In the following, you will find an annotated list of policy documents and legal provisions from different countries and regions. (work in progress)<\/p>\n\n\n\n
Global: [IRENA]<\/a> [WWEA]<\/a><\/p>\n\n\n\n Regional: [EU]<\/a><\/p>\n\n\n\n National: [CA]<\/a> [DE]<\/a> [UK]<\/a><\/p>\n\n\n\n <\/a><\/p>\n\n\n IRENA’s “Coalition for Action” has a working group on community energy. It uses the WWEA definition.<\/p>\n\n\n\n In 2018, the working group published a white paper titled “Community Energy: Broadening the Ownership of Renewables”. You will find it here<\/a>.<\/p>\n\n\n <\/a><\/p>\n\n\n The WWEA uses the terms “community wind” and “community power”. <\/p>\n\n\n\n A WWEA working group has defined community power as follows: <\/p>\n\n\n\n “A project can be defined as Community Power if at least two of the following three criteria are fulfilled:<\/p>\n\n\n\n 1.<\/strong><\/em> Local stakeholders own the majority or all of a project<\/strong><\/em> 2.<\/strong><\/em> Voting control rests with the community-based organization:<\/strong><\/em> 3.<\/strong><\/em> The majority of social and economic benefits are distributed locally:<\/strong><\/em> See: https:\/\/wwindea.org\/blog\/2011\/05\/23\/communitypowerdefinition\/<\/a><\/p>\n\n\n\n For further information about WWEA’s work on community wind and community power in general, see: https:\/\/wwindea.org\/community-wind\/<\/a>.<\/p>\n\n\n\n <\/a><\/p>\n\n\n The Clean Energy Package contains two definitions of “energy communities”: Renewable Energy Communities<\/strong> (RECs) are a term defined and used in the recast Renewable Energy Directive (RED II). In art. 2 (16) it says:<\/p>\n\n\n\n “\u2018renewable energy community\u2019 means a legal entity:<\/p>\n\n\n\n (a) which, in accordance with the applicable national law, is based on open and voluntary participation, is autonomous, and is effectively controlled by shareholders or members that are located in the proximity of the renewable energy projects that are owned and developed by that legal entity; <\/p>\n\n\n\n (b) the shareholders or members of which are natural persons, SMEs [small and medium enterprises] or local authorities, including municipalities; <\/p>\n\n\n\n (c) the primary purpose of which is to provide environmental, economic or social community benefits for its shareholders or members or for the local areas where it operates, rather than financial profits.”<\/p>\n\n\n\n A somewhat related, but not identical term is used in the Electricity Directive, namely Citizen Energy Communities<\/strong> (CECs). These are defined in art. 2 (11) as follows:<\/p>\n\n\n\n “\u2018citizen energy community\u2019 means a legal entity that:<\/p>\n\n\n\n (a) is based on voluntary and open participation and is effectively controlled by members or shareholders that are natural persons, local authorities, including municipalities, or small enterprises; <\/p>\n\n\n\n (b) has for its primary purpose to provide environmental, economic or social community benefits to its members or shareholders or to the local areas where it operates rather than to generate financial profits; and <\/p>\n\n\n\n (c) may engage in generation, including from renewable sources, distribution, supply, consumption, aggregation, energy storage, energy efficiency services or charging services for electric vehicles or provide other energy services to its members or shareholders.”<\/p>\n\n\n\n The transposition of these directives into national law is taking place at the moment. On some of the open questions around these definitions see e.g. the REScoop websites at https:\/\/www.rescoop.eu\/blog\/what-are-citizen-and-renewable-energy-communities<\/a>.<\/p>\n\n\n\n Legal texts:<\/p>\n\n\n\n <\/a><\/p>\n\n\n In Canada, several provinces supported community energy installations, e.g. through grant programmes, such as Ontario’s “Community Energy Partnerships Program” (CEPP).<\/p>\n\n\n <\/a><\/p>\n\n\n The most common German term for community energy is “B\u00fcrgerenergie” (literal translation: “citizen energy”). Since the 2016 amendment, the Renewable Energy Sources Act (German: Erneuerbare-Energien-Gesetz) includes a legal definition of so-called “B\u00fcrgerenergiegesellschaften” (citizen energy companies) – in the original German legal text:<\/p>\n\n\n\n “jede Gesellschaft,<\/p>\n\n\n\n (a) die aus mindestens zehn nat\u00fcrlichen Personen als stimmberechtigten Mitgliedern oder stimmberechtigten Anteilseignern besteht,<\/p>\n\n\n\n (b) bei der mindestens 51 Prozent der Stimmrechte bei nat\u00fcrlichen Personen liegen, die seit mindestens einem Jahr vor der Gebotsabgabe in der kreisfreien Stadt oder dem Landkreis, in der oder dem die geplante Windenergieanlage an Land errichtet werden soll, nach \u00a7 21 oder \u00a7 22 des Bundesmeldegesetzes mit ihrem Hauptwohnsitz gemeldet sind, und<\/p>\n\n\n\n (c) bei der kein Mitglied oder Anteilseigner der Gesellschaft mehr als 10 Prozent der Stimmrechte an der Gesellschaft h\u00e4lt,<\/p>\n\n\n\n wobei es beim Zusammenschluss von mehreren juristischen Personen oder Personengesellschaften zu einer Gesellschaft ausreicht, wenn jedes der Mitglieder der Gesellschaft die Voraussetzungen nach den Buchstaben a bis c erf\u00fcllt.” (EEG 2017, Sec. 3 para. 15)<\/p>\n\n\n\n Translation:<\/p>\n\n\n\n \u201c’citizens\u2019 energy company’ shall mean every company This definition is only applied in one case: special regulations for community wind farms according to EEG 2017, sec. 36g.<\/p>\n\n\n\n Several support schemes and regulations exist in different federal states that implicitly or explicitly define “B\u00fcrgerenergie”. The government of Schleswig-Holstein, for instance, has implemented the “B\u00fcrgerenergiefonds” (citizens’ energy fund), a special fund that supports community energy projects in their initial phases. “B\u00fcrgerenergie” is defined as follows:<\/p>\n\n\n\n (Translation: At least 7 natural persons, in addition to this, legal persons may participate; natural persons have to have a majority of votes or power to veto vis-\u00e0-vis other project stakeholders (municipalities, associations or companies); main residence of 7 of the natural persons must be within the municipal area in which the project will be implemented; the legal structure of the association can be chosen freely.)<\/p>\n\n\n <\/a><\/p>\n\n\n In 2014, the Department of Energy & Climate Change (DECC) published the “Community Energy Strategy”. It can be found at https:\/\/www.gov.uk\/government\/uploads\/system\/uploads\/attachment_data\/file\/275163\/20140126Community_Energy_Strategy.pdf<\/a>. An update was published on March 2015, which is available at https:\/\/assets.publishing.service.gov.uk\/government\/uploads\/system\/uploads\/attachment_data\/file\/414446\/CESU_FINAL.pdf<\/a>.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":" In the following, you will find an annotated list of policy documents and legal provisions from different countries and regions. (work in progress) Overview Global: [IRENA] [WWEA] Regional: [EU] National: [CA] [DE] [UK] Global International Renewable Energy Agency (IRENA) IRENA’s “Coalition for Action” has a working group on community energy. […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":0,"parent":54,"menu_order":0,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","template":"","meta":{"footnotes":""},"class_list":["post-64","page","type-page","status-publish","hentry"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"http:\/\/i-cern.org\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/pages\/64","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"http:\/\/i-cern.org\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/pages"}],"about":[{"href":"http:\/\/i-cern.org\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/types\/page"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/i-cern.org\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/i-cern.org\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcomments&post=64"}],"version-history":[{"count":7,"href":"http:\/\/i-cern.org\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/pages\/64\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":109,"href":"http:\/\/i-cern.org\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/pages\/64\/revisions\/109"}],"up":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/i-cern.org\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/pages\/54"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"http:\/\/i-cern.org\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=64"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}Global<\/h2>\n\n\n
International Renewable Energy Agency (IRENA)<\/h3>\n\n\n\n
World Wind Energy Association (WWEA)<\/h3>\n\n\n\n
A\n local individual or a group of local stakeholders, whether they are \nfarmers, cooperatives, independent power producers, financial \ninstitutions, municipalities, schools, etc., own, immediately or \neventually, the majority or all of a project.<\/em><\/p>\n\n\n\n
The\n community-based organization made up of local stakeholders has the \nmajority of the voting rights concerning the decisions taken on the \nproject.<\/em><\/p>\n\n\n\n
The major part or all of the social and economic benefits are returned to the local community.”<\/em><\/p>\n\n\n\nRegional<\/h2>\n\n\n
European Union (EU)<\/h3>\n\n\n\n
National<\/h2>\n\n\n
Canada (CA)<\/h3>\n\n\n\n
Germany (DE)<\/h3>\n\n\n\n
a) which consists of at least ten natural persons who are members eligible to vote or shareholders eligible to vote,
b) in which at least 51 percent of the voting rights are held by natural persons whose main residence has been registered pursuant to Section 21 or Section 22 of the Federal Registration Act for at least one year prior to submission of the bid in the urban or rural district in which the onshore wind energy installation is to be erected,
c) in which no member or shareholder of the undertaking holds more than 10 percent of the voting rights of the undertaking, whereby in the case of an association of several legal persons or unincorporated firms to form an undertaking it is sufficient if each of the members of the undertaking fulfils the preconditions pursuant to letters a to c.”
(Source: https:\/\/www.bmwi.de\/Redaktion\/EN\/Downloads\/renewable-energy-sources-act-2017.pdf%3F__blob%3DpublicationFile%26v%3D3<\/a>)<\/p>\n\n\n\n
(Source: https:\/\/www.ib-sh.de\/produkt\/buergerenergiefonds\/<\/a>)<\/li><\/ul>\n\n\n\nUnited Kingdom of Great Britain and Northern Ireland (UK)<\/h3>\n\n\n\n