Facilitating cooperation among energy communities

About this call

Expected Impact:

Proposals should present the concrete results which will be delivered by the activities and demonstrate how these results will contribute to the topic-specific impacts. This demonstration should rely on a solid analysis of the current situation, realistic assumptions and baselines, and establish clear causality links between proposed activities, results and impacts.

In terms of qualitative impact, proposals under this topic should demonstrate how they will contribute to the following outcomes, as relevant:

Scope A: Creation of (or expansion) of the services delivered by second level communities to their members and other communities. The new mutualised services should be tested and operational by the end of the project and the support to new energy community projects needs to have led to some initial results in terms of project implementation.

Scope B: Measurable progress towards the implementation of energy community projects in the focus areas listed above thanks to the provision of tailored peer‑to‑peer learning and targeted assistance.

In terms of quantitative impact, proposals should quantify their results and impacts using the indicators provided for the topic, when they are relevant for the proposed activities. The results and impacts should be quantified for the end of the project and for 5 years after the end of the project. The quantitative indicators for both scopes include:

Number of energy community projects triggered thanks to the project

Number of energy communities benefiting from the support of the project

Number and type of stakeholders with increased skills

For Scope A, applicants will also need to define and quantify indicators related to the set-up and expansion of second level communities including:

Number of second-level communities created thanks to the project

Amount of direct and personalised support made available to energy community project developers (full-time equivalent person months)

For Scope B, applicants will also need to define and quantify eventual additional indicators:

related to the peer-to-peer process

related to project implementation (e.g. MWth/MW of capacity installed, buildings renovated, new members engaged in the communities thanks to the project action, number of members benefiting from new/scaled activities, number of households enrolled in flexibility, energy poor or vulnerable citizens benefiting from the projects).

Proposals under both scopes should also provide indicators which are specific to their proposed activities.

All proposals should also quantify their impacts related to the following common indicators for the LIFE CET sub-programme:

Primary energy savings triggered by the project in GWh/year

Final energy savings triggered by the project in GWh/year

Renewable energy generation triggered by the project (in GWh/year), specifying the type of renewable energy triggered

Reduction of greenhouse gas emissions (in tCO2-eq/year)

Investments in sustainable energy (energy efficiency and renewable energy) triggered by the project (cumulative, in million Euro).

Funding rate

Other Action Grants (OAGs) — 95%

Objective:

Energy communities have been widely recognised as key actors in the EU energy system for their potential contribution in achieving the Union’s 2030 and 2050 energy and climate targets. As part of the Citizens Energy Package [1] , the European Commission delivered guidance for Member States on measures to unleash the potential energy communities and energy self-consumption and engaged itself to publish an Energy Communities Action Plan.

Some energy communities are already providing professional services to members and other communities at scale. However, most energy communities in Europe remain relatively small and primarily focused on solar photovoltaic projects. While these initiatives have been instrumental in engaging citizens and local authorities in renewable energy generation, many face challenges when attempting to diversify or professionalise their activities, adopt new business models, or scale up their operations. Targeted support is therefore needed to help energy communities evolve beyond first-generation solar projects—for example, towards collective heating and cooling systems, flexibility and storage services, integrated local energy management or one-stop-shop services to other communities.

Energy community initiatives enable citizens, businesses and local authorities to invest directly in renewable energy and energy efficiency projects while promoting local ownership of energy assets. At the same time, energy communities can deliver additional societal benefits, including lower energy costs, local job creation, and enhanced social cohesion and inclusion. Today, more than 8,000 community energy initiatives are active across Europe, yet their development remains uneven among Member States, and several promising business models where energy communities could generate added value are still insufficiently explored.

Experience from past projects shows that mentoring, mutualisation and knowledge exchange among community actors are highly effective in overcoming development barriers and supporting scaling‑up efforts. On the one hand, peer‑to‑peer support can unlock the potential of energy communities in complex areas such as heating systems or flexibility services, where targeted mentoring can help navigate technical and organisational challenges. On the other hand, secondary structures or federations of energy communities - often supported by public authorities - have proven effective in assisting others by pooling resources and services. These so‑called “second‑level communities” provide added value by, for example, offering technical assistance, sharing operation and maintenance services, improving access to financing and innovative business models, and forming strategic partnerships to ensure that regulatory frameworks effectively reflect local needs.

The EU is facing important increases in energy prices, driven by market volatility and exacerbated by its dependence on imported fossil fuels. A key priority for the EU is to strengthen the resilience of its energy system vis-a-vis geopolitical crises impacting the global energy market. Therefore, applicants under this topic are invited, where possible, to develop and implement long-term structural sustainable and energy efficiency measures to enhance EU energy system resilience against future crises, in coherence with short-term energy relief measures needed to respond to the current shock on the global energy markets.