DECIDE is a Horizon 2020 project that aims to gain a better understanding of how energy communities and collective energy actions are established, managed and works to encourage participation of different types of individuals and groups. Based on the activities and researches conducted over the past two years, the project has come to the conclusion that Collective Energy Actions (CEAs) have a broader approach compared to Renewable and Citizen Energy Communities (RECs and CECs), and that they can play a pivotal role in accelerating an inclusive energy transition and uptake of clean energy technologies at the pace needed to match the European climate targets.

At the same time, ECAs seem to have a slower deployment across the 27 Member States due to the limited attention given to ECA initiatives both in transposition processes at national level as well as in the support and funding programmes at EU level.

These conclusions are presented in the recently published DECIDE position paper titled “Widening the support for participation of EU citizens in community and collective energy actions”, which presents the different scopes and complementarities between CEAs and ECs. The outcome of this document stem from the fact that CEAs as the broader approach demonstrated to give more space to different actors in the energy space to engage, being able to involve those who cannot easily be recruited by RECs and CECs . Furthermore, CEAs proved to be more viable business cases compared to RECs and CECs, and therefore guarantee long-term sustainability, independent of subsidies.

DECIDE calls for an active inclusion of CEAs in the diverse Research and Innovation programmes, such as Horizon Europe and other EU support programmes, enabling their further maturing and EU-wide uptake and replication.

Read and share the full document, which also includes: Key considerations for the recognition and wider uptake of the Collective Energy Actions concept; information on how collective energy actions could help accelerate the green transition; and a detailed picture of what is the main barrier for the development of the collective energy actions.

Read and download the dedicated DECIDE press release.