Sunny Serock
Serock is a small town of 4,000 inhabitants, located north of Warsaw in Poland. In February 2021, they launched ‘Sunny Serock,’ one of the first energy cooperatives in Poland and Central/Eastern Europe. The idea came from the municipality, who wanted to improve energy security and foster local development, while reducing emissions. But also, they wanted to address citizens’ demand for more local support for renewables. The town mobilised citizens to reclaim a former landfill for renewable energy production. They thought that a shared PV plant would have been more effective, rather than individual solar installations on private rooftops, as a way of giving all residents the possibility to benefit from locally sourced renewable energy. Solar energy was the most promising energy source for the area, and they opted to include a storage system (to be commissioned) to ensure a more stable supply. Serock is working with citizens to make this first local cooperative a success. To use the landfill, the cooperative needed several permits that were obtained with the town’s support. The municipality is renting the land to the cooperative. After a start-up period, the cooperative will pay for the lease of the site at a preferential rate. In addition, the municipality also provided them with a meeting place, and is acting as an intermediary with the grid operator. Municipal staff also has an active role in the cooperative: the president of Sunny Serock is the head of the town’s infrastructure department, and the mayor of the town is also a member. In addition, the municipality owns shares in the cooperative. The solar plant should have a capacity of 0.3-0.35 MW. In Poland, cooperatives cannot sell energy, so all electricity produced must be used by the members of the cooperative. This means that members will have access to free electricity but will have to contribute to the costs of maintaining the installation – such as technical interventions, insurance, or taxes. These costs, however, will be minimal compared to price hikes seen in 2022, and offer the stability that gas volatility does not. The cooperative aims at gathering enough members to use all the energy produced by the first installation. Then, if more residents are interested in joining, they will explore the possibility of developing additional RES projects
