COME-RES project accelerates the development of renewable energy communities (RECs)
Funded by the European Union’s (EU) Horizon 2020 programme, COME RES aims to facilitate the market uptake of renewable energy sources (RES) in the electricity sector. To do so, the project, in which EnergyVille/VITO is a partner, will focus on supporting the implementation of the provisions for renewable energy communities (RECs) as defined in the new Renewable Energy Directive. Taking a multi- and transdisciplinary approach, COME RES develops RECs in no less than nine European countries, including Belgium.
Renewable Energy Communities
We’re currently in the middle of an energy transition that is drastically changing how we produce and consume energy: not only are we making the shift from fossil to renewable energy sources, we’re also going from traditional top-down distribution, with electricity being generated in large power plants and transported to the end consumer, to local energy networks. These local energy networks have a huge potential in our future energy system. Facilitating their rollout and supporting the implementation of the facilities for renewable energy communities (RECs) is the focus of the COME RES project.
Goals
Specifically, the COME RES project covers different socio-technological systems including community PV, wind (onshore), storage and integrated solutions, investigated in nine European countries (BE – Flemish Region, DE, IT, LV, NL, NO, PL, PT, SP). In Flanders, the thematic focus of our work is on community energy, particularly in the field of integrated solutions. Examples are community micro-grids, virtual power plants, etc.
Furthermore, COME RES has a specific focus on a number of target regions where community energy has the potential to be further developed and model regions where community energy is in a more advanced stage of development. In the case of Flanders, the provinces of Limburg and West-Vlaanderen serve as a target region as several Renewable Energy Communities have been included in the project. COME RES analyses political, administrative, legal, socioeconomic, spatial and environmental characteristics, and the reasons for the slow deployment of RECs in selected target regions.
Our objectives will be reached by:
- analysing the potentials, barriers and drivers for RECs in the target regions,
- carrying out stakeholder dialogues,
- developing regional action plans and business-model proposals for selected target regions,
- examining good/best practice cases that are transferable to specific local, regional and national contexts,
- initiating transfers of best practice solutions via policy labs supported by capacity development and training and
- developing a renewable energy community platform.
The consortium synchronises project activities with the transposition and implementation of the Clean Energy Package and its provisions for RECs in policy labs. Policy lessons with validity across Europe will be drawn and recommendations proposed.
Country desks
The COME RES project engages directly with market actors and other stakeholders and organises solution-oriented stakeholder dialogues to co-create solutions to overcome existing barriers for the growth of community energy. To facilitate these dialogues, in each country so called country desks will be set up. These can be regarded as informal dialogue fora involving the national COME RES project partners, community energy organisations, other key actors and market players from specific target regions and beyond.
Want to know more? Visit the COME RES website. Any specific question about COME RES? Feel free to contact our expert via the contact details below.
Project partners
- Freie Universität Berlin – Environmental Policy Research Centre, Germany (Coordination)
- Asociación Canaria de Energías Renovables (ACER), Spain
- Becker, Büttner & Held (bbh), Germany
- Center for International Climate Research (CICERO), Norway
- Ecoazioni, Italy
- ECORYS españa, Spain
- Eindhoven University of Technology (TU/e),The Netherlands
- Agenzia nazionale per le nuove tecnologie, l’energia e lo sviluppo economico sostenibile (ENEA), Italy
- Flemish Institute for Technological Research (VITO) and EnergyVille
- ICLEI European Secretariat (ICLEI), Germany
- Institute of Physical Energetics (IPE), Latvia
- Instituto de Ciência e Inovação em Engenharia Mecânica e Engenharia Industrial (INEGI), Portugal
- Latvian Environmental Investment Fund (LEIF), Latvia
- Norwegian Water Resources and Energy Directorate (NVE), Norway
- Polish National Energy Conservation Agency (KAPE), Poland
- REScoop.eu, Belgium
This project has received funding from the European Union’s Horizon 2020 research and innovation programme under grant agreement N°953040.
