📌 Energie Samen’s development fund, in the Netherlands, is a financial tool that focuses heavily on knowledge sharing and standardization, making it easier for future projects to replicate successful models.
📌 In France, Energie Partagée mobilizes citizens’ savings at the national level to complement funding for local initiatives. Since its creation in 2010, it has grown into a national network and several regional networks supporting community-led renewable energy initiatives by sharing tools, organising workshops, providing regulatory and technical support, etc.
📌 In Great Britain, Energy4all collaborates with communities to identify and develop projects, establish cooperatives, secure funding through public share offers, and provide ongoing support throughout the project's lifecycle.
📌 In Spain, GoiEner is an intermediary that gives both expertise to energy communities and security to financial institutions. Specifically, it gives advice to communities on their financial needs and provides technical support to help them apply for financing.
Through extensive research and collaboration with pioneering initiatives across Europe, we have identified key success factors and best practices to establish effective CEFS. These schemes are designed to provide energy communities with necessary capital to realise their visionary projects while fostering a sense of ownership and community engagement.
1- Understanding the main barriers
It is key to understand the main barriers to creating a CEFS and explore the solutions available to overcome them
📌 ACCE’s RES Development Guide offers various examples of CEFS to inspire you, along with key success factors.
2- Understanding your financial needs
Developing your own CEFS requires a deep understanding of the financial needs of energy communities in your region and active engagement with other stakeholders such as public institutions or commercial banks. Do not undertake this project alone - collaboration among various stakeholders is key.
📌 Resources from the SCCALE project, such as the Financing guide for energy communities and the short guide for banks, can serve as valuable starting points.
3-Connect with peers and learn from best practices
Engaging in this collective learning process to foster innovation, build stronger networks, and accelerate the development of effective solutions within the community energy sector.
📌 REScoop.eu, the European federation of energy communities, gathers a growing network of 2.500 energy communities across Europe. Only for members, the Rescoop Public Financing Work Group meets regularly to exchange and share tools, resources and solutions.
📌 ACCE’s Self-Management Guide provides energy communities with a step-by-step framework to support them in establishing CEFS effectively.
To go further, you can deep dive into our restricted resources by requesting access to the ACCE repository of standardized documents. Send an email to: sara.tachelet@rescoop.eu
Resources:
This report explores the critical elements required to establish a supportive enabling framework for energy communities across Europe. It highlights the challenges faced by energy communities in the five ACCE replication countries (Croatia, Romania, Germany, Spain, and Belgium) and provides tailored recommendations to address these challenges.
In this guide, we identify the main types of CEFSs that energy communities could use. We also describe the key characteristics and and success factors of each of these CEFS.
Here you will find practical examples to help energy communities create financing tools dedicated to community energy projects.
Extra resources:
Contact:
If you want to reach energy communities and their financing partners in your region, Rescoop will guide you through their members and partners.
Contact: chris.vrettos@rescoop.eu
The ACCE project has received funding from the LIFE Programme of the European Union.
Disclaimer: The ACCE website reflects the views of the project partnership and does not necessarily reflect the views of the European Commission. The European Commission is not responsible for any use that may be made of the information it contains.
