From groundwork to community energy: Gozo moves towards its first Renewable Energy Community 

Over the past two years, the LIFE ISLET project has helped turn the idea of a Renewable Energy Community (REC) in Gozo, Malta, into a concrete local initiative. Working together, the Malta Intelligent Energy Management Agency (MIEMA) and the San Lawrenz Local Council developed the technical, social and organisational conditions needed to establish the San Lawrenz Energy Community, whose Statute was signed in July 2026. 

The process did not start from zero. Previous technical studies carried out by MIEMA in Gozo had already explored possible REC operating models, cost-benefit scenarios and system design. LIFE ISLET built on this foundation, combining technical work with one of the most important ingredients of community energy: local participation. Workshops, meetings with residents and outreach activities helped explain how RECs can allow citizens to take a more active role in the energy transition, increase local resilience and enable collective self-consumption. The process also brought together other Maltese organisations, including Friends of the Earth Malta and the Malta Co-operative Federation, which contributed to the development of the community statute. San Lawrenz provided particularly fertile ground for this work. The Local Council’s long-standing commitment to sustainability helped create the local trust and institutional support needed to introduce a model that is still very new in Malta. 

This makes the experience significant beyond Gozo itself. With RECs still at an early stage in the country, San Lawrenz offers one of the first concrete examples of how a citizen-driven energy model can begin to take shape in practice. The experience also highlights a broader lesson from LIFE ISLET: technical studies alone are not enough. RECs need local leadership, cooperation between organisations and continuous engagement with the people who will ultimately participate in them. 

As LIFE ISLET reaches its conclusion, Gozo therefore leaves the project with more than a statute. It offers a practical pathway that other Maltese localities and small islands can learn from when developing locally governed renewable energy systems of their own.