To support the Energy Transition in Europe, Energy Communities can be a way to empower citizens, small businesses, and local authorities to produce, manage and consume their own energy. They can contribute to lowering the energy bills of citizens, making Europe’s energy market more resilient and providing economic benefit to local areas.

The European framework for Energy Communities has previously been outlined in two Directives: the Renewable Energy Directive (2018/2001/EU) (RED II) and the Electricity Directive (2019/944/EU) (ED). While most Member States have either fully or partly transposed these Directives, Sweden remains one of the only Member States that lacks a proposal to transpose these Directives into national law. The Swedish Energy Regulator has proposed recommendations on how to transpose the law, entailing definitions of Renewable Energy Communities (REC) and Citizen Energy Communities (CEC). However, the Swedish Government so far does not have any special policies or measures to promote energy communities or include them in renewables support schemes.

This webinar brought together various experts to discuss how to boost energy communities in Sweden. Setting the scene, the event will layed out the current state-of-the-art of the legislative framework on EU level, including the newly introduced Energy Sharing concept in the Electricity Market Design Proposal. To highlight best practices, pioneer projects based on the peer-2-peer energy trading model from the Netherlands and energy communities from Sweden were presented.

Lastly, leading stakeholders had a panel discussion on how to implement and mainstream Energy Communities in Sweden, exchanging views from the perspectives of Swedish property owner associations, Swedish partners in EU-funded projects, renewable energy stakeholders, the Swedish Energy Agency, and European Institutions.