Legal uncertainties affecting local renewable energy initiatives in Croatia

This paper draws on practical experience from renewable energy initiatives on Croatian islands to highlight legal and regulatory uncertainties affecting the implementation of Renewable Energy Communities (RECs), Citizen Energy Communities (CECs), energy sharing, and collective self-consumption. Although Croatia has made significant progress in transposing relevant EU legislation, important challenges remain in translating these frameworks into practice.  

To address these challenges, this paper recommends the following targeted actions:  

1. removing legal and administrative obstacles to the establishment and operation of Renewable and Citizen Energy Communities taking into account the different requirements applicable to each type of community, including by simplifying relevant administrative procedures and clarifying participation rules;  
2. further operationalising collective self-consumption and energy sharing, including the metering infrastructure, the rules on distribution keys, the network fee methodology and the contractual arrangements needed to make them work in practice.