Consumer (co-)ownership in renewable energy (RE) is essential to the overall success of Energy
Transition. In June 2018 the European Union agreed on a corresponding enabling framework as
part of a recast of the Renewable Energy Directive (RED II). The transposition of these
comprehensive rules ¿ in particular those on local RE communities ¿ requires developing
implementing and rolling out business models that broaden the capital participation of
consumers. The challenge is to include municipalities and or commercial investors like SMEs and
advance to economies of scale while retaining the benefits of individual consumer
participation.This book is addressed to energy consumers in local communities their
municipalities and to the policy makers who represent them. Additionally non-EU countries in
particular those where rural areas have limited access to energy e.g. in Asia Africa and
Latin America may be interested in the benefits of consumer ownership. While demand for energy
in developing countries is growing access to energy is crucial for improving the quality of
life. The editor of this book presents a new model of consumer ownership in RE for both the EU
and countries worldwide. Part One describes the rationale for consumer ownership in RE with
regard to social organizational legal and financial conditions. Part Two discusses the issue
of financing RE and introduces a new financing technique the Consumer Stock Ownership Plan
(CSOP) comparing it to traditional models. Part Three provides 18 country studies from Europe
North America South America and Asia organized so as to enable a cross-country comparison of
policy approaches and feasibility. Policy recommendations are based on the results of this
survey. Part Four summarizes compares the best practice cases presents a cost-benefit
analysis of ¿prosumage¿ and against this background evaluates the impact on future policy.
