The student residence at Ellener Hof in Bremen

5th Symposium on Citizen Energy & Energy Cooperatives in NRW

Recklinghausen. Energy in the hands of citizens: This was the topic of the specialist conference on citizen energy & energy cooperatives in North Rhine-Westphalia on Thursday, 6 December, in Recklinghausen. Around 80 stakeholders in community energy met there to exchange experiences and transfer knowledge. The 5th symposium is a cooperation of the Cooperative Association - Association of Regions and the EnergyAgency.NRW.

Marlies Diephaus from the Ministry for Economic Affairs, Innovation, Digitalisation and Energy of the State of North Rhine-Westphalia kicked off the conference by emphasising the importance of citizen energy companies: "The energy transition is a major challenge that must be shaped in a positive and forward-looking way here in North Rhine-Westphalia. To this end, a reliable framework must be created in which all stakeholders and affected parties can find their place. Last but not least, the financial participation of citizens in various forms also plays a central role. It can contribute to the acceptance of this project of the century.

In the Raiffeisen Year 2018 - the anniversary year of the cooperative idea - around 20 million people in Germany are members of a cooperative. In the field of citizen energy, too, more and more people are discovering this form of joint economic activity. "The global energy turnaround is only possible at all through local action. Here, citizens, organised in citizen energy societies, are both drivers and advocates. This is where co-determination and regional participation happen locally," explained Dr Frank-Michael Baumann, Managing Director of EnergyAgency.NRW.

Dominik Kitzinger, Division Manager at the Association of Cooperatives - Verband der Regionen e. V., emphasised: "In North Rhine-Westphalia, around 100 energy cooperatives are active as operators of generation capacities - from photovoltaic to wind energy plants - as well as around 150 citizen energy companies of other legal forms. Nationwide, more than 41 percent of investments in renewable energy come from civic engagement. If Germany wants to meet its climate targets, it can only do so with this local commitment."

In addition to projects from the areas of photovoltaics, local heating and wind, the focus was also on the mobility transition. Here, the participants agreed that e-mobility must go hand in hand with the energy transition. Citizen energy companies and cooperatives must therefore be strengthened through cooperation and transformation. Cooperatives that already market car sharing, the operation of charging infrastructures and jointly produced electricity were presented as best-practice examples. There are around 40 energy cooperatives active in these areas throughout NRW.

Despite the growing interest in cooperative management, the number of new energy cooperatives founded has declined in recent years. René Groß from the German Cooperative and Raiffeisen Association blames the changed legal framework conditions for this, but also the complex demands on the mostly voluntarily organised civil societies. In this context, the conference participants also debated the controversial effects of legislation at national and European level, such as through the Energy Collection Act and the new EU Directive as well as the Renewable Energies Directive.

Keywords:
100% EEs, Stakeholders, Citizen Energy, DE-News, Renewable, Climate protection, News Blog NRW, Social / Culture, eG, Ecology, Economics