The first meeting of the German stakeholder desk took place online on 11 December 2020. The meeting aimed at bringing together major community energy stakeholders to identify region-specific barriers in the selected COME RES target region Thuringia and highlight the drivers for success in the model region Schleswig Holstein, a pioneer of citizen energy in wind power. The thematic focus in Germany is on wind energy (onshore) and integrated approaches (e.g. microgrids, virtual power plants). However, also developments in other federal states are taken into consideration.

The coordinators of the project and of the German Desk Rosaria Di Nucci and Michael Krug of the Freie Universität Berlin presented the objectives and highlights of COME RES, the EU legal framework for Energy Communities and the role of the country desk within the project to 35 participants. The participating stakeholders included, among others, representatives of regional ministries, energy agencies, renewable and wind energy associations, energy cooperatives and their associations, municipal utility companies, project developers, financing institutions, consumer organisations and political foundations/civil society.

Following a presentation addressing the amendment 2021 of the Renewable Energy Sources Act (EEG) and the perspective of the energy cooperatives also with regard to the Renewable Energy and the Internal Electricity Market Directives of the EU, experts from the selected regions Thuringia and Schleswig Holstein explained the local framework conditions, highlighted important barriers, but also positive developments. Finally, in an interactive section, the attendees identified and classified the barriers towards community energy and discussed important aspects for enhancing an enabling framework.

The kick-off event was organised in cooperation with the Service Centre Wind Energy of the Thuringian Energy and GreenTech Agency (ThEGA). The event was moderated by Bettina Knothe, consultant for participatory sustainability. The next activity will follow in March 2021. The thematic workshop will address, inter alia, the implementation of the respective EU directives and the enabling framework for renewable energy communities (RECs) in Germany and in selected COME RES countries.