A Europe-wide inventory of citizen-led energy action with data from 29 countries and over 10000 initiatives

Abstract

Numerous case studies show that citizens engage in various ways in renewable and low carbon energy projects, thereby contributing to the sustainable energy transition. To date, however, a systematic and cross-country database on citizen-led initiatives and projects is lacking. By performing a major compilation and reviewing copious data sources from websites to official registries, we provide a Europe-wide inventory with over 10,000 initiatives and 16,000 production units in 29 countries, focusing on the past 20 years. Our data allow cross-country statistical analysis, supporting the elicitation of empirical insights capable of extending beyond the perspective of single case studies. Our data also align with ongoing efforts to implement two EU Directives that aim at strengthening the active role of citizens in the energy transition. While the focus of our data collection is on Europe, the data and methodology can contribute to the global analysis of citizen-led energy action.

Statistical evidence for the contribution of citizen-led initiatives and projects to the energy transition in Europe

“…Data quality has been ensured by rigorous validation procedures, including the four-eyes principle, automated compliance checks, verification of data ranges, and, where possible, cross-checking of data with experts and against other publications and aggregated information sources. All data are published openaccess with extensive documentation [41][42][43] . Details on aggregation methods and data collection for each country are described in the notes to the Supplementary Material (Supplementary Note 1, Supplementary Data 2 & 3).…”

Mapping of Energy Communities in Europe: Status Quo and Review of Existing Classifications

“…In this study, the authors firstly provide a review of existing classifications and then find if and how such classifications align with the collected EU-wide data. In Table 1, authors compare their data and the Wierling et al [26] database in terms of data collection scope and scale. Previously, energy communities were classified based on a certain characteristic or set of characteristics.…”

“…In January 2023, a database for the EU-wide ECs was released [26]. The database adheres to the rigorous FAIR (findability (F), accessibility (A), interoperability (I), and reusability (R)) guiding principles applied to the scientific databases [61,62].…”

“…It was compiled into the publicly accessible inventory. Table 1 represents differences between the data compiled by authors and the Wierling et al [26] database relative to the scope and scale of the data collection.…”

“…The inventory composed by Wierling et al [26] included not only static sources but also dynamic ones in their data collection, particularly registries operated by state agencies. This allowed them to report on initiatives that had terminated their existence as well as those currently existing.…”