Taking stock of the local impacts of community owned renewable energy: A review and research agenda

Abstract

A growing literature suggests that community owned renewable energy (CRE) projects have the potential to deliver a range of environmental and local socio-economic benefits. There is relatively little empirical evidence to substantiate this, with few systematic efforts to assess social and environmental impacts or to understand the context in which given impacts arise. In this paper, we review and conceptualise the local impacts commonly cited in the literature and dissect the empirical evidence currently available to support their occurrence. Having assessed the quality of evidence and pinpointed knowledge gaps, we draw on methodological literature to identify approaches necessary to improve our understanding of the local impacts of CRE and explore their patterns of occurrence. We find a lack of robust survey and statistical evidence across all the seven impact categories identified. Of the impacts identified, 'empowerment' and 'access to affordable energy' are found to be the least studied. In addition, several impacts are associated only with specific types of community energy projects. We argue that the paucity of consistent evidence for direct impacts associated with the development processes and direct outcomes of projects suggests that the most substantial local impacts result from medium to long term indirect project outcomes and the investment of project revenues in the local community. As such, collective funding pools and negotiation processes around their distribution towards private versus public goods play a crucial role in determining transformative local impacts of CRE.

Statistical Evidence on the Role of Energy Cooperatives for the Energy Transition in European Countries

“…However, in view of the tendency that mostly larger cooperatives publish such data, we expect this to be a reasonable lower bound. Indeed, it is in the range of data published by Berka and Creamer [20]. The authors report an installed operational capacity of 105 MW for projects run by energy cooperatives and energy trusts in 2014.…”

“…Recommended entry points to the literature are [10,[12][13][14]. Recent country-specific entry points to the literature are: Germany [10,14], Denmark [15,16], Belgium [17], Sweden [18,19], UK [20], Finland [21], Spain [22], Italy [23], Austria [24,25], France [26], Netherlands [27].…”

Community energy: Entanglements of community, state, and private sector

“…However, there is a growing strand of critical research on community energy highlighting that simply adding the prefix “community” does not necessarily lead to just or democratic outcomes. Community energy does not, in itself, generate progressive or regressive effects; it is the way that it is mobilised and enacted that matters (Berka & Creamer, ). It has been observed that, typically, only a relatively small number of highly active community members are necessary to initiate and manage a community energy project (Hoffman & High‐Pippert, ).…”

The Benefits of Local Cross-Sector Consumer Ownership Models for the Transition to a Renewable Smart Energy System in Denmark. An Exploratory Study

“…To this end, participatory planning processes and a fair distribution of local impacts and benefits are recommended [23]. In this respect, local and inclusive citizen ownership has proven to be an effective solution [10] as it confers the local community the control over the decisions on the wind turbine project and ensures broad distribution of benefits between the members of the local community. Gorroño-Albizu et al [11] provide examples of local and inclusive citizen ownership, which include, e.g., local consumer cooperatives and local municipal companies.…”

“…As the implementation of VRE progresses, these technologies are facing greater local opposition [6], lower market prices due to the merit-order-effect, and curtailment due to electricity grid congestion [7]. Several studies conclude that these organisational challenges could be addressed with cross-sector integration (i.e., by integrating the electricity, heating and cooling (H&C), and transport sectors) [8,9] and local inclusive ownership models [10], such as local consumer cooperatives or local municipal companies [11]. However, the institutional incentive system does not yet promote these solutions to the levels that are necessary to address the above mentioned challenges and to implement a renewable SES [12], not even in countries and local regions already pressed by the high shares of VRE, e.g., Denmark.…”