Germany has become known for its history of community energy. These projects need not be coöperatives, in which each person gets a vote regardless of their share of invested equity capital. Bürgerenergie projects originally got started as limited liability projects, such as the wave of early wind farms in rural areas of northern Germany in the 1990s.

This paper presents the German experience with community energy, however, so it refers mainly to projects for renewable energy.

This paper was written for the LECo (Local Energy Communities) project funded by the Interreg Northern Periphery and Arctic Programme of the EU. See the project website localenergycommunities.net for further information.

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