Rural Energy Community Advisory Hub newsletter

08/11/2022

Issue of October 2022

Welcome to issue 2 of the Rural Energy Community Advisory Hub newsletter.

The RECAH team has had a busy few months since our last newsletter, marked by the launch of our Technical Assistance programme in Poland, the construction of two best practice case studies and the publication of two guidance documents for rural energy communities, with a third on the way.

We’re also seeing a huge amount of support, interest and engagement with the RECAH project, and are delighted to start seeing responses to our first two calls for applications for technical assistance support and for experts to provide that technical assistance.

Rural energy communities are more important than ever, especially given the announcement of the REPowerEU Plan to provide affordable, secure and sustainable energy for Europe. Rural areas hold great potential due to the space available to develop renewable energy projects and rural energy communities provide an opportunity to drive not only social but also technological innovation.

Please continue to engage with us as we strive to accelerate the development of rural energy communities across Europe and do not hesitate to get in touch regarding any of the content of this newsletter.

We would like to kindly ask you to forward this newsletter to any stakeholders that might be interested in:

applying for technical assistance support
providing their expertise to the technical assistance programme
accessing our guidance documents and best practice case studies
staying up to date with the initiative
sharing details of the initiative with their network

They can sign up to receive our future newsletters here.

Kind regards,

The RECAH Team

ENER-RUC-HUB@ricardo.com

News

Call for experts: the Rural Energy Community Advisory Hub technical assistance programme

The Rural Energy Community Advisory Hub (RECAH) is seeking experts to support the provision of technical assistance to energy communities in Europe’s rural areas. The call for experts will remain open until 31 December 2022.

Find out how you can support RECAH and how to apply.

Stakeholders convene in Poland for the launch of technical assistance programme

The Rural Energy Community Advisory Hub (RECAH) had its second event, to launch its technical assistance programme, in Kielce, Poland. The event took place on the 12th of September 2022 and was well attended in person and online by key stakeholders in the rural energy transition.

Read about what happened at the event.

Best practice case studies published by the Rural Energy Community Advisory Hub

The Rural Energy Community Advisory Hub (RECAH) has published two best practice case studies. These aim to showcase the successful efforts of rural communities and provide inspiration and concrete guidance for prospective new or expanding rural energy communities.

Learn more about the best practice case studies.

Guidance now available for new, prospective or existing rural energy communities

The Rural Energy Community Advisory Hub (RECAH) is publishing a series of guidance documents, aiming to accelerate the renewable energy transition in rural areas.

Find out the topics of the guidance documents and how to access them.

Rural Energy Communities Stories

The landscape of Energy Cooperatives in Germany

We take a look at the landscape of energy cooperatives in Germany and Mr Benjamin Dannemann from the German National Office for Energy Cooperatives shares some interesting statistics and case studies of successful energy communities.

Read about the landscape of energy cooperatives in Germany.

EnGreen – Building a rural energy community from the ground up

EnGreen rural energy community (REC) is in its early stages, created only in December 2021. Mr Carlo Tacconelli, one of the project founders, tells us about setting up a REC, what the benefits and barriers are and what his advice for new or prospective RECs would be.

Read EnGreen's story.

Events

Rural Energy Community Advisory Hub - Technical Assistance Q&A webinar

The Rural Energy Community Advisory Hub (RECAH) is hosting a webinar on Wednesday, 16 November (15:00h-16:00h CET), about the ongoing call for applications for technical assistance to rural energy communities across Europe.

This webinar will be a fantastic opportunity for rural energy communities, interested in applying, to learn more about the forms of technical assistance the Advisory Hub will offer and get some tips on how to submit a successful application. Participants will have the opportunity to ask any questions they may have and share their experiences.

European Sustainable Energy Week 2022

Achille Hannoset, project lead of the Rural Energy Community Advisory Hub (RECAH) and Eugenia Bonifazi, RECAH Project Manager, were invited to speak about energy communities at the European Sustainable Energy Week 2022 conference on the 29th September 2022.

The four-day event was hosted by The Covenant of Mayors for Climate & Energy Europe and promoted the European largest movement for local climate and energy actions, with more than 11,000 signatory municipalities.

You can watch the recording of the conference here. The Policy session with Mr Hannoset and Ms Bonifazi starts at 2h33mins in.

What is an Energy Community?

Energy communities are open and voluntary entities, combining non-commercial aims with environmental and social community objectives.

There are 3 directives which describe the key elements of two types of Energy Communities.

Renewable Energy Communities and Citizen Energy communities.

Learn more about what energy communities are.

We aim to empower the development of sustainable energy community projects in European rural areas

Join the network

ENER-RUC-HUB@ricardo.com

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Rural Energy Community Advisory Hub - European Commission

ENER-RUC-HUB@ricardo.com

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