Following the successful establishment of the Country Desks in each of the COME RES project's countries, a total of 1,185 stakeholders have taken part in COME RES kick-off meetings, thematic workshops and policy round-tables over a period of 14 months. The aim of the desks is to create a space for an informal dialogue with the stakeholders and to support the development of renewable energy communities across the nine European countries of the COME RES project; Belgium, Germany, Italy, Latvia, the Netherlands, Norway, Poland, Portugal, and Spain. Who are these stakeholders? Who puts in time and effort to discuss national advances on the REDII transposition process, present best practices and advise policy makers on the enabling frameworks, and technical, financial and legal barriers, as well as drivers, relevant for the development renewable energy communities?

The COME RES stakeholders include: policy makers, public authorities, energy and innovation agencies/competence centres, associations and groups of interest, developers, energy system operators, SMEs, municipal utility companies, community energy initiatives, cooperatives, NGOs, networks, financing institutions, research organisations and mass media. Even though not all stakeholder groups were represented in all the activities, the groups involved ensured a diversity of perspectives and interests on the implementation of renewable energy community initiatives.

Breakdown of participants in the events organised by the COME RES country desks per stakeholder group:

Political recognition

As shown above, all stakeholder desks successfully engaged policy makers and other public authorities to actively participate in their activities, ensuring the involvement of politicians, administrations and policy advisory organisations in country desks. A good level of participation of community energy initiatives and cooperatives, as well as associations and groups of interest, was also accomplished.  

A gendered perspective

The events attracted a relatively balanced participation of male and female attendees, with a total average of 32% female attendees – with levels of 69% and 50% being reached in Poland and Germany, respectively. This balance contributes to an important gendered perspective on the topics discussed in the several activities organised by the desks.

Next steps

Coming up for the COME RES stakeholders, are continued regular desk meetings, a new series of thematic workshops and policy labs, and the co-creation of action plans for the implementation of renewable energy communities in at least four target regions. Additionally, the stakeholder desks will launch a consultation process in each of the COME RES countries.

This article is based on the first consolidated report of the desk activities, which summarises and documents the events and activities held by the eight country desks during the first 14 months of the project.

Learn more from policy brief 1 ‘Renewable Energy Communities - Are we nearly there?’ and policy brief 2 ‘Things are moving, let’s speed up!’

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