Analyzing Community Initiatives in UK’s Energy Transition through the Lens of Sustainable Entrepreneurship

Abstract

The low-carbon energy transition framed as a social-technical system can enable researchers to gain insight into the complex interaction between niche actors and the dominant regime under the current energy policy landscape. This paper aims to analyze community-led energy initiatives through the lens of sustainable entrepreneurship and discern business practices that these niche actors use in the social-technical setting of the energy transition. Niche actors such as Community Energy Cooperatives (CECs) develop bottom-up solutions and overcome social-cognitive norms through citizen engagement. Especially in the UK, such community initiatives face resistance from the dominant regime due to the unfavorable policies and centralized institutional arrangements. The business practices based on sustainable entrepreneurship can enable community groups to create social, economic, and environmental values for the local communities. In our analysis, we observed that CECs exhibit traits of a sustainable entrepreneur in their efforts to support energy transition. We discerned following business practices based on sustainable entrepreneurship that CECs employ in the UK: (1) mission-driven and locally focused, (2) commercial venturing and collaboration, and (3) grassroots innovations and shared knowledge. In this paper, we observed a strong connection between the CEC business practices and sustainable entrepreneurship that provides a foundation for future academic interests. Further, we noted that intermediary organizations, as part of the business ecosystem, play a crucial role in supporting the UK’s community energy sector.