Comparison Among National Energy Community Policies in Brazil, Germany, Portugal, and Spain

Energy communities (ECs) are emerging as a promising step to mitigate energy poverty and climate changes, since their main objective is to obtain environmental, economic, and social benefits for the participants, namely in terms of increasing local production using primary renewable resources. In the European Union (EU), Directives D2018 and D944 established a common regime for the promotion of ECs. Given the relevance of the topic, comparing regulations in force in Brazil, Germany, Portugal, and Spain, can contribute to mitigate risks, as well as save time and energy resources. Among the assessed aspects, this work analyzes requirements to access to the activity and measurement issues, which are already well and clearly defined. As for business models and remuneration, focus is given to energy cooperatives and feed-in payments. In turn, the main barriers include financing, end of incentives, need to develop new business models, and issues related to peer-to-peer (P2P) transactions.