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Executive summary of the thematic workshop "Future of Citizen Wind Power - What should a regulatory framework for renewable energy communities look like?" is now online

News from May 11, 2021

On March 30, 2021, the Environmental Policy Research Centre (FFU) of Freie Universität Berlin organized a thematic online workshop and virtual policy round table titled "The Future of Citizen Wind Power - What Should a Regulatory Framework for Renewable Energy Communities Look Like?" The documentation of the event in German language and an executive summary in English are now available on the COME RES website https://come-res.eu/stakeholder-desks/germany.

The workshop was organised within the framework of the Horizon 2020 project COME RES, which is coordinated by FFU since September 1, 2020. The event is part of the activities of the COME RES country desk in Germany, an informal stakeholder dialogue forum. It was held in cooperation with the Wind Energy Service Unit of the Thuringian Energy and GreenTech Agency (ThEGA) and Dr. Bettina Knothe, Consultant for Participatory Sustainability. 

Amongst the 70 stakeholders participating in the event there were representatives of the European Commission, the federal parliament, the state parliaments of Thuringia and Schleswig-Holstein and the state ministries, public authorities, energy and business development agencies, community energy organisations including cooperatives, associations, municipal utility companies, project developers, financing institutions, consumer organisations and civil society.

The stakeholder policy dialogue on the transposition and implementation of the Renewable Energy Directive (RED II) in Germany also  discussed the implications for the federal states, especially in Thuringia and Schleswig-Holstein. 

In addition to expert contributions, including from the European Commission, the European Committee of the Regions, the Federal Network Agency and the Alliance for Citizens’ Energy, an interactive session  gave all participants the opportunity to discuss specific aspects concerning renewable energy communities (RECs). The highlight of the event was a virtual round table (“policy lab”) with public decision-makers from the European, federal, state (Länder) and municipal level. 

Issues which have been highlighted include:

  • Transposition process and gaps in Germany (e.g. definitions, energy sharing, assessment of barriers and potentials)
  • How to avoid misuse of the concept of RECs
  • Enabling framework for RECs (e.g. consideration of RECs in the auction system and in spatial planning, community energy funds in Schleswig-Holstein and Thuringia etc.)
  • Competition by new actors including green financial investors 
  • Measures to increase added value and local acceptance of RECs
  • Direct and indirect forms of financial participation of municipalities and citizens.

The next activities of the German country desk will comprise a thematic workshop before the summer break or at the beginning of September 2021 and a regular country desk meeting towards the end of the year.

Contact: 

Dr. Rosaria Di Nucci, dinucci@zedat.fu-berlin.de

Michael Krug, mikru@zedat.fu-berlin.de 

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