Sharing electricity with neighbors: A model is setting a precedent

What is hardly possible at a national level due to overloaded grids works surprisingly well at a local level: electricity from the sun, wind or water is shared between suppliers and consumers with little bureaucratic effort at very attractive prices. This model, which has been promoted in the Sterngartl-Gusental region over the past two years, is called a “renewable energy community”.

The driving force behind this was a project in the LEADER region of Sterngartl-Gusental. “We looked at what conditions are needed for such a community to function,” says project manager Hermann Reingruber. The external circumstances put the patience of the project team to the test. “Initially, surplus electricity was only worth around four cents per kilowatt hour. Then energy costs exploded, and now they are steadily falling again,” says Reinbruber. It was precisely this rollercoaster ride of energy prices that meant that the project team was now prepared for all eventualities.

Eight communities with 150 producers and 400 consumers are already in operation. More are about to start. Bad Leonfelden’s mayor Thomas Wolfesberger (VP) explains how something like this pays off in concrete terms, using an example from his community: “We are equipping our fire station with a photovoltaic system. The fire department itself only needs a little electricity during the day, but our sewage treatment plant needs a lot more. That’s where the energy community really makes sense.” Andreas Drack, who has been providing technical support for the project, underlines that there is no way around expanding renewable electricity production: “The climate crisis is forcing us to do this. But I am also certain that rural areas will be the big winners in the energy transition.”

The initiative for renewable energy communities (EEG) is a central, but by no means the only project that the LEADER region Sterngartl Gusental has made possible in recent years through financial grants. A total of 70 projects for sustainable value creation in rural areas were implemented in the Sterngartl Gusental region in the 2014-2023 funding period. Almost three million euros in funding was made available for this by the EU, federal government and the state of Upper Austria. Almost all LEADER projects have their origins in the regions. Nothing is planted from outside and that is precisely what makes them so successful in the long term,” confirmed State Councilor Michaela Langer Weninger yesterday during a visit to Bad Leonfelden.