Collective Action and Social Innovation in the Energy Sector: A Mobilization Model Perspective

Abstract

This conceptual paper applies a mobilization model to Collective Action Initiatives (CAIs) in the energy sector. The goal is to synthesize aspects of sustainable transition theories with social movement theory to gain insights into how CAIs mobilize to bring about niche-regime change in the context of the sustainable energy transition. First, we demonstrate how energy communities, as a representation of CAIs, relate to social innovation. We then discuss how CAIs in the energy sector are understood within both sustainability transition theory and institutional dynamics theory. While these theories are adept at describing the role energy CAIs have in the energy transition, they do not yet offer much insight concerning the underlying social dimensions for the formation and upscaling of energy CAIs. Therefore, we adapt and apply a mobilization model to gain insight into the dimensions of mobilization and upscaling of CAIs in the energy sector. By doing so we show that the expanding role of CAIs in the energy sector is a function of their power acquisition through mobilization processes. We conclude with a look at future opportunities and challenges of CAIs in the energy transition.

New Pathways for Community Energy and Storage

“…One of the papers explicitly stated the need for new theoretical frames to analyze and understand the role of energy communities. Gregg et al (2020) aimed to synthesize aspects of sustainable transition theories with social movement theory to gain insights into how what they call "collective action initiatives" mobilize to bring about niche-regime change in the context of the sustainable energy transition [1]. The authors discuss how these energy initiatives can be described within both sustainability transition theories, such as the Multi-Level Perspective, and Strategic Niche Management, and Social Movement Theory, which focusses on how social movements share interests, give shape to the identity of their organization, and mobilize resources.…”

“…All contributions to this issue focus on the role of energy communities, energy storage, or both. Nine contributions investigate the potential and constraints of energy cooperatives, citizens energy and community energy [1][2][3][4][5][6][7][8][9]. Three contributions discuss both community energy and local energy storage [10][11][12].…”

“…Some of them take individual households as the point of analysis [10], while others explicitly discuss national [2][3][4][5]11] or European Union (EU) governance [6][7][8][9], or the issues of energy justice and social-technological dynamics [2,3,12]. Approaches vary from modelling [13,14] to theory development [1] and empirical studies, including case studies and surveys. Two papers explore the way agent-based modelling can be used for local storage [13,14].…”

New Methods for Improved Prosumer Trading and Energy Poverty Mitigation in Microgrids using Crowdsourcing Concepts and Blockchain Technologies

“…As it was presented in the introduction section, in Europe there are currently over 3400 green energy cooperatives (REScoop). In accordance with [23][24][25][26], the REScoop notion is defined in EU directives, as "local energy communities", according to data from the Federation of Green Energy Cooperatives in Europe. More than one million European citizens are participating in REScoops to invest together in the energy transition from fossil fuels to clean energy and energy efficiency.…”

Innovation Dynamics of Socio-Technical Alignment in Community Energy Storage: The Cases of DrTen and Ecovat

“…New distributed energy resources such as solar photovoltaics, wind and energy storage technologies are emerging in the energy landscape [6,7]. These changes demand the increased engagement of citizens and communities in the energy system [8][9][10][11][12][13]. Accordingly, there are new regulatory and governance changes such as new European clean energy for all packages, as well as new societal developments in the form of local energy initiatives [3,5,9,[14][15][16][17].…”