On 1 July 2026, UNEF and the regional government of Castilla-La Mancha brought municipalities, local authorities and energy communities together in Toledo for a free training seminar, also open to the Oficinas de Transformación Comunitaria, the municipal advisory offices that support energy communities on the ground. At the heart of the discussion lay a single question: how can local councils step into a leading role in the energy transition taking shape around them?
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Spain now counts 837 active energy communities, more than half of them with municipal involvement, and 56 of those sit in Castilla-La Mancha, each at a different stage of development. Opening the event, Mercedes Gómez, the region's minister for sustainable development, made the case for looking beyond the balance sheet. Energy communities, she argued, are “not only a way for municipal coffers, and therefore citizens, to save money”, but also “new instruments of socialisation that strengthen civic participation and the socio-economic revitalisation of municipalities”.
Backing the initiative is a €10.6 million funding line from the regional government, launched in July 2026, alongside free advice, financing and training delivered through an energy advisory office. Rounding out the support is a set of specialised courses for future energy community managers, run in cooperation with the University of Castilla-La Mancha (UCLM).
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José Donoso, director general of UNEF, was keen to stress the social dimension : “Energy communities are one of the most inspiring aspects of the energy transition, because they extend their benefits to the entire population and help to build community.” He also pointed to the economic weight of collective self-consumption: “Self-consumption is also an engine of economic growth and development, an engine of electrification.” In doing so, Spain is offering a model the rest of Europe would do well to follow.
National summit in Seville in September
UNEF’s next event will be the national energy communities summit on 30 September 2026 in Seville, organised together with the Andalusian Energy Agency under the EU-funded REC4EU project. The summit aims to bring together representatives from across the sector to address issues including regulation, financing and professionalisation. One of the drivers is Spain’s recently adopted Royal Decree-Law 7/2026. (nhp)
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