Energy communities are a widespread phenomenon in many countries that unites people, businesses and communities together to meet common needs. In a certain sense, it is an alternative to traditional business models, especially in areas where giants and monopolies operate in the market.

Energy communities are relevant for Ukraine from many points of view, including post-war recovery and reconstruction, EU accession, energy, environmental and climate security. The current crisis situation in the electric power industry creates additional incentives to search new solutions and models, and energy communities are one of them.
In 2019, the EU adopted the package of legislative initiatives “Clean Energy for All Europeans” with the aim to facilitate the transition from fossil fuels to cleaner energy and institutionalized the concept of two types of energy communities: public energy communities and renewable energy communities. At the same time, public energy initiatives have many years of experience in the EU and started their activities long before the EU has formalized their special status.

Since 2019, Ukraine has recognized energy cooperatives as one of the entities in the renewable energy market. However, these changes do not fully implement the provisions of EU directives. Currently, the experience of creating and functioning of energy communities (cooperatives) in Ukraine is small and shows a number of challenges faced by pioneers on this path.

This document summarizes the results of a special study of experience, potential and obstacles in the creation and functioning of energy communities, as well as legal regulation of this phenomenon in Ukraine.

The full version of the study can be DOWNLOADED HERE.

This analytical note consists of five sections:

• Creation of energy communities in Ukraine in the context of green reconstruction, European integration, energy, environmental and climate security.
• Overview of EU legislation for energy communities. Experience of EU countries.
• Regulatory status quo for energy communities (energy cooperatives) in Ukraine.
• Problems and opportunities for the development of energy communities in Ukraine.
• Recommendations for the development of energy communities in Ukraine.

Taking into account the experience of European countries, we offer a number of simple and clear recommendations to leaders, communities, state bodies, public organizations and international partners, which, we hope, will help to find an effective model(s) of energy communities for Ukraine.

The document was prepared by the NGO "Resource Analytical Center "Society and Environment" under the general coordination of specialists of the NGO "Sustainable Development Agency "SYNERGY" with the support of the Ministry of Foreign Affairs of the Government of the Federal Republic of Germany within the framework of the two-year German-Ukrainian project "Energy Communities for Sustainable Ukraine" 2023-2024.