Energy communities enable collective and citizen-driven energy actions to support the clean energy transition.
They can contribute to increasing public acceptance of renewable energy projects and make it easier to attract private investments in the clean energy transition. Energy communities can be an effective means of re-structuring our energy systems, by empowering citizens to drive the energy transition locally and directly benefit from better energy efficiency, lower bills, reduced energy poverty and more local green job opportunities.
Recognising the potential contribution of energy communities in achieving a more secure, affordable and cleaner energy system for Europe, the REPowerEU Plan put forward the shared political objective of achieving 1 energy community per municipality with a population of more than 10 000 by 2025.
Energy communities allow local communities to join forces and invest in clean energy. Acting as a single entity means energy communities can access all suitable energy markets on a level-playing field with other market actors. Under EU law, energy communities can take the form of any legal entity including an association, a cooperative, a partnership, a non-profit organisation or a limited liability company.
The Affordable Energy Action Plan puts forward energy communities as a solution to benefit from affordable renewable energy, emphasising the importance of strengthening these initiatives to allow local communities, citizens and companies to collectively invest in clean energy projects at local level; thereby allowing them to produce, sell and consume their renewable energy.
In this vein, the Commission urges EU countries and regions, when reprogramming under the mid-term review of the Cohesion Policy, to contribute to the Affordable Energy Action Plan by providing support to the completion of energy communities and strengthen support for collective and citizen-driven energy actions, for example the creation of energy communities, through increasing administrative capacities to provide technical and financial advice.
Initiatives for energy communities
The European Parliament provided funding for 2 projects that have contributed to the promotion of best practices and provided technical assistance for the development of concrete energy community initiatives across the EU.
Citizen Energy Advisory Hub
The Citizen Energy Advisory Hub is a pioneering Commission initiative designed to promote a bottom-up approach to the energy transition across the EU to enhance citizen participation in the energy transition and strengthen the social dimension of the Energy Union.
As Europe moves towards a more decentralised and decarbonised energy system, the Advisory Hub will serve as a key resource to help local communities, citizens, municipalities and small businesses to self-consume renewable energy and reduce or shift their energy demand in order to control their energy bills.
The Citizen Energy Advisory Hub’s activities will accelerate the widespread implementation of EU legislation, aid EU countries in creating enabling conditions for the democratisation of Europe's energy system, and build capacity for different stakeholders, including energy communities.
This is epitomised by the delivery of direct technical assistance to 120 selected citizen energy initiatives to help them plan, develop or scale sustainable energy projects. Other activities will include developing resources, providing networking opportunities and facilitating local dialogues with citizens around the energy transition.
Support Service for Citizen-led renovation
The support service for Citizen-led renovation is a Commission initiative aiming to empower energy communities and put citizens in the driver’s seat for energy-saving renovation projects.
The first pilot phase of this initiative demonstrated the relevance of the concept as a complementary and bottom-up approach to increase the pace and depth of energy renovations. It also showed the importance to develop more inclusive outreach strategies, expand peer learning networks, strengthen the complementarity between one-stop shops and citizen-led renovation collectives. Furthermore, it evidenced the need to explore economies of scales, for example through grouped purchases, and identified some barriers to the concept such as legal liability.
A new phase started early 2025 focusing on emerging energy communities (CLR collectives) and similar organisations where citizen engagement and collaboration can drive the activation of building renovation and urban regeneration projects.
A group of 'enablers', established across EU countries, will collaborate with citizens to create a favourable environment for scaling up citizen-led renovation collectives and provide assistance to ensure the concrete implementation of their energy renovation projects (CLR projects). 5 organisations are already part of the project: the Italian Energy and Sustainable Development Agency (AESS), the North West Croatia Energy and Climate Agency (REGEA), the City of Dublin Energy Management Agency (CODEMA), the Valencia Climate and Energy Foundation (VCE), and the Auvergne-Rhône-Alpes Regional Energy Environment Agency (AURA-EE), together with Alter Alsace Energies (ALTER). 5 additional enablers will be selected in 2025.
The Energy Communities Repository was launched in April 2022 and ended in January 2024. Its objective was to assist local actors and citizens willing to set up a Citizens Energy Community or a Renewable Energy Community in an urban area, through technical and administrative advice, to encourage their development.
The initiative identified enabling and supporting frameworks for renewable energy communities and citizen energy communities, as defined in the Renewable Energy Directive and in the Internal Electricity Market Directive. It also conducted analysis and impact assessments of energy communities, as well as best practices and know-how for local authorities, businesses, citizens and citizen organisations that wished to set up energy communities, in particular in EU countries that did not yet have a strong tradition of such initiatives.
The projects that benefitted from this initiative were primarily urban energy communities in eastern European countries, such as Latvijas Energokopiena (Latvia), Energetska zadruga Drenova (Croatia) and izgrei bg (Bulgaria).
Consult ECR reports, maps, case studies
The ECR videos and event recordings are available in the DG Energy playlist ‘Energy communities’ on YouTube.
The Rural Energy Community Advisory Hub was launched in June 2022 and ended in March 2024.
The initiative focused on assisting citizens, rural actors and local authorities in setting up a Citizen Energy Community or Renewable Energy Community in rural areas through technical and administrative advice and encouraging their development. Its key activities included
- the identification of best practices concerning support frameworks for rural energy community projects, with close involvement of local authorities
- providing technical assistance to selected rural energy communities
- providing networking opportunities to local stakeholders
The advisory hub can be seen as an extension of the Energy Communities Repository and the Covenant of Mayors, with a special focus on accelerating the development of energy communities in close collaboration with local authorities in rural areas.
The data collected through this initiative constitutes a very important source of information for the European institutions and national, regional and local authorities and relevant stakeholders as it contributes to the identification and dissemination of best practices and know-how for local authorities in particular, as well as businesses, farmers and citizens that wish to set up rural energy communities.
LIFE-CET sub-programme
For the past decade, the sub-programme and its processors have supported the development of energy communities in Europe and piloted enabling frameworks for energy communities at the municipal and regional level. Overall, they have helped more than 400 energy communities to implement different business models (from RES generation to heating and cooling or building renovation). In recent years, the programme has supported the cooperation between energy communities and local and regional authorities to implement more than 50 local services helping citizens materialise and scale-up energy community projects. The 2025 LIFE CET call is open to proposals until 23 September 2025 and includes a call topic focused on the development of support services for energy communities.
European Energy Communities Facility
The European Energy Communities Facility aims to empower and support the development of energy communities across Europe. Launched in September 2024, and set to run until February 2028, the project builds on the successful experiences of the Energy Communities Repository, the Rural Energy Communities Advisory Hub and the European City Facility. By distributing small lump sum grants, it will assist at least 140 energy communities in developing and implementing solid business plans for their renewable energy projects. The calls will be open to energy communities from any EU country, Iceland, Ukraine, Moldova and North Macedonia.
The facility will also deliver targeted training and hands-on capacity building to help local initiatives mature their projects and implement replicable business models with long-term sustainability.
Backed by EU Legislation
Through the Clean energy for all Europeans package, adopted in 2019, the EU introduced the concept of energy communities in its legislation for the first time, notably as citizen energy communities and renewable energy communities.
Since then, legislation on energy communities has been further strengthened by new or revised EU rules.
Adopted in 2023, the amending Renewable Energy Directive (EU) 2023/2413 enables EU countries to promote energy communities in offshore wind and district heating and cooling networks. To mainstream renewable energies in buildings, countries may also decide to promote cooperation with local authorities through public procurement. These rules build on those already established in 2018 under the revised Renewable Energy Directive (EU) 2018/2001.
Energy communities also benefit from simplified registration processes and reduced registration fees for guarantees of origin. In May 2024, the Commission adopted recommendations and guidance documents on renewables permitting and support schemes, calling on national governments to ease permitting procedures and requirements (including for grid connections) for energy communities.
In addition to introducing policy measures to achieve energy saving obligations, the recast Energy Efficiency Directive (EU) 2023/1791 requires local heating plans to assess the potential of energy communities to develop renewable energy-based heating projects.
Meanwhile, the recast Energy Performance of Buildings Directive (EU) 2024/1275 requires that building renovation plans report on the role of energy communities. It also recognises renewable energy produced by an energy community as a possible energy source for zero-emission buildings and requires EU countries to put measures in place to ensure adequate information and training for all relevant market actors including energy communities.
The reform of the EU’s electricity market design clarifies and reinforces the right of energy communities to share energy between its members or shareholders. More specifically, the Directive on common rules for the internal electricity market (EU/2019/944) supports the uptake of energy communities. It introduced new rules to enable active consumer participation, individually or through citizen energy communities, in all markets, by generating, consuming, sharing or selling electricity, or by providing flexibility services through demand-response and storage.
EU countries may target vulnerable households, micro-enterprises, and transport users through energy communities under the Social Climate Fund Regulation (EU) 2023/955.
Related links
- Enabling framework for renewables
- Renewable Energy Directive
- Energy Efficiency Directive
- Social Climate Fund Regulation (EU) 2023/955
- Support Service for Citizen-led renovation
- European Energy Communities Facility
- News: Empowering local energy: The European Energy Communities Facility supported by the LIFE Programme (6/5/2025)