Project AURORA started in November 2021, aiming to engage citizens in the green transition through energy communities. All 5 demonstration sites experienced challenges in the process of finding a suitable model for their energy communities. In August 2023, the energy community at Aarhus University was established. In summer of 2024, the crowdfunded rooftop solar photovoltaic systems are installed and they have been supplying clean energy to the university since September 2024. The journey from setting up the community, to installing the solar panels, has many challenges. We have decided to document these challenges and our strategies in an easy-to-read publication, and you can access the pre-print on arXiv.
Abstract: Energy communities are promoted in the European legislation as a strategy to enable citizen participation in the energy transition. Solar photovoltaic (PV) systems, due to their distributed nature, present an opportunity to create such communities. At Aarhus University (Denmark), we have established an energy community consisting of a 98-kW rooftop solar PV installation, crowdsourced by students and employees of the university. The participants can buy one or several shares of the installation (which is divided into 900 shares), the electricity is consumed by the university, and the shareowners receive some economic compensation every year. The road to establishing this energy community has been rough, and we have gathered many learnings. In this manuscript, we present the 10 largest challenges which might arise when setting up a university energy community and our particular approach to facing them. Sharing these learnings might pave the way for those willing to establish their own energy community. We also include policy recommendations at a European, national, and municipality levels to facilitate the deployment of energy communities.
