected by energy poverty. “Renewable energy systems under new community ownership structures are being pioneered all over the Europe. The goal is to develop cheap, clean and secure energy by bringing power generation closer to the people who will use it. […] One answer to the global energy challenge is being devised at the local and regional level through clean-energy communities. These are groups of people that voluntarily pool their resources to produce, store or distribute energy together.”¹

By creating decentralised systems of energy supply, households and businesses can exchange and trade sustainably produced electricity and heat among themselves and independently set prices in the community. As a result, there is more independence from large corporations, fossil fuels and price developments at the international level. It strengthens local value creation, makes a significant contribution to environmental protection, and allows local people to participate directly (social innovation) in the energy transition, save costs and establish climate-friendly lifestyles.

The European Green Deal’s objective to decarbonise energy production has been reinforced by the Clean Energy for all Europeans (CEP) package adapted by the EU in 2019. It aims to make a significant contribution to the climate goals in Europe and create a framework for the creation of energy communities (to be implemented at national level). In 2022, in view of the energy crisis, the REPowerEU plan set targets for reducing energy consumption, increasing the share of renewable energy and diversifying the European energy supply. Significant contributions can be made to these EU goals by rural communities.

¹Barbiroglio, E. (2022). Energy communities bring renewable power to the people