The community initially consists of municipal companies that can trade and exchange their electricity at low cost.
Dornbirn. The city of Dornbirn has decided to set up a renewable energy community that can easily and cheaply exchange and trade the electricity produced by the city’s photovoltaic systems between city buildings. “With this pilot project, we will have the opportunity to use the energy produced by our own systems efficiently for our own needs in the future,” reports Mayor Andrea Kaufmann. “With this decision, we are implementing another important building block for Dornbirn’s energy future,” adds Karin Feurstein-Pichler, City Councilor for Energy.
For the time being, the energy community consists of municipal companies such as the city of Dornbirn, the ARA (sewage treatment plant), the Dornbirner sports and leisure facilities and the Pflege und Sozialdienste GmbH. The establishment of renewable energy communities was legally made possible by the Renewable Energy Expansion Act. It is a legal entity such as an association or a cooperative whose members can join under defined conditions in order to trade energy with each other.
For example, a member can sell their electricity to the energy community, and the community resells it to another member. The energy community must be non-profit and offers benefits such as the ability to source electricity locally and receive discounts on grid fees. As the renewable energy communities are a new concept, the energy community will initially be established from a limited number of members. This ensures timely implementation, simpler administration and enables initial experiences in a small group. An extension can be made in a later step.
