PLEC · Private Law and the Energy Commons
Horizon 2020 — Marie Skłodowska-Curie Actions
- Duration
- 2022-04-01 → 2024-03-31
- EU contribution
- €171,473
- Participants
- 1
- Scheme
- MSCA-IF
Lines connect the coordinator with its partners.
Results in brief
Private Law and the Energy Commons
Normal citizens pooling their money and skills to generate and to consume and/or sell renewable energy create Energy Commons. Energy Commons are essential to the energy transition and the reduction of energy poverty. Citizen involvement reduces public resistance to renewable energy projects. Energy Commons attract investments from citizens, private capital that would otherwise not be available. Energy Commons fuel local economic development as the wealth generated through renewable energy stays in the area. Finally, by sharing energy or revenue, Energy Commons alleviate or prevent energy poverty in vulnerable households. The EU has recognized the importance of the Energy Commons through the recognition of renewable energy communities (under the Renewable Energy Directive) and citizen energy communities (under the Internal Energy Market Directive). The EU-funded project 'Private Law and the Energy Commons' first aims to find out how Energy Commons in Germany and Italy organize themselves. When citizens join hands to promote the energy transition, they decide on how to organize and what rules to give themselves: what are the goals and activities of the Energy Commons? Who can become a member? Who will manage the Energy Commons and decide what renewable energy installations to build? Who elects and monitors the managers? How are benefits distributed? How are the renewable energy projects financed? This form of self-regulation does not happen in a vacuum. Energy Commons and their rules are discussed by academics and are subject to EU and national law that often offers privileges for those Energy Commons that follow it. The second objective of this project is therefore to examine whether the Energy Commons' rules clash with scholarly expectations and/or EU, German, and/or Italian rules and whether it would be in line with the public interest to change the law so as to accommodate the choices made by Energy Commons. Reaching these objectives is very important because private organizations flourish more if they tailor their own affairs to their own needs; because the insights of this project enable EU and national regulators to improve existing rules on Energy Commons; and because more Energy Commons can benefit from the opportunities offered by improved laws on energy communities.
Data: CORDIS, © European Union
Project objective
PLEC is the first to examine how the ‘Energy Commons’ wish to regulate themselves, where national private law poses unnecessary obstacles to these wishes, and how such obstacles could be removed. The Energy Commons are self-governing projects set up by local communities to jointly produce renewable energy. They are vital to the energy transition in the EU, providing urgently needed renewable energy. As current research shows, national private law may conflict with the wishes of the Energy Commons, deterring their contribution to the energy transition.PLEC will use an innovative empirically-based approach to uncover how the Energy Commons wish to regulate themselves. Through interviews in two German and two Italian Energy Commons, PLEC will determine the decisions taken by Energy Commons. Doctrinal legal research will show which decisions are subject to their national private law. A questionnaire will show how the Energy Commons wish to regulate those decisions. Doctrinal legal research will uncover where German or Italian private law conflicts with the rules made by the Energy Commons and, to determine whether such obstacles are unnecessary, whether a deviation from conflicting private law according to the needs of the Energy Commons would contravene public interests pursued by that private law. Comparative legal research will show whether solutions from the other country may help remove unnecessary obstacles from, respectively, German or Italian law, and provide a legal toolkit for other countries.At Turin University, the researcher, with broad experience in private law and empirical research, will benefit from extensive expertise on Commons and empirical methods and the gE.CO (H2020-SC6_CSA)-project’s comprehensive network and the supervision by its Coordinator. PLEC will be essential to law-makers, legal practitioners, and representatives of Energy Commons for insights on how private law reform can facilitate the energy transition.
Original text from CORDIS.
Participants
- UNIVERSITA DEGLI STUDI DI TORINO · TorinoCoordinatorItaly
Links
Data: CORDIS, © European Union