Energy Communities in Europe: Strong Momentum, Persistent Barriers, and Why NRGCOM Matters Now

Energy communities have moved from being a niche idea to becoming a serious pillar of Europe’s clean-energy transition. According to the European Commission, more than 8,000 energy communities now exist across the EU, and the REPowerEU Plan set a shared political objective of at least one energy community in every municipality with more than 10,000 inhabitants. These figures show that community energy is no longer peripheral to the European energy debate: it is increasingly seen as a practical tool for improving energy security, lowering bills, strengthening local ownership of renewable energy, and involving citizens more directly in the transition.

Yet the European picture is still uneven. As the 2025 Energy Cities report Enabling Frameworks for Energy Communities: A State of Play makes clear, the EU now has a substantial legal basis for community energy, but major barriers remain at national and local level. These include limited access to finance, lengthy and complex permitting procedures, insufficient technical and administrative support for local authorities, and a growing risk that poorly designed legal frameworks could allow large incumbents to dominate a concept that was meant to empower citizens and local actors.

This gap between European ambition and local reality is precisely why NRGCOM matters. The Interreg Danube Region project brings together 13 partner organisations from 12 countries and runs from January 2024 to June 2026. Its goal is not simply to promote the idea of renewable energy communities, but to improve the operational conditions that allow them to function in practice across the Danube Region. In other words, NRGCOM focuses on the difficult but necessary transition from policy recognition to workable implementation.

What makes the project especially valuable at this stage is the breadth of its published outputs. The project’s Outputs & Deliverables section already includes the Comparative Analysis Report, the Catalogue of best internal operating models, the Collection of best internal operational and governance practices, Policy recommendations, the model for an appropriate legal, operational and financial environment for energy communities, the Mentoring Scheme, the Strategy to create the proper legal, technical and social conditions for energy communities, the Engagement Strategy, the pilot activities report, and the RECs Awareness Raising Toolkit. A June 2025 project update explained that the strategy was built on a first-year review of legal frameworks, operational practices, governance models and stakeholder engagement across 12 Danube countries. In the same period, the project also showed how the awareness toolkit had been translated into practical communication assets such as the “5 Steps to Your Energy Community” booklet, case studies, an infographic and poster materials. These materials are also available on the NRGCOM project website and in the project’s Outputs & Deliverables section.

This shift from concept to implementation is also visible in the legislative and regulatory changes now unfolding across the region. In Czechia, Lex OZE 3 simplified the framework for shared electricity and small-scale self-consumption photovoltaic systems. In Romania, Government Emergency Ordinance 59/2025 formally recognized energy communities as entities that can produce, consume and trade energy. In Slovakia, the 2025 amendment to the Energy Act further enabled electricity sharing by clarifying that sharing may take place for remuneration, removing the earlier balancing-group restriction, and introducing new roles such as the sharing group administrator and the “sharing organizer.” In Hungary, 2025 amendments to the Electricity Act (VET) and related rules opened a clearer path for condominium-based energy communities and the shared use of rooftop solar in multi-apartment buildings; a relevant package of provisions entered into force on 1 September 2025, while subsequent implementing-decree debates focused on metering and settlement rules.

As NRGCOM enters its final months, its relevance is therefore growing rather than shrinking. Europe already has momentum, visibility and a growing body of community-energy experience. What it still needs is better implementation: simpler rules, more bankable operational models, stronger local capacities, and practical guidance that can be used by municipalities, citizens and emerging energy communities alike. That is the space NRGCOM occupies. Its long-term value will likely lie not only in its analytical work, but in its ability to translate European ambition into tools, models and recommendations that make community energy easier to build and operate in real places, under real regulatory and technical constraints.