02 January, 2025
Energy community startups driving the decentralised energy transition

SET Ventures created a report, which explores the role of energy communities in driving the transition to a decentralized, sustainable, and carbon-free energy system. Here are the key points:

Motivation & Context

Energy communities are emerging as a powerful catalyst in the energy transition by enabling local electricity sharing, reducing grid pressure, and empowering broader participation. However, their adoption is still limited in multi-tenant and commercial buildings, and there is a need for scalable solutions.

Key Findings

Energy communities enhance resilience, sustainability, and efficiency in energy distribution. Key enablers for scaling these communities include simplified governance, cross-building optimization, secure infrastructure, and seamless grid integration. Investment opportunities exist in residential collective self-consumption, commercial energy sharing, and energy aggregation with dynamic pricing.

Energy Community Models

The report outlines the evolution of energy community models from collective ownership to fully decentralized energy sharing in local markets. These models include collective ownership, prosumer aggregation, collective self-consumption, and energy sharing through peer-to-peer (P2P) trading.

Startups & Digital Solutions

Startups are pioneering digital solutions across the energy community value chain, focusing on data & forecasting, setup & governance, energy production, management, and administration. Examples include Metergrid, Nobile, and Exnaton, which are addressing various aspects of energy community operations.

EU Climate Goals & Regulation

EU regulations, such as the Renewable Energy Directive (RED II & III) and the Internal Electricity Market Directive (IEMD), are driving the adoption of energy communities. These regulations promote renewable energy uptake, active consumer participation, and alignment with the EU Green Deal.

Progress in EU Countries

Different EU countries are at various stages of implementing energy community regulations. For example, Austria has a supportive framework for energy sharing, while Germany has limited regulation focusing on tenant electricity models.

Key Enablers for Acceleration

To accelerate the development of energy communities, innovations are needed in setup and governance, cross-building optimization, underlying infrastructure, and energy system integration. These innovations will simplify processes, optimize energy resources, ensure secure transactions, and enhance grid stability.

Investment Thesis

SET Ventures identifies three key areas for investment in energy community innovations: residential collective self-consumption, commercial energy sharing, and aggregation & dynamic pricing. Startups in these areas are well-positioned to scale and drive the adoption of energy communities.

Conclusion

The report concludes that energy communities are crucial for the decentralized energy transition. SET Ventures will continue to monitor the space and invites startups to share their ideas and pitch decks for potential collaboration.