Before July 2021, the Spanish Government had to have transposed the European directive that recognizes community energy. One year later, the citizen energy communities continue without a legal framework to protect them. "They have assured us that it would be before the end of the year, but they already told us the same thing in 2021," says Marta Morera, director of the Institut Català d'Energia (Icaen). Meanwhile, more than 80 energy communities in the province of Barcelona alone are still waiting to be deployed, according to information from the Provincial Council.
Citizen energy communities can be those associations, cooperatives or any non-profit legal entity made up of citizens, entities, small businesses or local administrations. Its raison d'être is to allow the different local actors to actively participate in the energy transition, either by installing renewable energies for self-consumption or promoting energy management and saving mechanisms.
In the absence of their own legal framework, energy communities are created as if they were shared self-consumption. This occurs when, for example, a community of neighbors installs solar panels on the roof so that the electricity generated is shared by the neighbors who own the installation. However, "energy communities go beyond shared self-consumption because they are linked to other services," says Marta Morera.
Isabel Cava and Alfons Conesa, from the Banso energy consumption consultancy firm, confirm that "there is a lot of interest on the part of city councils and citizens", but also fear of leading these initiatives due to the existing uncertainties. The consultants lament the existence of legal obstacles, such as the limitation of 500 meters of distance between the point of generation and consumption, or the lack of connection points to the electricity grid, occupied by large companies. "Hopefully the French pattern will be adopted in Spain, where shared self-consumption is allowed up to 2 km in urban areas and up to 20 km in rural areas," Cava wishes.
Banso participated in the constitution of what they claim is the first energy community in Catalonia, in May 2021. "The project is stuck in the registry because the figure of the energy community does not enter into its schemes as it does not yet exist legally," he explains. the expert consultant.
"There is great pressure from electricity companies to curb shared self-consumption and energy communities," says Abel Porras Braceras, member of the Castilla-La Mancha Energy Cooperative. "We do not have legal or governmental support to do something different," denounces Álvaro Campos Celador, a professor at the University of the Basque Country and a member of Gure Energia, the Mutual Support Network in Response to Energy Megaprojects, and the Energy and Territory Alliance (Aliente ). On the other hand, Campos laments that “in Spain there are facilities to build large solar or wind farms”.
"Local opposition to megaprojects is awakening small initiatives from energy communities," says Alfons Pérez, a member of the Globalization Debt Observatory (ODG). This is the case of Energia del Pallars Jussà, a regional energy community promoted by the company Km0 Energy at the request of the Salvem Lo Pallars platform, which is fighting the construction of the various solar megaprojects planned in the region. Energia del Pallars Jussà is in the process of being set up and must come into operation before August 31, 2023 in order to benefit from the 323,000 euros that have been granted from the Next Generation European funds.
The situation in the other European countries is uneven. "In Italy, the European directive has been transposed, but the legislation has not been developed and there are administrative and connection limitations that make it difficult for energy communities to connect their installations to the grid," explains Giacomo Prennushi, from the Italian cooperative Ènostra . It is suffered by the energy communities of the towns of Ussaramanna and Villanovaforru, on the island of Sardinia. The solar panels of both have been accumulating dust since November 2021, waiting for the relevant authorizations to be able to connect to the network.
At the beginning of the year, Portugal approved a series of changes in the operation of the country's electrical system. Among the approved modifications is that of allowing self-consumption through the low-voltage network at a distance of up to 2 km. The measure seeks to favor shared self-consumption and energy communities.
The most advanced European countries in terms of energy communities are Germany, Denmark and the Netherlands. According to the initiative The Future of Energy is Community-own (the future of energy is in shared ownership), promoted by the sports fashion firm Patagonia, in the year 2050 up to 45% of electricity generation could come from communities energetic.
