RENALDO – Rural Development through Renewable Energy Sources

Background

Innovative market models are important to ensure that a region’s transition towards renewable energy has beneficial impacts on the sustainable development of a local economy. Among them are so-called collective prosumer models – where energy cooperatives members are both producers and consumers of energy –, which have proven to encourage regional stakeholders in driving the energy transition forward. Given the lack of experience with energy cooperatives in Poland, lighthouse projects are needed to showcase how collective prosumer models can work, and which societal, economic and environmental related benefits can be created. These pilot projects in six selected municipalities can generate the necessary empirical knowledge to adapt existing regulatory and institutional setting in Poland.

Setting up a photovoltaic plant. Photo: (c) Science n HD

Project

As a first step, the project develops a handbook on setting up and operating energy cooperatives; this is based on good practices from Poland, Germany, and other EU Member States and will be tested in two pilot communities in the provinces Podlaskie and Kuyavian-Pomeranian.

A second step aims at further refining the intervention and implementing additional energy cooperatives in four other communities in Podlaskie and Kuyavian-Pomeranian. In parallel, RENALDO supports the selected communities in the development of business plans ensuring the profitability of an energy cooperatives.

Third, a session with the relevant stakeholders serves to analyse the lessons learned from setting-up energy cooperatives. The findings support adjustments of the regulatory and institutional setting and good practices disseminated to other Polish regions.

Finally, several events ensure the dissemination of the project results to political decision-makers from other Polish regions and interested communities.