On November 23, 2022 the second and final status meeting of the German country desk was organised online by the Freie Universität Berlin in cooperation with the Wind Energy Service Unit of the Thuringian Energy and GreenTech Agency (ThEGA). The status meeting provided an opportunity for exchange and networking for the 45 participants in a (virtual) space. The purpose of this final event was to present the preliminary results and final activities of the COME RES project, to inform about the finalised best practice transfer activities, to discuss current policy developments and fine tune the policy recommendations for Germany with the country desk´s stakeholders.

The meeting was structured into four sections: First, the preliminary project findings including the comparative analysis of the transposition of RED II in the COME RES countries were presented and discussed. This was followed by a presentation of the Dutch-German transfer activities to implement the so-called multifunctional Energy Gardens in the target region Thuringia. The third session was dedicated to the state of implementation of energy sharing. Subsequently to two guest presentations on the Austrian and Italian state of implementation and the recommendations for energy sharing of the Alliance for Citizen Energy (BBEn) addressing national policy actors in Germany, participants discussed the future of energy sharing and the transposition of the RED II and its provisions for RECs in Germany. The meeting was concluded by a policy round table which was preceded by a presentation of the draft COME RES policy recommendations for Germany at national, regional and municipal level derived from the project’s findings. The key takeaway was that failing energy sharing represents the Achilles heel for the mainstreaming of the German Renewable Energy Communities and decisive action is deemed necessary.

A detailed documentation of the workshop in German language including the presentation slides will soon be available on the German stakeholder desk webpage.