Just a super-quick post to note that European law has now something called local energy communities. People who are interested in producing electricity are encouraged to do so. In Belgium, they have been around for 20 years!
The Brussels Region has a project called Voisins d’énergie, which is an action-research on the matter. I participated in the first meeting of their “explorers” today. I learned that there is already a co-housing project in Laken (Échappée) that is also set up as a LEC. Other LECs are set up as neighborhood associations, there is even a school.
As we move forward, we might want to consider using The Reef as the hinge of a neighborhood LEC.
Reviving this 5-years old post on energy communities, one of the European Union’s better policies. This is a legal form that citizens and businesses can give to a democratic project of generating and sharing energy.
The ecosystem is more mature now, with 12,000 energy communities all over Europe, and the deployment of services to new and extant such communities. The RESCoop website lists 42 organizations in Belgium, including Énérgie commune in Brussels. This offers information and support to people who want to set themselves up as an energy community. It’s a natural for cohousings:
We should explore. And maybe we should do it before we finalize the avant-projet, since rooftops are the key asset enabling renewable energy communities. Something for @reef-buildfin .
Thanks Alberto.
I think that the facilitateur batiment durable would be the first person to talk to about that, it’s exactly within their expertise, right?
One can hope! In this case, I think going straight to Energie Commune would be simpler and more targeted.
I am very interested in this, and I tried to attend a course about 5 years ago, but I was struggling to find the time back then. But with the cohousing it’s a different ballgame. We are already creating legal organizations to work on common projects, so a very large obstacle towards a successful EC is removed “for free”.