Energy communities are legal entities that empower citizens to take ownership of their local transition projects, from solar panel and wind installations to citizen-led renovations, or shared renewable thermal energy, known as community-led heating and cooling. This term refers to not-for-profit-driven renewable thermal energy installations owned by citizens, oftentimes in collaboration with municipalities, SMEs, and/or stakeholders in line with the EU definition of energy communities. As they are led by energy communities, the revenues of the projects are reinvested in the local area, and they provide additional socio-economic benefits to Europe’s energy transition by sponsoring social projects, offering free renovation advice and joint purchases, organising trainings, and reinvesting the revenues into expansions or new transition activities. Furthermore, they reduce our critical dependencies on energy from third actors.

The European Commission's Heating and Cooling Strategy has the potential to be the spark that helps speed up the development of energy communities working on thermal energy. The strategy should tackle how the EU, including the Commission, the European Investment Bank, and national implementers, will work together with Member States to ensure that the EU’s thermal energy future is affordable, democratic, and citizen-owned.