Energy citizenship: A critical perspective

Silvast, Antti; Valkenburg, Govert

doi:10.1016/j.erss.2023.102995

Cited by 11 publications

(8 citation statements)

References 29 publications

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“…By engaging in energy communities, consumers are motivated to participate both politically and socially in the public arena of energy management. This active engagement allows individuals to exercise their rights and assume responsibilities as proactive participants and advocates for a sustainable transition [30,[34][35][36].…”

Section: Energy Communities and Energy Citizenship: Understanding The...mentioning

confidence: 99%

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Do Energy Communities Foster Energy Citizenship? A Mixed‐Methods Study of Two Renewable Energy Communities

Dudka,

Magnani

2024

Preprint

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Energy citizenship is increasingly receiving attention and highlights the transformation from passive to active energy consumers who are aware of and responsible for the energy transition. The topic is often associated with energy communities, which are regarded as organizations that allow citizens to directly engage in energy and broader sustainability initiatives. The objective of the article is to examine the extent of public and private engagement in the energy transition among cooperative members as well as the propensity of energy communities to promote empowerment and inclusivity. To this end, we employ a mixed-methods approach, involving a sample of 5402 participants and 20 qualitative interviews in two prominent energy cooperatives in Europe, Ecopower in Flanders and è nostra in Italy. Our results show that although a small group of members demonstrate strong and active engagement, the majority of members prefer to engage informally, while still benefitting from the empowerment provided by their cooperative. Interestingly, one subset of members is more closely aligned with the role of financial investors. Eventually, flexibility in defining and framing expectations of member engagement can play a crucial role in promoting inclusivity within energy communities, especially by bringing closer those relatively less familiar with the issue.

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Section: Energy Communities and Energy Citizenship: Understanding The...mentioning

confidence: 99%

“…Humanizing the energy transition is increasingly considered a fundamental dimension for achieving the European Union's (EU) ambitious objectives of carbon neutrality by 2050 [1][2][3][4]. Anchoring renewable energy technologies in society is essential to build trust, disseminate knowledge and foster their adoption [5].…”

Section: Introductionmentioning

confidence: 99%

Do Energy Communities Foster Energy Citizenship? A Mixed‐Methods Study of Two Renewable Energy Communities

Dudka,

Magnani

2024

Preprint

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“…To acknowledge the diversity of CiFi PV projects and study it as a new form of citizen involvement in the energy transition, we use energy citizenship as a lens to embed our research on CiFi PV participation motivations. In contrast to the concept of community energy, some authors argue that energy citizenship is not limited to any level of organization and may, for example, establish new energy practices at the private level [21,22]. Even though scholars disagree on what defines energy citizenship [21], it might be useful for researching CiFi PV participation because of its broader understanding of energy projects rooted in citizen participation.…”

Section: Introductionmentioning

confidence: 99%

“…In contrast to the concept of community energy, some authors argue that energy citizenship is not limited to any level of organization and may, for example, establish new energy practices at the private level [21,22]. Even though scholars disagree on what defines energy citizenship [21], it might be useful for researching CiFi PV participation because of its broader understanding of energy projects rooted in citizen participation.…”

Section: Introductionmentioning

confidence: 99%

Material energy citizenship through participation in citizen-financed photovoltaic projects

Sierro,

Blumer

2024

Energ Sustain Soc

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Background Citizens are recognized as key actors in the energy system’s transformation by assuming novel roles beyond being mere energy consumers. Participation in renewable energy projects increases societal support and renders the decarbonization of the energy system more inclusive. Increasing numbers of citizen-financed photovoltaic (CiFi PV) projects exemplify this. Empirical studies on individuals who participate in CiFi PV, their perceived role(s), and their motivations, however, are scarce. This study addresses this gap through the lens of energy citizenship by analyzing individual participation. Methods The study surveyed CiFi PV participants across five projects in Switzerland (N = 510). After a comparison of the participants’ characteristics to the general public and a descriptive analysis of the perceived roles to participate, the study explores the individual motivations of participants. To that end, a motivational attributes scale, including finance, environment, local value creation, and symbolism, was adapted from a previous study. A hierarchical multiple linear regression was used to analyze which motivational attributes predict participants’ willingness to participate in future CiFi PV projects. Results While participants were primarily male, more affluent, better educated and politically more left-leaning than the average Swiss population, participants covered a wide range of sociodemographic characteristics and worldviews. Though CiFi PV is primarily marketed toward tenants, half of the participants were homeowners. Participants perceived themselves as energy citizens contributing to the energy transition and environmental preservation rather than as investors or energy producers. The regression analysis shows that motivations are relevant in explaining willingness to participate in future CiFi PV projects. We found that environmental, financial and local value creation-related motivational attributes are highly significant predictors, as well as slightly less significant symbolic attributes. Conclusions These results suggest that CiFi PV projects represent a material form of energy citizenship going beyond mere consumerism by enabling individuals to contribute to the energy transition. Given their capacity to engage diverse publics, policymakers should endorse projects emphasizing individual participation alongside non-commercial community-based models. This would require their integration into existing regulatory frameworks. Future energy citizenship studies should further explore how individuals perceive and conceptualize what it means to be an energy citizen.

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“…While many commentators directly link citizen engagement and energy citizenship positively, an explanatory model such as yours should focus ‘symmetrically’ on engagement as well as opposition. Empirical cases (see review in Silvast & Valkenburg, 2023 1 ) show that both support and opposition usually appear: including protesting and petitioning against developers and public authorities. These relations between support and opposition are not static and fixed once and for all but alternate during energy projects.…”

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confidence: 99%

Understanding the role of digitalization and social media on energy citizenship

Klein¹,

Kumar²,

Wolff³

et al. 2023

Open Res Europe

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The digitalisation of the energy domain can bring forth numerous aspects of the energy transition that can boost the emergence of energy citizenship, information sharing, and improved decision-making processes. However, this is premised on citizens being able to make sense of (digital) information. Hence, this paper proposes a link between energy informatics and energy citizenship via energy literacy, considering the cognitive and affective aspects of energy literacy and their relation to behaviour and action. By doing so, this paper aims to understand how the use of energy-related information and social media within five different case studies from the GRETA project can impel energy citizenship. This paper approaches this rationale through different means: (a) structured interviews to understand how citizens understand and make use of energy information within the case studies; (b) topic modelling on the content of those interviews to identify common factors that might spur on hinder behaviour change towards energy citizenship; and (c) social media content analysis to identify key energy-related topics of discussions among citizens around the globe and assess the role of social media as a tool for energy citizenship. As a result, this paper identified some key takeaways to improve the delivery of energy-related information to energy citizens for enhanced energy citizenship. These takeaways allow to conclude that it is fundamental to surpass the formal boundaries of techno-economic constructs and start addressing qualitative/subjective constructs (e.g., emotions, affections, and feelings) to foster energy citizenship. Also, these takeaways could be translated into social mechanism principles in the design of frontend energy-related digital platforms for improved end-user interactions and energy citizenship. Finally, this paper recognised the need to incentivise energy citizens to use social media for consuming energy-related information, and the need to formulate coordinated and coherent response strategies for disseminating energy-related information.

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Energy citizenship: A critical perspective

Cited by 11 publications

References 29 publications

Do Energy Communities Foster Energy Citizenship? A Mixed‐Methods Study of Two Renewable Energy Communities

Do Energy Communities Foster Energy Citizenship? A Mixed‐Methods Study of Two Renewable Energy Communities

Material energy citizenship through participation in citizen-financed photovoltaic projects

Understanding the role of digitalization and social media on energy citizenship

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