Lessons from Spain
Photovoltaic self-consumption, the best way to save electricity from the grid
Menorca has many hours of sunshine throughout the year, and that is a source of free energy that cannot be overlooked.
Photovoltaics is a well-known technology that allows users to know almost exactly the amount of energy that can be generated per year and, therefore, the energy savings they can have by using electricity from this source.
The most effective way to save at home or at work is to have a photovoltaic self-consumption facility in our building, so that the energy generated can go directly to the end user without using the electricity grid which is usually owned by a large company.
Energy communities, the way to share local energy
The problem arises where the user has no space to install the solar panels, perhaps because they do not own any part of the building’s roof, or perhaps even owning some roof, it is not large enough for all the solar panels to generate the necessary amount of energy. This is when energy communities come into play.
With an energy community we can mix people with a lack of installation space with people with a lot of usable surface on their roofs, people capable of producing more energy than they need with people who need more energy than they can produce.
The way to make it work is to reach an agreement between the community members who have space to install the photovoltaic facility and the members who consume the energy generated by that facility. This agreement includes everything from the membership rights, to the payment rules and any other aspects considered.
Meetings and workshops in all the municipalities
Within the framework of RECET project, workshops have been held in all the municipalities of Menorca in order to share the path towards the creation of energy communities and their benefits. In total, 9 workshops have been held.
There, the citizens of each municipality have been in touch with new concepts and ways of co-ownership of the electricity generation facilities. That also allows them to not depend solely on the owner of the network and to depend on each other members of the community with the gain in trust it can suppose from the moment they share something with people they know.
Lessons learned
Of the attempts to create energy communities, the two main difficulties come from the legal barriers and from the distrust on energy supply, as it traditionally comes from large private companies.
Regarding legal barriers, there is a lot of regulation at all levels (country, regional and local) that makes it difficult to create energy communities. To address this, CIMe is preparing a guide with the necessary steps for it.
Regarding distrust, these workshops and meetings must be useful for citizens to understand that they can share something outside of big companies and be part of something that can undoubtedly contribute to the decarbonization and socialization of energy generation. CIMe is also preparing a guide to dynamicize citizenship in the creation of energy communities.