How Nobile Group is expanding energy hub horizons across Europe

Two years after a successful market entrance in Austria, Lorena Skijlan, chief executive and co-founder of Nobile Group, explains why the company’s expansion of its energy hub services into more countries is an important step for energy communities around Europe.

This expansion aligns with the EU Commission’s Energy Communities Act, the EU Renewable Energy Directive (RED II) as well as EU Electricity Market Directive.

It also places Nobile Group in a unique position to leverage EU-funded projects and assist energy communities. These projects are pivotal in showcasing successful energy transitions, providing clear models for integrating renewable energy on both small and large scales.

By tapping into these frameworks, Nobile Group aims to enhance energy sharing, diversify supply, and connect more efficiently across European markets, driving forward the continent’s renewable energy goals. Enlit caught up with Skijlan to understand the implications of the expansion.

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EU-funded Energy Projects
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What countries is Nobile expanding to with its energy hub services and why those countries?

Two years after a successful market entrance of our platform for energy hubs in Austria, Nobile has become a leading player in the market of decentralized supply models. Therefore, we are excited to announce our expansion into the DACH region (Germany and Switzerland) as well as to Italy.

As an Austrian-based company Nobile chose to firstly enter the DACH region market because we already have a good understanding of their electricity markets, participants and customer needs.

As for Italy, it is one of the best development markets when it comes to terms of framework conditions and furthermore, the market structure in Italy is very similar as in Austria and therefore ready for a quick roll out of the Nobile Business model.  

What does Nobile's expansion mean for the energy communities that it collaborates with?

The success story of Nobile began in Austria, where we established energy communities and hubs all over the country. We are proud about the great feedback we are receiving from our customers, mostly municipalities, cities, and SMEs and are excited to open a new chapter of our success story by expanding our business model into other European countries.

Especially to our business customers, our expansion to new markets gives them the advantage that they can more easily connect their energy hubs to their facilities in Germany, Switzerland and Italy and utilize their kilowatt hours in an even more efficient way.

What is the significance of the energy sharing and service platform, nobile:connected, in Nobile's market expansion?

Our platform enables energy sharing in all European markets. It is a commodity-based platform and as a result our customers can share energy within their own energy hubs and community, with other energy hubs or they can just share their energy with its employees, non-profit organisations, etc. Moreover, energy hubs can get an access to the market by using our platform and for example trade their surplus with other participants.

In this context, all our customers supply themselves with energy from their own production as well as from other energy hubs and market participants. As a result our customers diversify their energy supply and are less vulnerable to fluctuations within the energy markets.

How is Nobile's approach to energy communities in Switzerland modelled, and what does it aim to achieve?

Switzerland is about to introduce full regulation in terms of energy communities and energy sharing. Nevertheless, together with our partners, established players within the Swiss energy market, we are about to introduce the first energy communities and hubs within the present regulation in city as well as in suburban areas. The aim is to run energy communities in a way to integrate households, local utilities and DSOs and showcase how such models can integrate renewable energy on a local level.

How ready is Europe and the Commission to tackle future industry issues? What is the role of EU-funded projects and programmes in it?

By introducing the Green Deal, Europe is ready to tackle the industry issues. Nevertheless, the transition has a way to go, and we need an even more clear way forward into a new energy industry based on renewable energy resources. As we have been observing in the past years, since the introduction of the Green Deal, we need even more role models, such as EU-funded projects, to successfully run the transition. Such programmes showcase in a very clear way how to manage the energy transition in small and big scale. Moreover, EU-funded projects have shown so far, that EU citizens are fully supportive of the energy transition.

How does Nobile's expansion align with the EU Commission's Energy Communities Act, and what impact might this have on the company's growth in the EU?

Nobile started its business model under the EU Commission Energy Act and we have developed it further, to a commodity based platform model, suitable for all European markets. The basis for all our activities is EU Regulation, next to the Energy Communities Act, also the EU Renewable Energy Directive (RED II) as well as EU Electricity Market Directive (EMD). Our business model fully aligns with the present regulation but also with the Market Design within the Europe and its Member States.