While key barriers faced by community renewable energy projects are generally well understood, there is much less information available about the actual costs and financing implications. This report sheds light on the costs and corresponding financial impacts faced by community-owned renewable energy projects, especially in comparison to commercial renewable energy projects. The report, which was written collaboratively by Christine Lucha and Andreas Prahl(Ecologic Institute), is available for download.

The report reviews the costs faced by communities in five countries - Australia, Canada, Denmark, Germany and the UK - and answers eight research questions relating to costs and financing aspects of community renewable energy projects. Ecologic Institute provided its expertise in the German and Danish renewable energy market and led the research in these two countries. The results are shown in the country-specific text sections, as well as in the answers of the research questions.

In addition, country case studies provide a more in-depth analysis and can be downloaded from the IEA-RETD website. The documents can also be directly assessed via the links provided below.