How can the interests of municipalities and the population be taken into account when setting up decentralized renewable energy plants and at the same time ensure fair regional economic participation? Greater financial participation by municipalities and citizens in the energy transition could be a key to increasing acceptance at the local level.
In the ReWA project, six municipalities across Germany were examined in which the population could participate financially in renewable energies (RE) in different ways. The aim of the project was to find connections and interactions between the regional economic effects and opportunities for financial participation and local acceptance of renewable energy projects.
In the present study, we show the results of the value creation, acceptance and communication analyzes in the six municipalities as well as recommendations derived from them for successful financial participation models in regional renewable energy expansion.