The Obersulm Climate Forum organized an event on the topic of energy sharing. neugemacht provided technical support for the planning. The event demonstrated just how much interest there is in local energy sharing\u2014and what obstacles still stand in the way of its implementation. <\/p>\n
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Interest in the topic \u201cEnergy Sharing: What Is It?\u201d was surprisingly high:
\nDespite it being vacation season, nearly forty visitors came to Affaltrach to listen to the Forum\u2019s speaker. What makes this topic so appealing? <\/p>\n
The question is what should be done with electricity generated locally by PV systems.<\/strong> With the enactment of Section 42c of the Energy Industry Act (EnWG) on June 1, 2026, this is now possible in principle.<\/strong> Utility companies are now legally required to make their grids available for the trading of locally generated green electricity. Our neighbor Austria is doing things differently. There, energy sharing has been in place since 2021, smart meters have been rolled out to 98% of households, and there are over 10,000 highly successful sharing communities. neugemacht is pleased that local interest in energy sharing is already translating into concrete action. The key now is to develop this into a viable project with clearly defined roles and a realistic path to implementation. <\/p>\n <\/p>\n Source of event content:<\/p>\n
\nCurrent practice: All surplus PV electricity is fed into the grid at a rate of 7.5 cents per kilowatt-hour, then traded on the electricity exchange and bought back from other consumers at approximately five times (!!) that price! Possibly from the producer\u2019s neighbor.
\nThis problem is particularly glaring in municipalities: many roofs of their facilities generate large amounts of electricity that cannot be used\u2014for example, at the swimming pool in Obersulm. Tens of thousands of euros could be saved if this electricity were delivered to municipal consumers via the grid. <\/p>\n
\nThe law is based on EU directives from 2018. These directives pursued the following objectives: <\/p>\n\n
\nUnfortunately, there are many restrictive hurdles to implementation:<\/p>\n\n
\nAfter a detailed discussion and plenty of applause, the sentiment was clear: why not follow Austria\u2019s example instead of giving up in discouragement?
\nParticularly encouraging: a quarter of the participants want to take action and get involved in an initiative to establish a sharing community. <\/p>\n