For many people, the arrival of an electricity bill brings dread. In the small German village of Feldheim, residents barely give theirs a second thought.
“In my old apartment, I used about 2,400 kilowatt hours a year. All this technology needs a lot of electricity,” said Jens Neumann, gesturing to a gaming setup of four screens and a console. Since moving to Feldheim in 2024, drawn by cheaper electricity, Neumann says his costs have more than halved.
When Russia’s war in Ukraine plunged Europe into an energy crisis and sent prices soaring — Germany’s average spiking to around €0.45 per kilowatt hour at the peak — Feldheim stayed insulated. The village, about 80 kilometers from Berlin, kept prices at less than half the national peak and well below the German average.
The story begins in the early 1990s with Michael Raschemann, then a young engineering student who saw potential in Feldheim’s slightly elevated land and good wind conditions. The region had a power line nearby and, like much of former East Germany, was struggling economically after reunification. Raschemann proposed four wind turbines; they drew attention and curiosity from the community and media.
Raschemann and his wife later founded the energy company Energiequelle. They engaged continuously with local government, residents and the farmers’ cooperative that manages much of Feldheim’s land. Decisions — such as siting turbines so they wouldn’t cast shadows on houses — were made with community input. That slow, deliberate process helped win local acceptance, says Sebastian Herbst, head of the agricultural cooperative and a Feldheim native.
Feldheim’s infrastructure expanded beyond wind. In 2008 the agricultural co-op partnered with Energiequelle to open a biogas plant, turning livestock manure, corn and crushed grain into electricity and heat while capturing methane that would otherwise escape into the atmosphere. A wood-fired backup heating system, solar panels and a large battery storage unit completed the setup.
The village now produces hundreds of millions of kilowatt hours annually — far more than its small population uses. Less than 1% of the energy produced is consumed locally; the rest feeds the national grid. That small local share, however, proved crucial to the village’s green transition.
Frustrated by a system that forced residents to buy back their locally generated electricity while paying grid fees and surcharges, Energiequelle sought to buy the village’s section of power lines. When that failed, the company and local government built a new grid from scratch in 2010. Residents invested €3,000 each, alongside state and EU funding, to create their own heating network. Of Germany’s about 180 bioenergy villages, Feldheim is unique in having a fully independent renewable electricity and heating system.
That independence is why energy is so cheap there. While Germans pay roughly €0.35 per kilowatt hour on average, Feldheim residents pay about €0.12.
Feldheim’s situation rests on specific circumstances: it is tiny, tightly knit, and the short distances between producers and consumers keep infrastructure simple. The farmers’ cooperative’s deep community trust and willingness to partner were also vital. Similar community microgrids exist on the Isle of Eigg in Scotland and Kodiak Island in Alaska, but replicating Feldheim’s model in larger towns or places lacking its geography or social cohesion would be far harder.
Still, Feldheim offers lessons. Studies show that early, effective communication and ensuring locals see direct financial benefit build acceptance. “It’s incredibly important to use this one small fraction of energy — about one million kilowatt-hours — locally, in order to gain acceptance to feed the remaining 99.5% into the grid,” Raschemann says.
Feldheim is not immune to wider policy and economic pressures. Subsidies for the biogas plant are expiring; available replacement programs, Herbst says, do not offer sufficient funding. The plant must remain profitable, and the village will soon need a new generation of more powerful wind turbines, a change Raschemann stresses must again involve the community.
As Germany’s wider renewable rollout slows and energy costs climb, Feldheim’s experience — combining community engagement, local investment and diversified renewable assets — offers a practical example of how small, locally led systems can deliver cheap, reliable energy and secure local support for green transitions.
