In December 2018, the European Union passed a legal framework for prosumership as part of a recast of the Renewable Energy Directive (RED II). From June 2021 onwards – once the Directive has been transposed into national law – consumers, as prosumers, will have the right to consume, store or sell RE generated on their premises
- either individually, for example households and small and medium sized enterprises, and collectively, for example in tenant electricity projects (Art. 21 RED II)
- or as part of Renewable Energy Communities (RECs) organised as independent legal entities (Art. 22 RED II).
RECs require a particular democratic governance model focussing on the local partners. A CSOP is a prototype of this business model and shows how to implement these new rules.
CSOPs allow for the inclusion of municipalities and/or commercial investors like SMEs. Moreover, they offer an opportunity of advancing to economies of scale. At the same time, they retain the benefits of individual consumer participation.