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Virtual Policy Dialogue

Energy Sharing for Rural Energy Communities –

Knowledge Exchange Between Schleswig-Holstein (Germany) and Latvia

Date: Wednesday, 2 April 2025: 10:00-13:00 CEST, Online

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Purpose of the project Rural Energy Communities^LV and the Virtual Policy Dialogue 

The Virtual Policy Dialogue is part of the project Rural Energy Communities^{LV -} Catalysing and building capacities for renewable energy communities in rural Latvia. This project is funded by the German Federal Foundation for the Environment (Deutsche Bundesstiftung Umwelt, DBU) under its thematic project cluster Citizen Energy. Project partners are the Heinrich Böll Foundation in Schleswig-Holstein and the Latvian Rural Forum. The project runs from January 2024 until September 2025. Its overall objective is to enhance the development of renewable energy communities, especially in rural areas of Latvia. The main activities encompass two virtual policy dialogues between actors from Germany, particularly the federal state of Schleswig-Holstein, and Latvia, a study visit of Latvian policy makers and experts to Schleswig-Holstein, the elaboration of good practice cases, and various awareness raising, networking and capacity development activities in the four rural planning regions of Latvia. Moreover, the project aims to catalyze and facilitate the development of one rural pilot energy community in Latvia. 

The first Virtual Policy Dialogue was held in June 2024 and addressed the overall energy situation and state of energy policy in both countries as well as the implementation of European provisions for energy communities laid down in the Renewable Energy Directive (RED II) and the Internal Electricity Market Directive. It also highlighted the digitalization of the energy system and the potential of the Citizen Energy Fund in Schleswig-Holstein to serve as a model for Latvia.

The second Virtual Policy Dialogue on 2 April 2025 will focus on the specific topic of Energy Sharing. Pursuant to the revised Electricity Market Design Directive (EU)2024/1711 energy sharing operationalizes the collective consumption of self-generated or stored electricity injected into the public grid by more than one jointly acting active customer. Renewable energy communities and citizen energy communities are entitled to share electricity generated from facilities they have in full ownership with their members. While the Latvian government has recently adopted secondary legislation regulating energy sharing, the legal framework in Germany is still pending. This online event will address the following questions: What are key opportunities and challenges of energy sharing for Germany, particularly for the federal state of Schleswig-Holstein, and Latvia? What can policy makers, citizen and community energy initiatives, other market actors and stakeholders in Germany and Latvia learn from each other and from the experience of pioneering countries in this field?

The Virtual Policy Dialogue is addressing a broad range of actors including policy makers, public authorities, associations, citizen and community energy initiatives as well as other interested market actors and stakeholders from Germany, particularly Schleswig-Holstein, and Latvia.

                                                        Agenda