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Energy Community Insights: Hungary's National Coalition
The Life COMET project aims to transform the community energy landscape in Central and Eastern Europe through assessment, experience sharing, and coalition building. Our series of blog posts “Energy Community Insights: A Tour of Central & Eastern Europe” explores the emergence and growth of national coalitions of energy communities in Croatia, Estonia, Greece, Hungary, Poland, Romania, and Slovenia.
This blog post introduces Hungary’s national Community Energy Coalition, offering an overview of the coalition’s activities and an inside look through the eyes of Ferenc Matisz, representative of the Solidarity Economy Center, the coordinating organisation of the coalition.
Hungary's Community Energy Coalition
The history of the Community Energy Coalition in Hungary dates back to September 2024. At that time, initiated by the Solidarity Economy Centre (SEC), the coalition partners met and jointly discussed the proposed Energy Revolution Manifesto. The need to work together for the sake of the development of the community energy scene in Hungary emerged, in which each organisation – although most of them work in professional fields only touching the topic of community energy – saw an important value and common goal.
The SEC met and consulted with these organisations – which are mainly green professional NGOs operating in Hungary – one by one in the next months.
Based on these experiences and learnings, SEC has initiated and held their first two operational meetings in April and May 2025, attended by 8-9 member organisations, who had by then signed their cooperation agreements. At these meetings, they democratically discussed the concept of the coalition and agreed on their common objectives, their modus operandi and the division of activities in their respective fields of expertise.
In the future, the coalition will meet in person a few times a year, while in the interim period, smaller thematic groups will cooperate as well as interested members will work on ad-hoc issues, for the time being on a voluntary basis. Their shared goal is to build a community-led, sustainable energy model that addresses Hungary’s current legislative and societal challenges.
A Conversation with Ferenc Matisz: The Vision Behind the Coalition
Ferenc Matisz, representative of the Solidarity Economy Center, shared his insights into the coalition’s development, the values behind its foundation, and the path ahead. As part of SEC’s energy-focused team, he supports local energy community initiatives.
What drives your involvement in the coalition?
Our organization believes that a solidarity economy refers to initiatives that lead to economic democracy and ecological sustainability. Electricity is an essential source of energy for human life in modern society. As the electricity system is such a critical network that all other infrastructural systems are connected to, electricity must be a public good.
We believe that energy communities can foster revolution through local renewable energy sources and actions. Democratically functioning energy communities with long-term collaborations can inspire similar cooperation in other aspects of life, including entrepreneurship. Our coalition partners believe that slowing climate change can be better achieved through energy communities where efficient use of local energy is central. Synergies are an obvious solution for efficiency.
What challenges did you face in setting up the coalition?
We faced two main challenges during the start-up phase. One is the structure of the electricity system itself. Hungary’s national energy strategy supports energy consumption through subsidized tariffs for all households. This doesn’t encourage households to participate in energy communities. Furthermore, energy efficiency and investment incentives are designed for individuals, not for cooperative decision-making. The entire system is skewed to maintain this contradictory support for household tariffs, which makes it difficult for NGOs and municipalities to run viable initiatives.
The other challenge is the lack of cooperation in society. Modern individualism means that most decisions are driven by personal financial benefit. Values like solidarity, equality, and quality of life have become secondary. Local communities need to relearn how to think collectively to confront global and local threats.
What is your long-term vision for the coalition?
"The Memorandum of Understanding we are building is based on collaboration, democratic leadership, and sustainable innovation. We think we are stronger together than as isolated initiatives. We support each other in knowledge transfer, networking, and capacity building. This unity allows us to step up more effectively, raise awareness about cooperation, and build support tools like a help desk or shared best practices. We are convinced that protecting the environment and dealing with climate change requires more than just technological investments. It requires a deep shift in how we think about our lives."
Although still in its early phase, the Hungarian coalition is laying vital groundwork for a citizen-led energy transition. By focusing on trust, collaboration, and advocacy, the coalition aims to build a strong and sustainable community energy movement. The coalition is working to steer the country in a more just and participatory direction, driven by the power of collective action.
