_30/05/2022

Stakeholders from Austria and the Czech Republic met in Vienna, Austria on the 30^th of May 2022 to discuss the status of and lessons learned regarding renewable energy communities (RECs).

The Austrian Federal Ministry for Climate Action, Coordination Office for Energy Communities in Austria and the Austrian Energy Agency were glad to welcome representatives from the Czech Ministry of Environment, State Environmental Fund, a RES city company from Prague, the city district Mayor from Brno-Nový Lískovec as well as one of advisors of the Social Affairs Minister.

After a round of introduction, Mr. Ander, from the Czech Modern Energy Union, briefly described the current development of the legal framework for RECs in the Czech Republic.

Günter Pauritsch and Michael Rohrer, from the Austrian Energy Agency, presented current Austrian projects, energy and grid tariffs, incentives, the legal implementation, as well as phases of roll out and funding of RECs in Austria. These efforts all aim for the country’s target of climate neutrality by 2040. By 2030, 100% of the electricity (on the national balance sheet) will be generated from renewable energy sources with clear development targets for all technologies. One of the projects presented was SHAREs, due to its role in supporting citizens from all backgrounds in taking part of and benefiting from the energy transition. The first results, such as an overview of the legal and regulatory framework and a handbook of barriers and enablers can be viewed here.

Eva Dvorak from the Coordination Office for Energy Communities reported on Austria’s experiences with their 14 first operating RECs. Austria already had gathered expertise in a similar field before: collective self-consumption within plot boundaries has been possible since 2017, resulting in the realisation of about 300-400 projects already. It was an interactive presentation where the interested guests were able to pose many questions.

Further information on Austrian energy partnerships with Central and Eastern European Countries can be found here (in German).