At the end of March, we founded the Community Energy Union with the goal of creating a clean and safe future for the Czech Republic. In 2021, as Frank Bold, we held a series of online and offline workshops to identify weak spots and gain the support of a number of important stakeholders who are now members of our Union.
The topic of community energy has long been neglected in Czechia, energy communities do not exist in our country and neither does the legislation. That is why the Union is focusing on 5 complementary objectives that will create the conditions for the emergence and effective functioning of energy communities in Czechia.
We need a stable and motivating environment for energy communities. That’s why we need a completely new Energy Act, that will take into account all aspects of the “modern energy system” based on decentalization, democratization and local production and consumption. Our goal is to ensure that energy communities will be accepted as a relevant and beneficial actor, who gives people the opportunity to be a part of energy transition and to benefit from it.
By 2030, no less than CZK 60 billion will be available from European funds for the development of renewable and community energy. These resources are an opportunity to significantly push forward the modernization of the domestic energy sector.
Members of the Union have long focused on community energy and renewables and they represent a diverse group - cities and municipalities, businesses, households, investors and developers. This allows us to be a relevant actor for the government and push through the change we need.
Energy communities are scarce in Czechia, we have few municipal projects but a true energy cooperative does not exist yet. If we really want to kick-start the community energy revolution, we need to show people how. For example, we focus on creating manuals for mayors on how to set an energy community, we acumulate know-how and best practice and we communicate the benefits of energy community to citizens.
Given the rapid development, the strategic documents regarding the energy sector and its transformation in Czechia are now outdated. From our point of view, they have one other major flaw – they fail to account for the massive development of community energy.
Now, more than ever, we need to approach energy strategically and plan for maximum self-sufficiency among the population, and the independence of the Czechia from fossil resources in the long term.
As individual organizations we have achieved many tangible results, pushed for many laws to be passed, prepared a large number of analyses and organized many events. We consider community energy and the decentralization and democratization of energy production in general to be such an important topic that we have established close cooperation with partners that understand all aspects of energy transformation. We combine know-how from the fields of law, environmental protection, technology and economics.
Community energy actually offers many opportunities for different models of energy communities. At the Community Energy Union, we are ready to help develop such projects and demonstrate their benefits.
Learn more about Community Energy Union, see our brochure in English, take a look at our website (only in Czech) or contact Anna Michalčáková on anna.michalcakova@uken.cz
Wrote about us: April success story: United forces for community energy in the Czech Republic
In December Frank Bold team co-organised a meeting of NGOs and representatives of the Member States of the European Union. The all-day meeting in Brussels was prepared in cooperation with our colleagues from European Environmental Bureau and Client Earth.
Thirty thousand people in the Czech Republic’s Liberec region face a loss of access to drinking water due to the planned expansion of the Turów coal mine. This mine is planned to newly stretch outwards to just 150 meters from the Czech border and downwards to a depth below the bottom of the Baltic. The resulting drainage of Czech underground water is not just a threat to citizens; the drying out of the area would destroy entire local ecosystems and cause significant agricultural damage. A further increase to dust and noise levels is a threat as well. Furthermore, the end date for mining is to be delayed from 2020 out to 2044.
The threatened loss of drinking water for tens of thousands of people in the Czech Republic’s Liberec region has earned the notice of Politico, a Brussels-based news site. Politico reported on the plans for the expansion of the Turów brown coal mine in Poland, near the Czech/German/Polish border.
