Renewable Energy communities. The current energy transition is not only making the shift from fossil to renewable energy sources, but it also rethinks how energy is produced and distributed. Next to traditional top-down distribution, with electricity being generated in large power plants and transported to the end consumer, local energy networks gain in importance. These local energy networks have a huge potential in our future energy system. Facilitating their rollout and supporting the implementation of the facilities for renewable energy communities (RECs) is the focus of the COME RES project.
Issues addressed and major steps. COME RES covers diverse socio-technological systems including community PV, wind (onshore), storage and integrated solutions, investigated in nine European countries. The project has a specific focus on a number of target regions in these countries, where community energy has the potential to be further developed and model regions where community energy is in a more advanced stage of development. COME RES analyses political, administrative, legal, socioeconomic, spatial and environmental characteristics, and the reasons for the slow deployment of RECs in selected target regions.
Country Stakeholder Desks. To engage closely with local stakeholders the project is setting up stakeholder desks in each country and organises solution-oriented thematic dialogues and policy roundtables to co-create solutions to overcome existing barriers for the growth of community energy. These can be regarded as informal dialogue fora involving the national COME RES project partners, community energy organisations, other key actors and market players from specific target regions and beyond.
