New energy communities launched in two communities

Two communities in the region announced yesterday that they had started renewable energy communities: In Stadl-Paura, the community and the volunteer fire department are cooperating, and in Wallern, Mayor Dominik Richtsteiger (VP) is the initiator and chairman.

“With the Wallern Energy Community, we want to make a contribution to the energy transition in our community and give citizens the opportunity to get involved,” says Richtsteiger. The offer is aimed at community citizens, 100 of whom attended an information event at the beginning of the week. It officially starts on April 1st.

The system was tested in advance in a trial phase, which was also supported by Raiffeisenbank Grieskirchen and its new subsidiary Raiffeisen Energie. “The energy transition is a forward-looking project that we are happy to support,” says Erwin Schützeneder, chairman of Raiffeisenbank Grieskirchen and deputy chairman of the EEG.

Collaboration with FF

While a classic version of the energy community is being launched in Wallern, the municipality of Stadl-Paura has chosen a different path. “We already have the Traun-Ager-Alm energy community for private households; we use the model for municipal buildings,” explains Mayor Christian Popp (citizen list).

Specifically, all of the municipality’s buildings, from the schools to the waterworks, can now be supplied with electricity from the three PV systems at the municipal office, the farm and the kindergarten. “The advantage of the EEG is that the billing is quite simple. If you did it the traditional way, it wouldn’t be economical,” explains Popp.

Because the community legally needs at least one partner, the FF Stadl-Paura has also joined the energy community – and now also benefits from electricity from sustainable sources.

Up to a third of the municipal buildings’ electricity needs should come from renewable sources in the future, says Popp: “We want to use the energy ourselves and will probably only feed it into the general grid in the summer when the schools are closed.” For now, the EEG is only intended for the community: “We’ll have to see whether we open it to the general public or other institutions in the future,” says Popp.

The mayor says he would like to implement further sustainability projects, but like in other municipalities, Stadl-Paura’s limited financial scope stands in the way. In this context, he criticizes the funding landscape and cites the funds from the federal government’s municipal investment program (KIP) as an example. Stadl-Paura could theoretically receive 150,000 euros in funding for environmental projects, but would have to provide the same amount. “In view of the financial challenges that almost all municipalities in Austria are facing, it should be considered whether these equity requirements should not be dropped,” says Popp. This would give many communities the opportunity to implement their own projects regarding energy transition and CO2 avoidance.

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