Looking at energy communities through a local authority lens : perceptions, experiences and needs

The information used to inform the analysis and recommendations in this paper was gathered through a series of structured interviews with local authorities throughout Europe. The Smart Cities Marketplace network of local experts was enlisted to support this task. This allowed for the interviews to be conducted in the native language of the interviewees. At the same time, the selection of municipalities and interviewees was facilitated by the local experts, who have better knowledge of the local context. The questionnaire can be consulted in the Annex. Eight Member States were selected to cover the different parts of the European Union as much as possible, and to provide variation in terms of both legal context and experience in the topic of energy communities. The selection considers the difference in progress in national frameworks of the Renewable Energy Community and Citizen Energy Community definitions, and in the enabling framework. This led to the following list: Belgium (Flemish region), Italy, Germany, Luxembourg, Cyprus, Croatia, Spain, and the Netherlands.