The Model Assessment is meant to be a tool to help national actors – mainly public authorities and civil society organisations – better assess potential for development of Renewable Energy Communities (RECs), as well as barriers that might hinder their growth.

According to Article 22 Paragraph 3 of the recast Renewable Energy Directive (RED II), all EU Member States must carry out a national assessment of barriers for and potential of RECs in their countries. Ideally, Member States would use these assessments in order to develop concrete measures and policies to fill out their enabling frameworks for RECs.

While a few of these assessments have been carried, energy communities are new in many Member States, and little guidance has been provided on how to carry out such an assessment. To fill this gap, the ECOLOG Institute for Social-Ecological Research and Education has created a Model Assessment Tool to help guide the development of national assessments of potential and barriers for RECs.