Publications

Citizens and their community involvement are an important part of the energy transition: through financial participation in community energy companies, they contribute to the expansion of renewable energies . However, with the urgency of the energy transition, rising energy costs and the desire for greater independence, citizens no longer just want to contribute financially, but want to be active themselves with locally generated energy. As a result, energy communities are transforming from pioneers of renewable expansion to transformation actors in local energy systems.

In Germany, the further development of energy communities is being implemented hesitantly or restrictively within the directives of the European Union. A coherent strategy is needed so that the added value of energy communities can be exploited for the climate-neutral energy system of the future. In order to develop their potential, energy communities need to be considered as an important strategic and regulatory element in the future energy system. To this end, European regulations should be implemented consistently and opportunities for community activities beyond the electricity sector should be created by removing bureaucratic hurdles or de minimis regulations.

The Energy-Prosumer-Model is used to simulate energy flows within a household or a neighborhood. In this bottom-up simulation model, different generation, storage and/or consumption modules can be selected in a household or a neighborhood. The simulation can be applied in a number of different locations and years. The Energy-Prosumer-Model is particularly well suited for exploring technology options and operating scenarios with regard to self-consumption, self-sufficiency, power feed-in, and power purchase of electricity at the local level. Developed in 2010, the model has been continuously enhanced and extended with new functionalities for a variety of different use cases. 

This documentation reflects the current state of development and will be updated regularly. Hence, it can be understood as a “living document”. On the heating side, the underlying functions, assumptions, inputs and outputs of heating circuit, thermal storage, electric heater, condensing boiler, heat pump and solar thermal are described. On the electric side, the modules photovoltaic, wind turbine and battery are outlined. 

The aim of this working paper is to review and illustrate the links between financing, energy and the current role of bottom-up models in financing the energy transition.

Transforming the energy system will require an estimated $110 trillion in global investment by 2050. The scale of the investment required makes it clear: investment will be needed by all actors. An increasingly important role is played by citizens. They can invest individually and become prosumers or organize themselves in so-called bottom-up models such as energy communities, citizen energy communities or local energy initiatives and jointly finance the investment costs.

In this study, we provide a brief overview of the different financing instruments. We also evaluate the existing literature on energy and financing.

This working paper deals with the sustainable digitalization of a decentralized energy transition and the effects on technical processes, business models and participation processes. It presents the current state of research and sheds more light on relevant aspects from a sustainability perspective. Depending on the actor and implementation, the use of digitalization pursues different goals such as reducing complexity, increasing efficiency or digital participation. Depending on the primary goal, the use of certain digital technologies, tools and methods makes sense at different points in the energy system. For example, existing processes in the energy industry are digitalized and optimized, business models are further developed or newly designed through the use of digitalization, and digital tools are used in energy transition processes.