Sharing Energy with Neighbours: Community Battery Concepts

Energy sharing as a concept: from individual to collective

In the traditional energy world, electricity is something you generate yourself, consume yourself or feed back to the grid. But a new generation of energy concepts is breaking with this individual model: collective energy storage and local energy sharing make it possible for a neighbourhood or district to jointly benefit from solar energy.

In the Netherlands, several schemes and pilot projects are active that facilitate energy sharing. This article provides an overview of current possibilities, technical requirements and future opportunities.

Existing Dutch schemes for energy sharing

The Netherlands has two relevant schemes for collective energy generation and sharing.

• Economies of scale on purchase and installation of larger battery
• Accessible for residents without their own roof (apartment dwellers)
• Better utilisation through complementary consumption profiles in the neighbourhood
• Potentially lower management costs per kWh at scale

Community battery concepts: in practice

The postcode-area scheme allows residents to jointly set up a solar energy project and share the returns through energy tax reductions. Participants do not need to live at the same address, but within the same postcode areas. The SCE subsidy (Cooperative Energy Generation Subsidy) supports this.

Postcode-area scheme (SDE++ SCE)

In several Dutch neighbourhoods, neighbourhood battery pilots are active, where a central battery stores energy from multiple homes and feeds it back on request. Examples include the ArenA neighbourhood battery in Amsterdam and various pilots in Friesland and Groningen.

Neighbourhood battery projects in the Netherlands

Community batteries can be technically realised in several ways. The most common configurations are: a central physical battery serving multiple homes, a virtual battery where energy is 'stored' via the grid and returned later, and peer-to-peer energy trading via blockchain platforms.

Technical configurations for energy sharing

A central neighbourhood battery has the following technical requirements: a grid connection with sufficient capacity, an energy management system that controls distribution, metering equipment at all participating homes, and a legal framework (homeowners' association, cooperative or energy company as administrator).

The table shows the comparison between individual and community configurations.

Advantages, challenges and future outlook

The greatest advantages of community storage are economies of scale on battery costs, better utilisation through varied consumption profiles, and accessibility for residents without their own roof (apartment dwellers).

• Complex legal and financial structure required
• Dependence on grid operator for feed-in at neighbourhood level
• Longer decision-making processes with multiple parties
• Less direct control for individual participants

Conclusion: is a community battery right for you?

The main challenges are the complexity of the legal and financial structure, dependence on grid operator cooperation for feed-in contracts, and longer payback periods due to higher management costs.

Community batteries and collective energy sharing are promising, but in the Netherlands they are still largely in the pilot and demonstration phase. For the next 5 years, the individual home battery will remain the most accessible and profitable choice for most households. But developments are moving fast — keep an eye on the postcode-area scheme if your neighbourhood is interested in a collective project.