The Guidelines on State aid for environmental protection and energy for 2014 to 2020 require Member States to set up competitive bidding processes (also called auctions) from 2017 onwards, to grant support to all new renewable energy (RE) installations, with only a very few exceptions (European Commission, 2014). Given the central sole auctions are set to play in support schemes, RE market actors face the question of how to secure support by either successfully participating in an auction or qualifying for an exemption. At the same time, the recast of the Renewable Energy Directive (RED II) acknowledges the importance of renewable energy communities (RECs) and requires Member States to consider the specificities of these market actors when designing support schemes. Considering these developments, this report assesses the impact of auctions on RECs and measures to support these market actors in/despite auctions.

The first part of the paper describes the challenge of finding a definition for RECs, discusses the risks faced by RECs in renewable energy auctions, and explores measures to promote RECs.

The second part of the report discusses experiences from three countries that have either implemented measures to support RECs and/or more broadly promote local acceptance within the auction (Germany and France) or supporting measures outside the auction (Denmark).

The report is structured as follows:
Section 2 discusses the relevance of RECs and the challenge of finding a unique definition;
Section 3 investigates the risks faced by energy community project developers in RE auctions;
Section 4 examines measures to address the risks faced by energy community project developers in RE auctions;
Section 5 analyses experiences with measures implemented in Germany, France, and Denmark to support RECs and/or more broadly promote local acceptance;
Section 6 outlines lesson learnt.

Download the report here.