Renewable energy plays a key role in the EU’s long-term strategy to be climate-neutral by 2050, and in achieving the EU’s energy transition. The EU set a target for the share of renewable energy of at least 42.5 % by 2030 (up from 25.4 % in 2024). The Commission estimated that half of the EU’s citizens could produce up to 50 % of the EU’s renewable energy by 2050. Energy communities are legal entities that empower citizens, small businesses and local authorities to produce, manage, share and consume their own energy. The Commission introduced EU legal definitions for energy communities in Directive (EU) 2018/2001 on the use of energy from renewable sources (RED II) and Directive (EU) 2019/944 on the internal market for electricity (IMED). In the 2022 EU Solar Energy Strategy, the Commission set a political objective (referred to in this report as the ‘EU objective’): The EU and member states will work together to set up at least one renewables-based energy community in every municipality with a population over 10 000 by 2025.
The report “Energy communities: Potential yet to be fulfilled” published by European Court of Auditors concludes that the EU is unlikely to have at least one renewables-based energy community in every municipality with more than 10 000 inhabitants by 2025, as it had reached only 27% of its objective by January 2025. This objective sets an ambition but does not cover the expected benefits of energy communities, lacks formal endorsement by member states, and is incompletely monitored. Even considering the good example, among the selected member states, with well-developed energy cooperatives, it was also estimated that energy communities could own 4 % of solar and wind energy generation capacity by 2030, i.e. below the 21 % and 17 % stated by the Commission in the impact assessment of RED II. Moreover, governments have not created all the necessary conditions to support the development of communities, in particular by failing to address unresolved regulatory aspects and delays in grid connections, often caused by peak-time grid congestion, for which energy storage could provide solutions.
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