After University of Ljubljana received the special recognition for outstanding energy-related project in public sector for the Aurora Demonstrator at the Energy Days by journal Finance and Josef Stefan Institute, we were invited to give a talk at the Rast Conference entitled Energy revolution: How can local communities become the driving force of the green transition – the case of Aurora project.
Dr. Matevž Bokalič gave a talk addressing what role can local renewable energy communities such as envisioned by Aurora play in energy revolution. He started a talk by the introduction to energy revolution followed by the current state of photovoltaics (PV) and electricity production around the world and in Slovenia. The status of PV plants was given based on the shares of types of power plants, such as net-metering and self-consumption, community power plants and others (commercial, utility, …). Currently in Slovenia community power plants account for only 1% of all PV installations.
The talk continued with presentation of the Aurora rationale, and detailed description of three representative demonstrators from Aurora project, namely Aarhus demo, Ljubljana demo and Forest of Dean demo. The selection of demo sites presents how different countries and societies form the playfield for the community power plants and consequently also the variety of developed Aurora approaches.
Despite many societal benefits of community PV power plants, the most important one being accessibility to everyone, they lack the driving force behind them. They are obviously not attractive for larger investors as there are no significant economic benefits, therefore the faith of community power plants finally lies within the interest of enthusiastic individuals who are willing to invest significant effort without substantial economic benefits. The speed factor must also be considered because ever higher penetration rate of PV power plants is already showing negative feedback in form of negative electricity prices and grid congestion.
While there is a potential for community power plants to become the driving force of energy revolution, the legislation must be simplified with a straightforward way to community establishment, and it must also be encouraging for individuals leading the establishment of communities.
