Embrace the Diversity of the Energy Commons!

The Energy Commons are citizens joining hands to produce renewable energy together. As these communities are small and often lack some of the required expertise and skills, they are at a disadvantage compared to traditional energy suppliers. The EU Renewable Energy Directive (2018/2001) and the EU Internal Energy Market Directive (2019/944) recognise renewable energy communities and, respectively, citizen energy communities to facilitate the access of the Energy Commons to the energy market and to enable energy sharing. The definitions of these communities incentivise the Energy Commons to adapt their internal organisation to take advantage of the privileges under the Directives. Based on empirical research on German Energy Commons, this paper shows that in many respects, the Directives fail to take into account the internal organisation of Energy Commons on the ground. The danger is that the Directives will exclude many Energy Commons from their privileges or induce a painful adaptation of the internal organisation of already flourishing Energy Commons. The paper concludes with a number of recommendations on how to adjust the Directives, in order to reduce the exclusionary effects or undesirable incentives.