As one of the most ambitious national energy transition initiatives worldwide, the German Energiewende is attracting a huge amount of attention globally in both policy and research circles. The paper explores the implementation of Germany's energy transition through the lens of organisation and ownership in urban and regional contexts. Following a summary of the principal institutional challenges of the Energiewende at local and regional levels the paper develops a novel way of conceptualising the institutional to urban and regional energy transitions in terms of agency and power, ideas and discourse, and commons and ownership. This analytical heuristic is applied to a two-tier empirical study of the Berlin-Brandenburg region. The first tier involves a survey of the organisational landscape of energy infrastructures and services in cities, towns and villages in Brandenburg. The second tier comprises a case study of current, competing initiatives for (re-)gaining ownership of the power grid and utility in Berlin. The paper draws conclusions on the diverse and dynamic organisational responses to the Energiewende at the local level, what these tell us about urban and regional energy governance and how they are inspired by -or in opposition to -new forms of collective ownership resonant of recent debates on reclaiming the commons. It concludes with observations on how relational approaches to institutional research and the notion of the commons can guide and inspire future research on socio-technical transitions in general, and urban energy transitions in particular. IntroductionAs one of the most ambitious national energy transition initiatives worldwide, the German Energiewende is attracting a huge amount of attention globally in both policy and research circles. Opinions from in-and outside Germany range from admiration to admonition, with benevolent observers hailing the Energiewende as a model for emulation elsewhere and critics dismissing it as a policy driven more by desire than rational logic (see Gawel et al. 2013). There is clearly an urgent need to provide grounded insight into how Germany's own energy transition, framed by the nuclear exit strategy, is playing out in practice. Given that the shift from nuclear to renewable energy sources in Germany is hugely

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Following the renaissance of energy generation from renewable sources around the globe, it was suggested that the shift from fossil to renewable energy could potentially counter the growth orientation of economic activity. In this line of argument, small-scale technology and decentralised ownership, in the field of energy and beyond, are commonly regarded as potential precursors of a sustainable degrowth society. However, these systemic and conceptual considerations have been rarely assessed empirically. This paper wishes to address this research gap. It presents the exploratory findings of an EU-wide survey conducted in 2013 and further discusses the conceptualisation of smallscale ownership structures in renewable energy as an alternative to the community energy concept. Secondly, the paper relates the debates on degrowth to small-scale renewable energy schemes and illustrates its argument with four case studies from Wales, Italy, Spain, and Germany. These cases represent different organisational forms, diverse spatial settings, and varying national policy contexts. In its observations, this paper draws on the concept of collective and politically motivated renewable energy projects (CPE). While still mainly found in niches across Europe and essentially linked to environmental and social movements, we argue that CPE can potentially become blueprints for a turn towards a degrowth practice that will foster the democratisation of renewable energy production.

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Energy is an emerging topic of interest in human geography, and so is the study of alternative approaches to energy provision and governance. These alternatives are often considered manifestations of energy democracy, a notion that has become prominent in energyrelated activism. This paper connects alternative approaches towards novel, sustainable, and more democratic forms of energy provision to develop a typology of the practices and politics of energy democracy. Energy democracy refers to political calls for and the institutionalisation of more participatory forms of energy provision and governance. The typology encompasses alternative approaches to energy provision and governance from the Global North and South, including instances of local autonomy in decentralised systems, urban struggles over public or cooperative ownership of energy utilities, and national approaches to energy sovereignty as alternatives to extractivist development. By drawing together this wide range of empirical examples, energy democracy could overcome both localist and euro-centric perspectives and provide an orientation for movements seeking to develop more just and sustainable energy systems around the world.

Based on an EU-wide empirical survey, this paper proposes the alternative concept of collective and politically motivated renewable energy (CPE) projects that includes different forms of enterprises such as co-operatives and participatory public utilities. In doing so, we intend to take a clearer stance on both organisational and ownership features and the political motivation of these projects. The aim is to overcome the vagueness of the term 'community energy' and to widen the perspective beyond the British context. Mapping CPE projects across different European countries we have identified three development trends and provide a project case study for each trend: the further dissemination of local CPE projects, the formation of regional projects, and the occurrence of urban CPE projects. Countries covered are the United Kingdom, Spain and Germany. We also reflect our findings for the concept of community energy and invite researchers to expand upon our research.

This paper explores new geographies of coproduction emerging in urban energy politics. It analyses processes of remunicipalisation of urban utilities, involving the re-establishment of public ownership with a strong democratic and ecological agenda for governing energy infrastructures, with case studies of the German cities of Berlin and Hamburg. Seeking ways of understanding these developments which transcend conventional binaries such as public vs. private ownership or consumer vs. producer, we interpret them in relation to debates first about coproduction and then about urban commons. This latter concept, we argue, provides deeper analytical purchase on new grassroots energy initiatives and the politics that unfold in remunicipalisation conflicts, offering a new avenue for enriching research on the coproduction of energy.

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