Transforming the energy system? Technology and organisational legitimacy and the institutionalisation of community renewable energy

Abstract

Community renewable energy promises to play an important role in reducing the generation and consumption of high carbon sources of power, as well as in demonstrating the viability of novel business models within a transformed energy system built on principles of locality and democracy. The paper argues, however, that community renewable energy, in England at least, remains marginal, undermined by changing government policies and underplayed institutional factors connected with technology and organisational legitimacy. The paper reports on interviews with 29 actors connected with community renewable energy in England. The analysis identifies themes implicating various types of legitimacy with the partial and uneven institutionalisation of community renewable energy. These are bound up with continuing and new institutional rules and the deployment of strategies for (de)legitimising community renewable energy, including associated technologies and organisational forms, adversely impacting on the potential contribution of community renewable energy to energy system transformation.

Designing Collaborative Energy Communities: A European Overview

“…The methodology of this contribution has followed three main steps: (1) an overview of the current policy framework at a European and Italian level, considering the most recent developments and norms; (2) a qualitative overview of European-funded projects under the Horizon 2020 work program; and (3) a qualitative overview of some of the most successful existing energy communities in Europe.…”

“…Energy communities are increasingly being recognized by European institutionskicked off by the well-known Clean Energy Package-as strategic assets contributing to reaching the decarbonisation goals set by the EU Green Deal, as well as fundamental examples of local awareness around energy. Indeed, the emergence of forms of activism in this domain is called to meet the 2050 goals of resource consumption and efficiency [1][2][3].…”

“…Despite the steps undertaken in normative terms, the concept of an energy community, and, in particular, its implementation, is still not fully clear [1][2][3]7,8]. Recently, it has been divided into two main categories by the European Commission-as detailed in the…”

Comparative Analysis of Renewable Energy Community Designs for District Heating Networks: Case Study of Corticella (Italy)

“…RECs and CECs are still emerging themes in the academic literature. As the conditions can vary remarkably based on the geographical area, several studies have focused on analyzing the current state of development of RECs and CECs in specific countries: the difficulties of implementing RECs in France and England, for instance, were investigated respectively in [6,7]. The work presented in [8] instead compares the REC implementation models in France, where the phenomenon is emerging, and in the Netherlands, where the concept is more consolidated and mature, recognizing that RECs play a key role in the energy transition.…”

Citizen Science and Citizen Energy Communities: A Systematic Review and Potential Alliances for SDGs

“…Citizen science democratizes knowledge, often by including members of public in the collection and analysis of scientific data [1,2]; energy communities democratize power, often by giving members of open organizations opportunities to plan, finance, own, or manage energy systems and services [3][4][5][6]. Both practices promote public engagement, challenge top-down infrastructures, and work to transform passive consumers of information (or energy) into active coproducers and stewards.…”