Accelerate the ecological transition thanks to “energy communities”?

The notion of energy community came into being in European legislation in 2018. It was then introduced into French law by Law Energy Climate in 2019. As for its transposition into French law, it now seems imminent. A little more after the announcement by Barbara Pompili, Minister of Ecological Transition, a few days ago, of the forthcoming publication of a decree on this subject. But what is behind this term? And above all, what do you understand about these energy communities? This is the whole question debated since the beginning of November on the EDF Pulse & You platform.

One of the objectives of energy communities is to meet theclimate emergency. By providing a legal framework for new ways of producing, exchanging, storing and consuming carbon-free energy. A framework that goes further than that authorizing collective self-consumption. A framework that opens the gate to new forms of local governance.

Because the energetic transition, it is not only the transition from carbon-based production to carbon-free production. It is also a real transformation of the energy market. A market that allows more and more consumer actors to emerge. They want to get involved in the deployment of renewable energies. And they generally take advantage of the emergence of new technologies at affordable prices.

Energy communities for the transition

The energy communities, whether they are renewable energy communities (RECs) or citizen energy communities (CEC) allow their members to associate together to perform energy activities. Citizens, communities, associations or even companies can therefore join forces to produce renewable energy together and locally that they will, ideally, end up consuming.

In practice, energy communities are diverse. Some are built on the scale of a street, others on the larger scale of a city. They can be structured around very different profiles, in order to more easily balance production and consumption. They can also be based on innovations. An intelligent technology which will allow, for example, productions to be distributed in an optimized way between the different consumers to thus maximize the rate of self-consumption.

Promotion of the circular economy, development of local employment, preferential rates on high energy efficiency equipment, lower energy bills. The idea is that everyone – and everyone – benefits from it. But to know how energy communities can organize themselves, what support they might need and what they will really look like, there is still a lot to do. And for that, all points of view will be useful. So do not hesitate to share yours on the EDF Pulse & You platform.

Subject carried out in partnership with EDF teams.