Pierre Jean Coulon: "Become a player in your energy environment".

Self-consumption, whether individual or collective, has been one of the few, if not the only, way to respond to several energy issues: greening production using wind, solar and even hydro renewable energy; the scourge of energy poverty, affecting more than 80 million Europeans.

Both the IPCC and the International Energy Agency regularly call for the mass roll-out of all available decarbonised technologies, including renewable energy. These technologies have an inherently local dimension. They are connected to the geographical areas in which they are based, and can be installed close to where energy is consumed. As a result, their development is leading to a revival of self-consumption in electricity, in other words direct consumption of locally produced energy.

For the past few years, European but, above all, national legislation, especially in some countries, has supported self-consumption, whether individual consumption particularly using photovoltaic panels on roofs, or collective, including photovoltaic or wind farms installed by energy communities, local authorities, cooperatives, etc.

Moreover, the EESC's opinion calls for every citizen to be genuinely placed at the heart of these trends and for both public authorities and local and regional authorities to support the developers of such projects.

Pooling and "smoothing" prices in a spirit of solidarity, would make it possible to provide practical responses to the energy poverty caused chiefly by the high prices experienced by many households. With this in mind, non-profit initiatives should be encouraged.

In order to manage these processes as efficiently as possible, smart meters should be rolled out across the European Union. This process must not be carried out under pressure nor should it be imposed. It should take place through education, enabling consumers to take real responsibility for making the best use of their data.
In this way, citizens can become genuine stakeholders in their own energy environment.