Energy communities with strong local authority involvement in practice
On 23-24 April 2024, a delegation of public officials from Cyprus and energy community experts from Austria and Germany met for a two-day study visit hosted by the Lake Constance Foundation in South Germany and organised by the Policy Learning Platform.
Cyprus is expecting the new detailed regulatory framework for energy communities based on the transposition of the REDII Directive in May 2024. In the run-up to this milestone, the relevant public bodies are getting ready to deploy a series of support programmes to help interested communities build the first energy community pilots.
Given the novelty of energy communities in Cyprus, local authorities are expected to have an active role in their promotion and establishment. In this context, the Cyprus Energy Agency together with the Cyprus Energy Regulatory Authority, the Ministry of Energy and the Union of Cypriot Municipalities have requested a study visit to build confidence and to gain a better understanding of energy community projects in the spirit of “seeing is believing”.
The study visit allowed the delegation to see various real examples of energy communities, such as bioenergy villages with combined solar thermal and biomass district heating and large-scale PV plants and to discuss with the project developers and the responsible public authorities directly.
The exchanges helped gain a better understanding of community-driven energy projects. The Cyprus Energy Agency found many interesting pieces of information to complete their step-by-step methodology to set up energy communities. The Energy Regulator benefited from deeper insight into regulatory frameworks in Germany and Austria. The Ministry of Energy got inspiration on where to direct its intended public support scheme and the Union of Municipalities understood better the challenges for local authorities.
The participants qualified the study visit as ‘eye opening’ and ‘highly inspiring’ and took home plenty of new ideas and knowledge regarding the practical implementation of energy communities.