Ioanna Theodosiou, The Green Tank’s policy associate, participated in the first open panel discussion of the “What will KOSMOS say” series on energy democracy, organised by the homonymous newly established political ahead of the European elections.
In her presentation, she focused on the role of energy communities as a tool that citizens and local communities can utilise to engage in energy transformation and contribute to its democratisation.
However, as she stressed, the role of energy communities does not stop there. By participating in energy communities and using renewable energy sources, citizens are taking an active role in combatting the climate crisis, helping reduce greenhouse gas emissions, while simultaneously lowering their energy costs.
With this starting point, drawing from the analyses of the Green Tank, Ioanna Theodosiou presented the institutional framework of energy communities, the legislative initiatives of the last 5 years and the recent data on energy communities in Greece.
She emphasised the dynamics of self-production projects both by energy communities and by individual households, farmers, municipalities, businesses and other entities.
As far as challenges are concerned, she mentioned the increasing problem of grid availability, the expected change in energy sharing schemes (from net metering to net billing), and the difficulty in disbursing available funds for the implementation of self-production projects by energy communities at a time when citizens’ interest in self-production is escalating.
Her presentation concluded with a number of proposals, including:
- a stable institutional framework for the development of self-production
- ensuring sufficient space for self-production projects by EnComs, citizens and households vis-à-vis other self-producers
- subsidies for the cost of installing photovoltaic panels and batteries for self-production by EnComs
- creation of a development fund or other financial mechanism for EnComs
- use of existing resources for EnComs and Grids (Recovery and Resilience Fund, Just Transition Development Programme 2021-2027, Green Fund, etc.)
- setting specific and ambitious quantitative targets for EnComs and self-generation in the National Energy and Climate Plan (NECP).
The other speakers in the open panel discussion were:
Chris Vrettos – REScoop
Sandy Fameliari – Electra Energy
Maya Moshandreou – Community Energy River
The Secretary of KOSMOS and Green MEP, Petros Kokkalis, also spoke during the panel.
The event was moderated by Elias Papatheodorou, Press Officer of KOSMOS.
