Community energy: A practical guide to reclaiming power

Welcome to your community energy handbook. This is your go-to guide, packed with instructions, practical tips and resources, to build a local, community-led renewable energy revolution in Europe.

Community energy is key to a decarbonised economy and a crucial step in tackling climate change. This is about more than windmills and solar panels. Community energy can help find a new balance between local economies and the global economy. It can help urban and rural divide, and close the gap between north and south, between rich and poor — because it empowers local people. Community energy leads to energy democracy, holding the promise of an economy and society based on co-operation rather than competition, within the boundaries of planet earth.

Whether you’re a curious individual, a group of people embarking on a renewable energy journey, a local authority making plans, or an up-and-running energy cooperative — this step by step guide is for you. You can browse it by clicking on the boxes below, or download a pdf version further down.

This version of the Community Energy Guide is now interactive, you can browse through the different chapters by clicking on the colored blocks below. You can also download the English pdf version of the Guide by clicking on the “Download Resource” link below. The guide is also available in pdf in in Bulgarian, Croatian, Czech, Dutch, Estonian, French, Greek, Hungarian, Polish, Portuguese, Romanian, Slovenian and Spanish.

The content of this guide was developed by Friends of the Earth Europe, Energy Cities and REScoop.eu. To highlight its value it has received the SHINE approved label. Its online version was made possible by the support of the Life COMET project.