SHAREs · Simple and Smart Energy Communities for All

The Clean Energy for all Europeans package paves the way for an energy revolution by putting the consumer in the driving seat of the green transition process. Energy communities offer the unique opportunity for consumers to form critical mass and become renewable energy producers and offer their demand flexibility to the market. However, the current requirements of becoming a prosumer bear a crucial risk that ultimately there will be a two-speed energy world: those who have the knowledge, access and opportunity to become a prosumer, and those who lack the resources, know-how, education or time to participate in and benefit from the new opportunities. Therefore, there is a clear need to support local heroes (i.e. those interested in setting up collective actions) in establishing their energy community and enable them to motivate and target consumers directly. This is particularly important for countries where energy communities are yet to be established. The concept of SHAREs is simple and straightforward: create a SHAREs Gateway for local heroes to help them initiate an action and grow, which consists of: (1) A country-specific implementation toolkit to equip local heroes with the technical and logistic capacity to set up their energy community (legal framework, such as master contracts, technical and IT solutions, business models, etc.); (2) The building blocks of a tailored “pick-and-mix” communication campaign to enable local heroes to promote their idea effectively to their most relevant consumer groups. The SHAREs Gateway combines the insights and tools from existing initiatives as well as input of established energy communities (pioneers) and policy developers. After having been put to test and refined in at least 20 aspiring energy communities in 6 European countries, the SHAREs Gateway will be broadly disseminated to relevant stakeholders all over Europe.