Quantifying the regulatory impact on Renewable Energy Community performance in Austria and Spain

Despite common regulatory guidelines at a European level, individual national transpositions have resulted in a wide range of differences in legislation for Renewable Energy Communities and Citizen Energy Communities. Legislative details, such as e.g., energy allocation between community members, geographical constraints, and financial support schemes can be decisive for the long-term success of ECs. In this respect it is of utmost importance to evaluate and compare the suitability of different legislative approaches. This study aims to start tackling this matter by quantitatively and qualitatively assessing the impact of EC legislation on the performance of RECs for the Austrian and the Spanish cases. To achieve a robust comparison, a two-step approach is chosen. In the first step, the operation of a typical Austrian and Spanish REC is simulated (using techno-economic models) according to their respective regulatory environment. In the second step, both RECs are then ‘put in the shoes’ of the respective other regulatory environment. Comparing economic, energy-related and ecological indicators, it is revealed that the legislative framework of Austria leads to better results in terms of self-sufficiency (and thus less retail consumption) as well as increased levels of self-consumption. In contrast, Spanish legislation leads to a significantly higher profitability-span, not least due to a total omission of grid charges. We recommend that the impact of different bits and pieces of several member states’ legislation on the performance of ECs should be evaluated further such that in the long term, all EU member states provide optimal legislative conditions and consequently increased harmonization of EC regulation across Europe is achieved.