Main conclusions and recommendations:
The potential for European households (individually or via energy collectives), public entities and small enterprises to become an energy citizen and to actively contribute to the future energy system is very significant. We estimate that about 83% of the EU’s households could potentially become an energy citizen and contribute to renewable energy production, demand response and/or energy storage, which amounts to about 187 million households.
About half of the households, around 113 million, may have the potential to produce energy; even more could provide demand flexibility with their electric vehicles, smart e-boilers or stationary batteries. For (many) other results, we refer to the Excel workbook that was developed during the course of this study.
A calculation methodology and calculation tool was developed to estimate the potential of various energy citizen categories in 2030 and 2050, for the technical options investigated. The calculations are based as much as possible on available data, using a transparent methodology that is based on, in our view, sound reasoning. However, as the research on this topic is still limited, as is the data on the current situation, the findings are subject to many uncertainties. It is therefore recommended to follow up this study with a more
in-depth assessment of the calculation methodology and findings of this study, to further enhance the robustness of the results and to determine the key drivers for these developments.
It is also recommended to further develop data gathering about energy citizens and their contribution to the energy system. Other issues that would be interesting to explore further are how this energy citizen potential can be realised, and how a future with a large number of energy citizens compares to a less decentralized development of a sustainable energy future, in terms of, for example, cost, energy security and social and economic effects.
