COME RES - Community Energy for the uptake of renewables in the electricity sector. Connecting long-term visions with short-term actions – is a project under the EU’s Horizon2020 programme, aimed at facilitating the market uptake of renewable energy sources (RES) in the electricity sector. Specifically, the project focusses on advancing renewable energy communities (RECs) as per the EU’s recast Renewable Energy Directive. COME RES takes a multi- and transdisciplinary approach to support the development of RECs in nine European countries; Belgium, Germany, Italy Latvia, the Netherlands, Norway, Poland, Portugal and Spain.

The project will include different socio-technological systems such as community photovoltaics, onshore wind, storage and integrated solutions. The selected countries have various levels of experience in community energy, ranging from those with exemplary performances to those that are just starting out. The project will analyse legal, socioeconomic, spatial and environmental features, detect the reasons for the slow development of RECs in some countries, establish stakeholder dialogues and develop regional action plans and business model proposals. Moreover, it will investigate good/best practice cases and develop a community platform.

The countries selected range from pioneers that have gained broad experience of community energy (CE) to countries that are just beginning to look at CE. COME RES analyses legal, socioeconomic, spatial and environmental characteristics, and the reasons for the slow deployment of RECs in selected target regions. Stakeholder desks consisting of the project partners and committed community, market and policy actors in each country take on the operational tasks.

Both overall and specific objectives will be reached by:

• Analysing the potentials, barriers and drivers for RECs in the target regions,
• Carrying out stakeholder dialogues,
• Developing regional action plans and business-model proposals for target regions,
• Examining good/best practice cases that are transferable to specific local, regional and national contexts,
• Initiating transfers of best practice solutions via policy labs supported by capacity development and training and
• Developing a renewable energy community platform.

The consortium synchronises project activities with the transposition/implementation of the Clean Energy Package and its provisions for RECs in policy labs. Policy lessons with validity across Europe will be drawn and recommendations proposed. Over 85 stakeholders and market actors have provided letters of support expressing their commitment to support the project and implement its results.

Partners

• FREIE UNIVERSITAET BERLIN
• VLAAMSE INSTELLING VOOR TECHNOLOGISCH ONDERZOEK N.V.
• BECKER BUTTNER HELD PARTNERSCHAFT
• RESCOOP EU ASBL
• AGENZIA NAZIONALE PER LE NUOVE TECNOLOGIE, L'ENERGIA E LO SVILUPPO ECONOMICO SOSTENIBILE
• ECOAZIONI SNC ARCHITETTI BASTIANI M. E VENERUCCI V.
• FIZIKALAS ENERGETIKAS INSTITUTS
• VIDES INVESTICIJU FONDS SIA
• TECHNISCHE UNIVERSITEIT EINDHOVEN
• CICERO SENTER FOR KLIMAFORSKNING
• NORGES VASSDRAGS- OG ENERGIDIREKTORAT
• KRAJOWA AGENCJA POSZANOWANIA ENERGII SPOLKA AKCYJNA
• INEGI - INSTITUTO DE CIENCIA E INOVACAO EM ENGENHARIA MECANICA E ENGENHARIA INDUSTRIAL
• ECORYS ESPANA SL
• ASOCIACION CANARIA DE ENERGIAS RENOVABLES, ACER
• ICLEI EUROPEAN SECRETARIAT GMBH (ICLEI EUROPASEKRETARIAT GMBH)

Start date: 1 September 2020 - End date: 28 February 2023