Background

Marcel Camp Inglès is an Energy Engineer specialising in renewable energy, energy flexibility, and energy communities through local and European programs. His work in the Barcelona Metropolitan Area (AMB) focuses on developing local energy transition offices (One-Stop Shops) through projects like H2020 Up-stairs and LIFE CoManage. These offices bridge public administration, industry, and community stakeholders and strive to empower communities to participate in the energy transition. 

BUILD UP (BUP): What is an energy community?

MARCEL CAMPS INGLÈS (MCI): Any group of individuals, businesses, or organisations that come together to produce, manage, share, or consume energy in any way can be considered an energy community. However, if we look only at what legally can be called an energy community, the Clean Energy Package (CEP) contains two main models of energy communities: Citizen Energy Community (CEC), as defined in Directive (EU) 2019/944v (the recast Electricity Directive), and Renewable Energy Community (REC), outlined in Directive (EU) 2018/2001 (the recast Renewable Energy Directive).

Both legal bodies consider the voluntary and open participation of its members, being local, local authorities including municipalities, or small enterprises. The main difference between them is that where REC requires its shareholders to be in proximity to renewable energy generation, while the CEC does not. Nevertheless, the CEC's primary purpose is to provide environmental, economic or social community benefits rather than to generate financial profit.

The CEC and REC models aim to accelerate the energy transition through electrification and the deployment of renewable energy sources. However, REC allows for more business involvement, particularly in local renewable energy generation, whereas CEC primarily focuses on social empowerment. The CEC emphasises community participation and aims to deliver environmental, economic, or social benefits over financial profits. Despite these differences, both frameworks contribute to a more inclusive and sustainable energy future.

BUP: How do energy communities contribute to environmental sustainability and reduction of greenhouse gas emissions?     

MCI: The core idea behind energy communities is to promote more collaborative energy models, making it easier to install renewable energy systems and accelerate the energy transition. Energy communities are a powerful means to achieve a 100% renewable energy system. For example, one key purpose mentioned in Directive 2018/2001/EU is to boost local acceptance of renewable energy and increase private capital investment in renewable projects.

Energy communities are closely tied to the transformation of the energy system. They serve as a platform for investing in renewable energy projects, such as solar or wind, for retrofitting homes and buildings to enhance energy efficiency, and for sharing electric vehicles and the energy they use.

‘Energy communities are a powerful means to achieve a 100% renewable energy system’

BUP: What are the social and economic benefits of energy communities?

MCI: As I mentioned, energy communities inevitably are bonded with the energy transition. However, this energy transition is only possible and only makes sense if the market rules change. Energy transition is about empowering people, SMEs and public administration, all of them passive participants in the energy sector that are now taking a lead role.

In the era of information, big data, and globalisation, where people are losing their ties to their neighbours, energy communities offer a beacon of hope, a tool to strengthen these bonds and, by doing so, making a green future possible. The average citizen needs to see the energy transition as something that can benefit them, not as something that will make their life more difficult.

It is here where energy prices and electrification come in. According to Lazzard’s LCEO report solar PV utilities and wind farms are the cheapest energy source available.

To summarise, energy communities play a crucial role in diversifying access to the cheapest energy sources, ensuring that ordinary citizens, small businesses, and public administrations can benefit from these resources. By doing so, they democratize the energy system, giving people more control over their energy consumption and fostering greater energy independence.

BUP: How do local, national, and European regulations influence the development of energy communities?

MCI: Energy communities were already a reality in Europe before they were defined in the European Directives. It is my opinion that the European Commission saw an opportunity to speed up energy transition and set up a base from where energy communities could take off. However, much more is needed if we really want them to succeed.

It is very clear, if you look closely at the legal nation frameworks, that energy communities have not been fully developed around Europe. The national governments in the EU still hold a lot of power and the transposition of the directives is asymmetrical across Europe and often insufficient.

To translate the European Directives into state laws is enough to avoid uncomfortable questions or sanctions from the European Commission but it is not enough to give full support to the development and creation of energy communities. National governments need to create favourable environments where energy communities (citizen led initiatives) can compete eye-to-eye with big corporations that hold a big foothold in the energy system.

‘The national governments in the EU still hold a lot of power and the transposition of the directives is asymmetrical across Europe and often insufficient’

BUP: How do projects like UP-STAIRS ensure the inclusion and effective participation of regular consumers in the formation and operation of energy communities, and what strategies are in place to simplify the complexities for laypersons?

MCI: Regardless of national laws, we needed to ensure that the average citizen could get information about energy transition, what they could do individually and the power of an energy community. The project approach was to do so by creating Energy Transition One-Stop Shops (OSS). Each pilot site oversaw setting up at least one OSS, creating a training program for the public workers working on the OSS and developing a dissemination and communication strategy.

In Barcelona Metropolitan Area, where more than 3.3 million people live, we set up 6 physical OSS and one online, called ‘La Teulada’ – the rooftop. We held 90 events across the whole region, at least one in each municipality, directed to SMEs and citizens to explain the advantages of energy transition and energy communities. In 6 months, we reached more than 2.000 people and SMEs and assessed 400 people with a success rate of 25%, ensuring 100 solar PV rooftop installations.

BUP: What key strategies or tools has the COMANAGE project developed? Can you provide examples of how these solutions have been implemented in the Metropolitan Area of Barcelona pilot case?

MCI: In AMB we were very happy with the results obtained thanks to the Up-Stairs program, but we thought it was not enough. The Barcelona Metropolitan Area holds more than 180,000 residential buildings, and it was clear that we did not reach everyone. It made a lot of sense to use the structure created in the Up-Stairs program, La Teulada, to use it and include more tools within a new project.

The COMANAGE project strives to create tools that increase the outreach and facilitate the creation and long-term survival of energy communities by creating 3 main tools:

1. An open toolbox: A set of legal, technical and social tools available to the public on the COMANAGE Open Platform that will help to guide any person or legal entity to set up an energy community. We have created templates for shared-self consumption tax incentives, a rooftop sharing contract, guides for social inclusion, dissemination materials and an economic evaluation tool.

2. E-learning program: We are currently working on an autonomous 20-hour online learning platform that will allow citizens to become experts in energy transition, solar PV and energy communities.

3. Decision Support System (DSS): An assisted AI program that looks like a regular chatbot that can answer any question related to energy communities. The quality of its answers is ensured by feeding the AI previously reviewed articles, guides and different materials. This system filters all the questions and, if the question is too complex, tries to schedule a meeting with experts from La Teulada.