Belgian Energy Communities: Key Challenges and Opportunities

Chadi Mahfoud

, Rebecca Guglielmino

, Gabriele Sapienza

, Mohammed Qasem

Jon Teres-Zubiaga

and Sesil Koutra

Faculty of Architecture and Urban Planning, University of Mons, Havré St. 88, Mons, Belgium

University of Catania, St. Tomaselli n 31, Italy

University of the Basque Country, Department of Energy Engineering (ENEDI Research Group), Spain

Keywords: Energy Communities, Challenges, Renewable, Belgium.

Abstract: Being a ‘zoon politikon’, humankind develops its first ‘communities’ to harvest food, build shelter, and have

socio-political interactions. Nowadays, the term has been configured as a challenging and promising concept

for climate change mitigation and adaptation and advocates for the incorporation of various solutions within

urban settings. In this contribution, a targeted and comprehensive understanding of the patterns of the ‘energy

community’ (renewable/citizen) phenomenon is provided to provide clear observations unveiling the research

gap. The work explores the spectrum of the ‘energy community’ according to the literature, as well as

motivations and contextual factors in the Belgian context from different perspectives highlighting the

necessity for sustainable development that harmonizes human activities with natural ecosystems. What is

finally the energy community and what motivates its actions? What are the key factors that insight into the

successful stories of energy communities in Belgium? What are the differences in the three areas of the

Belgian territories? Building on this overview, this paper highlights the current research gap and provides

insight into how the communities are emerging in three areas, the opportunities, and challenges they pose,

and how their diffusion might be further facilitated despite their complexity and multi-dimensional nature.

1 INTRODUCTION

Energy transition encompasses multiple challenges to

counter severe global issues englobing the pressing

challenges of climate change and rapid urbanization.

Unusual global energy demands due to the pandemic

and the recent Ukrainian war aggravated the situation

and influenced power generation, distribution, and

consumption. As a counter to this multiple

polarization, the European Union set up energy

engagements for its members with collective actions

involving active citizen participation to empower

equitable energy production.

Over the past years, the concepts of “energy

communities” have gained traction. (Gianaroli et al.,

2024) and concretized in the EU “Clean Energy

Package for all Europeans” (CEP) framework in 2016

(European Parliament, 2019). Two years later, the

officialization of the concepts came up within two

European Directives: 1) the EU Renewable Energy

Directive 2018/2001 (RED II) (European Parliament,

2021) and the EU Internal Electricity Market

Directive 2019/944 (European Parliament, 2019b).

Since these moments, the need for a comprehensive

understanding has gained rising interest. What is

finally the energy community and what motivates its

actions? Building on this overview, this work

highlights the current research gap and provides

insights into how the communities are emerging, the

opportunities and challenges they pose, and how their

diffusion might be further facilitated despite their

complexity and multi-dimensional nature.

The work explores the spectrum of the ‘energy

community’ according to the literature, and their

main configurations, as well as motivations and

contextual factors in the Belgian context from

different perspectives highlighting the necessity for

sustainable development that harmonizes human

activities with natural ecosystems by recognizing the

dynamic relationships between built environments

and landscapes. Overall, this study investigates the

diversity in Key Performance Indicators that enhance

energy performance in Belgian building typologies.

Drawing on data from the Tabula tool, this research

122

Mahfoud, C., Guglielmino, R., Sapienza, G., Qasem, M., Teres-Zubiaga, J. and Koutra, S.

Belgian Energy Communities: Key Challenges and Opportunities.

DOI: 10.5220/0013354600003953

Paper published under CC license (CC BY-NC-ND 4.0)

In Proceedings of the 14th International Conference on Smart Cities and Green ICT Systems (SMARTGREENS 2025), pages 122-129

ISBN: 978-989-758-751-1; ISSN: 2184-4968

offers a comprehensive assessment of the role of

architectural design in promoting energy efficiency in

buildings and renewable energy integration within

Renewable Energy Communities.

2 ‘ENERGY’ AND

‘COMMUNITY’. STATING THE

ART

2.1 Defining the Energy Community

The concepts are gaining public acceptance as a

promise to contribute to energy justice being

mushrooming all over the world counting down more

than 9,000 sites worldwide. (European Commission,

2022), since their birth back in the 70s (Denmark) to

promote community-owned wind energy projects and

the incorporation of new technological achievements

for the heating requirements connected to grids

(Capellan-Pérez, et al., 2018). Onwards, from the 90s,

Great Britain and the Netherlands promoted

renewable installations through national funds for

electricity RES production. (Mutani et al., 2020) with

the multiplication of the initiatives in the United

Kingdom (Seyfang et al., 2013), Spain (Kunze and

Becker, 2015)

and France (Nadai and Van der Horst,

2010).

The setup of energy community understanding is

still somewhat vague with wide scope and contexts.

(Hicks & Ison, 2018). Several studies have developed

statements on energy communities and similar or

different viewpoints. Being an appealing policy

instrument for citizen-centered oriented actions to

promote the energy mix (Pons-Seres de Brauwer and

Cohen, 2020), the phenomena of the ‘Renewable’ and

‘Citizen’ Energy Community are explored. Bauwens

et al. (Bauwens et al., 2022) analyzed more than 180

related terms (e.g. “renewable energy community”,

“energy sustainable communities”, “energy

cooperatives”, “citizen energy community”,

“integrated energy system”, or ‘local energy

communities, basically considered as an extensive

approach to generation closer to local consumption

(Manso-Burgos et al., 2022).

Unveiling the confusion of researchers due to

overlapping and mismatches of the concepts, De São

José et al. state a wide spectrum of understandings

and ambiguities (De São José et al., 2021).

2.2 Unveiling Definitions’ Ambiguities

In line with its formalized definitions in European

legislation the Renewable Energy Community is

defined as a legal entity in which (European

Parliament, 2018): ‘ […] an open and voluntary

participation is developed effectively controlled by

the community members (‘prosumers’), who are

located in the proximity of renewable energy

potential and are owned of the legal entity having as

a principle goal to provide multiple benefits (social,

economic, environmental) to its users’.

Later on, the revised Electricity Market Directive

(2019/944) (European Parliament, 2019b) proposes

the definition of the Citizen Energy as a legal entity

in which:

‘ […] a voluntary, open, and effective

participation of its members is generated aiming to

provide multiple benefits (social, economic,

environmental) (rather than financial) and to engage

them in the generation from RES and all the

subsequent steps to provide the required energy

services to the users’.

Other studies address operational particularities

of the concepts, such as the renewable energy trends

with the emergence of the ‘Thermal ECs’ (e.g.

(Ceglia et al., 2022; Trivedi et al., 2022), while others

focus on the governance systems and the people-

oriented approaches (e.g. (Busch et al., 2021);

(Leonhardt et al., 2022); (Sousa et al., 2019)) Or the

business models of the related synergies developed

(Busch et al., 2021).

In addition to technical design, decision-making

processes, and social empowerment are determinants

for the ECs’ setup, as the socio-psychological factors

(e.g. age, educational level, etc.) (e.g. (Koirala et al.,

2018).

3 MULTIPLE CHALLENGES OF

RENEWABLE ENERGY

COMMUNITIES IN BELGIUM

Looking specifically at energy-community barriers,

the analysis for the Belgian frame identifies a lack of

experience and expertise in the community models at

social, cultural, and organizational levels.

The challenges are multiple, starting with

transparency and trust by the prosumers, the

complicated legal and funding supporting schemes

and the lack of previous knowledge.

In this work, the authors raise the question of

circumventing these challenges in Belgian cases

Belgian Energy Communities: Key Challenges and Opportunities

123

through a benchmarking viewpoint and spark their

interest to find the favorable settings and bottlenecks

to develop decentralization of the energy systems.

The most important incentive for this roadmap is

the average age of existing buildings and the share of

old buildings in the age of total stock (Zangheri et al.,

2020). Analyzing the situation in Belgium, based on

data from the European Census we map more than

50% of Belgian’s building stock from 1946 to 1990.

The energy performance of the buildings presents

another hurdle in the advancement of ECs as much of

the housing stock was built between 1946 and 1990

in a time when optimizing the energy efficiency of the

building was not a strategic priority. So far, the

renovation wave across Belgium is at 0.5%, which is

less than the 1% current average EU building

renovation rate yearly. (European Commission, 2019;

Renovate Europe, 2023).

All the current constraints diverged the same

concerns related to the geographical scope and the

proximity to resources (physical boundaries) to

minimize energy distribution losses, the activities

performed (e.g. generation, distribution consumption,

electromobility, etc.) or the membership rules and

their business models (e.g. (Bolton & Hannon, 2016;

Steinberger et al., 2009) and funding schemes that

either focus solely on the participants or involve

commercially relevant activities.

As key human-oriented players in the clean

energy transition, RECs engage citizen participation

and contribute to energy democratization (e.g.

(Heldeweg & Saintier, 2020; Szulecki & Overland,

2020) However, in this light, diverse questions are

emerging, such as the broader benefits of RECs to

contribute to low-carbon societies. Considerations are

usually revealed regarding the embodied carbon

infrastructure, as well as the lifecycle impacts of

renewable energy technologies, but also the spatial

requirements for energy generation. (Van Zalk &

Behrens, 2018).

On the other side, and apart from the technical

barriers, concerning potential economic and social

benefits, RECs should enhance local job

opportunities and alleviate energy poverty for

vulnerable social groups. A lack of initiative from

local stakeholders and supporting mechanisms and

associated institutional and legal constraints are

associated with structural obstacles to energy

community applications.

Nonetheless, probably the most important

challenge in Belgium remains the regional

government structure with a heterogeneous legal

framework foreseeing diverse directives for the three

federations: Wallonia, Flanders, and Brussels Capital

Region. Indeed, Belgian Renewable Energy

Communities (RECs) could face a series of

challenges when it comes to their integration into the

main grid; the first burden is adhering to the

obligations of an energy supplier, for that, a

distinction is made between electricity produced and

consumed in EC as collective self-consumption or as

supply, another consideration is whether the

electricity is sold within the boundaries of an EC or

sold outside (supply) (European Commission, 2021;

ROLECS, 2021).

In particular, in the case of Wallonia, the adoption

of the REDII (Renewable Energy Directive)

(European Parliament, 2001) defines the RECs

purpose in the production, consumption, and storage

for the public benefits with further balances of

consumption and production flows within a local

perimeter of energy-sharing, in which every natural

person, local authority, or company can participate in

the process (Service Public Justice Fédéral, 2023)

From its side, the Flemish government draws the

concept in the areas of production, distribution,

consumption, supply, storage, and electromobility by

introducing the idea of active consumer, while for

the case of Brussels capital, the concept of self-

consumption is primordial. (Frieden et al., 2020).

4 METHODOLOGICAL

APPROACH

The methodological approach performs a systematic

review among the major relevant research branches

of energy communities with a particular focus on the

Figure 1: Roadmap of methodological approach.

SMARTGREENS 2025 - 14th International Conference on Smart Cities and Green ICT Systems

124

Belgian context to develop a detailed overview of the

studied factors in qualitative content analysis for the

comprehension of their dynamics and interpret the

content analysis for reporting the successful stories

and their key strategies.

In the workflow, the crucial step of the study of

the energy communities’ projects is the definition of

the successful factors of the (R)ECs projects. In this

step, the work is in progress and the majority of the

cases analyzed are ongoing. However, the authors

unveiled as key indicators the following categories:

 Architectural, including passive standards, and

geometrical criteria (e.g. orientation, roof

inclination, glazing, etc.);

 Technical/Technological, concerning the

maturity of technological systems setup;

 Membership structure;

 Business model;

 Legal status (e.g. cooperative, association,

etc.);

 Social (e.g. energy poverty), etc.

5 BELGIUM CASE ANALYSIS

Belgium can showcase interesting pilot projects with

the overarching goal of energy-community-driven

initiatives. Energy Communities in Belgium are

region-specific matters, in essence, every region (i.e.

Flanders, Brussels Capital Region, and Wallonia) has

established its regulatory framework and legislative

bodies to manage these dynamics. This study focuses

on the ECs that target the inclusion of citizen

participation as cooperatives and investors in energy

generation via renewable energy projects relying on

unique investments from the prosumers based on

renewable energy investments, keeping the energy

prices fair and avoiding focusing on excessive profits,

all shareholders are eligible to annual dividends.

In reality, energy communities organized within

this model (cooperative) are by far the most in

Europe. (Caramizaru and Uihlein, 2020) (more than

1000 cases) organized in citizen-based processes in

the hands of shareholders and bottom-up approaches.

5.1 Flanders

While Flanders is the Belgian frontrunner in fostering

the most advanced energy cooperatives (such as

Ecopower (a cooperative founded in 1991 for

renewable energy investments of 67.000 members

with 20 wind turbines, one hydropower installation,

one district heating network, and 250 decentralized

PV panels) (Friends of the Earth Europe, 2020) there

is still of lack of local legal frameworks and tariffing

structures that facilitate the economic feasibility of

ECs.

A study done by Felice et al. (Felice et al., 2021)

suggests that the inclusion of various flexible energy

sources is the primary solution for making RECs

feasible economically in Flanders, the best case in his

study highlighted a 17% cost reduction compared to

the Business-As-Usual (BAU) case due to the

capacity tariff that these technologies possess that can

take advantage of the peak shaves.

ZuidtrAnt (local energy cooperative in Antwerp

with multiple projects towards low-carbon incentives,

e.g. Tandems, solar roofs, hydrogen storage, shared

cargo bikes, etc.) is another example of a citizen-led

energy cooperative dedicated to advancing the

renewable energy transition through community

involvement. (Proka et al., 2019).

Figure 2: Ecopower Cooperative (Friends of the Earth

Europe, 2020).

The cooperative aims to provide affordable,

sustainable energy by leveraging investments from

shares purchased by citizens. These investments fund

projects focused on renewable energy solutions, with

a multidisciplinary team of experts contributing

specialized knowledge to realize these initiatives.

Operating in and around Antwerp, ZuidtrAnt

emphasizes maximizing energy efficiency across

various projects to accelerate the shift to renewable

energy (

Table 1).

Belgian Energy Communities: Key Challenges and Opportunities

125

Table 1: Projects of ZuidtrAnt Energy Community

(ZuidtrAnt Energy Community, 2023).

Projects Year Progress

Projects sun 2023

9 new solar roofs, with a

Capacity of 644 kWp

28 solar roofs with a full capacity

1656 MWh to supply 382

household

Annual saving of 272 tons of

SharedSun

project

2023

Combined solar roofs with

electric shared mobility

Seven solar roofs, nine charging

stations and nine shared cars

TANDEMS N/A Synergies of ECs with local

actors

RE-FLEX 2023-

Scalable and modular charging

plaza concept

Renewable energy production

with energy storage in both

stationery and EV batteries

KlimaatWerf 2023

154 solar installations

90 energy renovations

In conjunction with the Cooperative Business

model, RESCoop project emerge as Energy

Cooperatives, that are formally acknowledged in the

EU’s Clean Energy Package as both ‘citizen’ and

‘renewable’ energy communities.

At the same project, a variety of services is

presented (such as community coaching, tailored

advocacy services for policymakers, financing

projects, etc..) for those interested in engaging in

energy community projects, be it individuals,

enterprises, or local governing bodies, whether

members of the cooperative or non-members.

In Belgium, REScoop.eu, the central coalition of

all REScoops in Europe, was first established as a

non-profit organization in 2013, with 11 members.

Today, RESCoop.eu is operating at a scale of 2500

Energy Communities in Europe, and representing

nearly 2 million citizens. (RESCoop.eu)

5.2 Wallonia

In Wallonia, the concept of “energy community” was

initially brought to attention through business parks,

in order to highlight their potential, the region isn’t as

advanced in establishing Renewable energy

cooperatives as Flanders (European Commission,

2021).

Albeit Wallonia marked its very first pilot REC,

under the name of “HospiGREEN” led by IDETA

and tested in the Tournai-Ouest Economic Activity

Zone. The project was conducted for a period of two

years (2021-2023), and focused on organizing

collective self-consumption among its participants to

test a protocol for data exchange between the

community and the distribution system operator for

the optimization of consumption with production and

monitoring processes. Beyond the diverse positive

dynamics, the project deploys renewable energy

production and strengthens the security of local

production (IDETA, 2024).

The project associated two large energy-

consuming hospitals, and producers of energy from

wind and PV. This has resulted in 92% direct energy

self-consumption by REC, with CHwapi being its

biggest beneficiary bringing it together with the

Regional Psychiatric Center Les Marronniers, the

Nursing Home of the CPAS of Tournai Moulin à

Cailloux and IDETA (headquarters and Negundo

business center).

Figure 3: View of “HospiGREEN” Energy Community

Project (IDETA, 2024).

5.3 Brussels

The Region of Brussels is on the roadmap to finalize

the provisions of the energy community framework,

with no specific legal forms yet. The current oversight

in the area defines the self-consumption. Some

examples are also found in the Brussels area, such as

the pilot project at Tour & Taxis aimed at offering the

production surplus of solar panels installed in

neighboring buildings to consumers considering the

principles of self-consumption. The project aims at

large-scale electricity sharing on grid management

(Nextensa, 2023)

Other studied projects included in the ongoing

benchmarking study are provided in Figure 4 of the

Appendix.

SMARTGREENS 2025 - 14th International Conference on Smart Cities and Green ICT Systems

126

6 CONCLUSIONS

The study has reviewed the state-of-the-art analysis

of energy communities unveiling the specific

challenges in the complex context of Belgian

territories in a multidimensional spectrum. The

methodological roadmap proposed identified

different steps in ongoing research of rising scientific

interest.

In a benchmarking study of the three regions of

Belgium, the authors gathered data to evaluate the

progress of reported projects on renewable energy

cooperatives concluding on the significant potential

for integrating renewable energy technologies in local

heat networks using large-scale or residential-scale

heat pumps, as developed already in Flanders with

positive outcomes.

Based on the reviewed cases combined with

extensive literature, the study discussed in a wide

context the different challenges for successful REC

projects emphasizing technical, financial, societal,

and other relevant factors. A delicate balance between

the goals and impacts of the communities, the

conflicting (or cooperative) interests of the

stakeholders, and the funding schemes for sharing

benefits is considered for the next steps with the

consideration of complementary projects of the field.

In this line, it is recommended to verify and

evaluate any regulatory frameworks and legislations

for RECs in short to medium terms, with the objective

of ensuring the former remains relevant and without

any unforeseen consequences as the concept of RECs

is in an ongoing advancement and the governing

policies must synchronize with its trajectory.

Comprehensive energy policies and legislative

frameworks (e.g. the adoption of the Clean Energy for

All Europeans Package) would encourage strong

commitments and officialize the legal structures to

foster the implementation of RECs.

ACKNOWLEDGEMENTS

This research is funded by the ILES (Integrated Local

Energy Systems) FEDER-FTJ (Une Wallonie

orientée vers la transition juste) project.

REFERENCES

Bauwens, T., Schraven, D., Drewing, E., Radtke, J.,

Holstenkamp, L., Gotchev, B., Yildiz, O. (2022).

Conceptualizing community in energy systems: A

systematic review of 183 definitions. Renewable and

Sustainable Energy Reviews, 156, 111999.

Bolton, R., & Hannon, M. (2016). Governing sustainability

transitions through business model innovation: towards

a systems understanding. Research Policy, 45, 1731–

1742.

Busch, H., Ruggiero, S., Isakovic, A., & Hansen, T. (2021).

Policy challenges to community energy in the EU: a

systematic review of the scientific literature. Renewable

and Sustainable Energy Reviews, 151.

Capellan-Pérez, I., Campos-Celador, A., Terés-Zubiaga, J.

(2018). Renewable Energy Cooperatives as an

instrument towards the energy transition in Spain.

Energy Policy, 123, 215–229.

Caramizaru, A., Uihlein, A. (2020). Energy communities:

an overview of energy and social innovation.

Ceglia, F., Marrasso, E., Pallotta, G., Roselli, C., & Sasso,

M. (2022). The state of the art of smart energy

communities: a systematic review of strengths and

limits. Energies, 15.

De São José, P., Faria, P., & Vale, Z. (2021). Smart Energy

Community: Systematic Review with Metanalysis.

Energy Strategy Reviews, 36.

European Commission. (2019). Renovation Wave.

Https://Energy.Ec.Europa.Eu/Topics/Energy-

Efficiency/Energy-Efficient-Buildings/Renovation-

Wave_en?Utm_source=chatgpt.Com.

European Commission. (2021). Economies of Energy

Communities. Review of electricity tariffs and business

models. Energy Communities and self-consumption

Task Force.

European Commission. (2022). Energy Communities

Repository. https://energy-communities-repository.ec.

europa.eu/about_en

European Parliament. (2001). Directive (EU) 2018/2001 of

the European Parliament and of the Council of 11

December 2018 on the promotion of the use of energy

from renewable sources. https://eur-lex.europa.eu/le

gal-content/EN/TXT/?uri=uriserv:OJ.L_.2018.328.01.

0082.01.ENG&toc=OJ:L:2018:328:TOC

European Parliament. (2018). Directive EU 2018/844 of the

European Parliament and of the Council of 30 May

2018 amending Directive 2010/31/EU on the energy

performance of buildings and Directive 2012/27/EU on

energy efficiency. https://eur-lex.europa.eu/legal-

content/EN/TXT/?uri=uriserv%3AOJ.L_.2018.156.01.

0075.01.ENG

European Parliament. (2019a). Clean energy for all

Europeans package completed: good for consumers,

good for growth and jobs and good for the planet.

https://ec.europa.eu/info/news/clean-energy-all-

europeans-package-completed-good-consumers-good-

growth-and-jobs-and-good-planet-2019-may-22_en

European Parliament. (2019b).

Directive (EU) 2019/944 of

the European Parliament and of the Council of 5th June

2019 on common rules for the internal market for

electricity and amending Directive 2012/27/EU.

https://eur-lex.europa.eu/eli/dir/2019/944/oj

European Parliament. (2021). Directive of the European

Parliament and of the Council amending Directive

Belgian Energy Communities: Key Challenges and Opportunities

127

(EU) 2018/2001 of the European Parliament and of the

Council, Regulation (EU) 2018/1999 of the European

Parliament and of the Council and Directive 98/70/EC

of the European Parliament. https://eur-lex.europa.eu/

legal-content/EN/TXT/HTML/?uri=CELEX:52021PC

0557

Felice, A., Rakocevic, L., Peeters, L., Messagie, M.,

Coosemans, T., & Ramirez Camargo, L. (2021). An

assessment of operational economic benefits of

Renewable Energy Communities in Belgium. Journal

of Physics: Conference Series, 2042.

Frieden, D., Tuerk, A., Neumann, C., D’Herbemont, S., &

Roberts, J. (2020). Collective self-consumption and

energy communities: Trends and challenges in the

transposition of the EU framework.

Friends of the Earth Europe. (2020). The Belgian

community that builts renewable energy for the masses.

Https://Friendsoftheearth.Eu/News/the-Belgian-Comm

unity-That-Built-Renewable-Energy-for-the-Masses/.

Gianaroli, F., Preziosi, M., Ricci, M., Sdringola, P.,

Ancona, M. A., & Melino, F. (2024). Exploring the

academic landscape of energy communities in Europe:

A systematic literature review. Journal of Cleaner

Production, 451.

Heldeweg, M. A., & Saintier, S. (2020). Renewable energy

communities as “social-legal institutions”: A normative

frame for energy decentralization? Renewable and

Sustainable Energy Reviews, 119.

Hicks, J., & Ison, N. (2018). An exploration of the

boundaries of “community” renewable energy projects:

navigating between motivations and context. Energy

Policy, 113, 523–534.

IDETA. (2024). HOSPIGREEN-First renewable energy

community of public consumers in Wallonia.

Https://Ideta.Be/Projets/Energy-Hospigreen-First-

Renewable-Energy-Community-of-Public-Consumers-

in-Wallonia/.

Koirala, B. P., Araghi, Y., Kroesen, M., Ghorbani, A.,

Hakvoort, R. A., & Herder, P. M. (2018). Trust,

awareness, and independence: insights from a socio-

psychological factor analysis of citizen knowledge and

participation in commuity energy systems. Energy

Research and Social Science , 38, 33–40.

Kunze, C., Becker, S. (2015). Collective ownership in

renewable energy and opportunities for sustainable

degrowth. Sustainability Science, 10, 425–437.

Leonhardt, R., Noble, B., Poelzer, G., Fitzpatrick, P.,

Belcher, K., & Holdmann, G. (2022). Advancing local

energy transitions: a global review of government

instruments supporting community energy. Energy

Research Social Science, 83.

Manso-Burgos, A. , Ribo-Pérez, D. , Gomez-Navarro, T. ,

& Alcazar-Ortega, M. ,. (2022). Local energy

communities modelling and optimisation considering

storage, demand configuration and sharing strategies: A

case study in Valencia (Spain). Energy Reports, 8,

10395–10408.

Mutani, G.,Todeschi, V., Beltramino, S. (2020). Energy

consumption models at urban scale to measure energy

resilience. Sustainability, 12, 1–33.

Nadai, A., Van der Horst, D. (2010). Wind power planning,

landscapes and publics. Land Use Policy, 27, 181–184.

Nextensa. (2023). Nextensa Creates a New Energy

Community in Brussels. https://Www.Nextensa.Eu/

En/Nieuws-Pers/Nextensa-Creates-a-New-Energy-Co

mmunity-in-Brussels.

Pons-Seres de Brauwer, C., Cohen, J.J. (2020). Analysing

the potential of citizen-financed community renewable

energy to drive Europe’s low-carbon energy transition.

Renewable and Sustainable Energy Reviews, 133.

Proka, A., Vansintjan, D., & Tachelet, S. (2019). ZuidtrAnt

Energy Community Platform. https://Energycommun

ityplatform.Eu/Communities/Zuidtrant/.

Renovate Europe. (2023). Renovation Wave: revision of

EPBD and EED. Https://Www.Renovate-Europe.Eu/

Renovation-Wave/?Utm_source=chatgpt.Com.

ROLECS. (2021). Legislative options and obstacles for

energy communities in Belgium. Summary of key issues

identified and recommendations.

Service Public Justice Fédéral. (2023). Arrêté du

Gouvernement wallon relatif aux communautés

d’énergie et au partage d’énergie.

Https://Www.Ejustice.Just.Fgov.Be/Cgi/Article_body.

Pl?Language=fr&caller=summary&pub_date=2023-

09-28&numac=2023044651.

Seyfang, G., Park, J. J., & Smith, A. (2013). A thousand

flowers blooming? An examination of community

energy in the UK. Energy Policy, 61, 977–989.

Sousa, T., Soares, T., Pinson, P., Moret, F., Baroche, T., &

Sorin, E. (2019). Peer-to-peer and community-based

markets: a comprehensive review. Renewable and

Sustainable Energy Reviews, 104, 367–378.

Steinberger, J. K., Van Niel, J., & Bourg, D. (2009).

Profiting from negawatts: reducing absolute

consumption and emisisons through a performance-

based energy economy. Energy Policy, 37, 361–370.

Szulecki, K., & Overland, I. (2020). Energy democracy as

a process, an outcome and a goal: A conceptual review.

Energy Research and Social Science, 69.

Trivedi, R., Patra, S., Sidqi, Y., Bowler, B., Zimmermann,

F., Deconinck, G., Papaemmanouil, A., & Khadem, S.

(2022). Community-based microgrids: literature review

and pathways to decarbonise the local electricity

network. Energies, 15.

Van Zalk, J., & Behrens, P. (2018). The spatial extent of

renewable and non-renewable power generation: a

review and meta-analysis of power densities and their

application in the US. Energy Policy, 123.

Zangheri, P., Armani, R., Kakoulaki, G., Martirano, G.,

Pignatelli, F., & Baranzelli, C. (2020). Building energy

renovation for decarbonisation and Covid-19 recovery.

ZuidtrAnt Energy Community. (2023). ZuidtrAnt Energy

Community. Https://Www.Zuidtrant.Be/.

SMARTGREENS 2025 - 14th International Conference on Smart Cities and Green ICT Systems

128

APPENDIX

Figure 4: Other ECs cooperative projects studied in

Wallonia and Flanders.

KPIs COCITER HesbEnergie Courant d'Air ECOPOWER ZuidtrAnt BeauVent Wase Wind

Technical/Technological

Supply of

renewable

electricity

produced by

member

cooperatives.

Wind and

hydroelectric

projects

Renewable

energy

production

projects

(30,000

MWh/year).

Production and

supply of green

electricity from

wind, solar,

and

hydroelectric

source

Investment in

renewable

energy projects

Invests in wind

turbines, solar

panels, and

bioenergy

projects.

Installed

electrical power

Production of

renewable

energy via

wind turbines.

Membership

Coo

eratives

1.654 4.850 68.238 651 8.835 3.000

Scale of Projects

Aggregates

production

from various

local projects.

Wind,

hydroelectric,

biomass

Wind farm (5

wind turbines),

2 wind turbines

are owned by

courant d'air,

4 PVs on

schools

248 projects,

including wind

turbines and

solar

installations.

29 projects,

including 28

solar roofs and

1 district

heating

network.

- 244

Installations

Various

renewable

energy

installations.

Four wind

farms in the

Waasland

region.

WALLONIA FLANDERS

Belgian Energy Communities: Key Challenges and Opportunities

129