Abstract
Poland remains the most coal-dependent economy in the EU. To minimize that problem, which is particularly clear and dangerous in the period of a shortage of fossil fuels, the Polish authorities have decided to establish various institutions, organizational and regulatory solutions. Their role is to support the development of renewable energy sources and local energy communities. The latter are to focus on optimizing the production and consumption of energy in pursuit of energy self-sufficiency on a local scale. One such institution, set up in Poland over the last several years, is the energy cooperative, which is intended to increase the efficient use of the potential of renewable energy sources in rural and urban−rural areas. The authors of this article verify the assumptions, for instance, the number, composition or production and members’ consumption profiles, under which such a relatively new institution has the chance to develop. A novelty in this research paper is that the interests of the entities composing a given energy cooperative may additionally be secured by the use of surplus generation for crypto-coin mining, and thus the storage of energy in virtual currency. A dedicated mathematical model in mixed-integer programming technology was used, enriched with respect to previous research, making it possible for members of the cooperative to achieve energy independence while maximizing self-consumption and using their excess energy for processing cryptocurrency. This is in line with the global trend of “greening”; the processes of acquiring electronic money.