Collective Citizen Energy Investment Models for Solar Power: Case Study Croatia

Cost-competitiveness of decentralized renewable energy sources (RESs) has opened opportunities for citizens’ ownership of RES and for the development of new business models. Citizen energy investment models based on cooperative principles have gained increased attention lately due to promises to support local economic welfare, boost local economy, increase social cohesion, help in grid optimization, and increase citizens’ support for new RES projects. In this paper, we provide an overview of collective citizen energy investment concepts and describe the six types of models being developed in Croatia. We provide an overview of the initiatives together with the challenges, threats, and opportunities found when concepts are faced with the real-life practice in Croatia. We show that even though citizens’ ownership of RES (mainly individual solar PV systems) is strongly increasing, the current developments of collective (group) citizen energy investment models are predominantly related to sporadic research projects and enthusiasts’ initiatives, meaning still no wider-scope investments in RES have been conducted this way. Following the findings, we provide recommendations for removing the barriers and speeding up the development of such projects in the future.