Browsing by Keyword "Energy communities"

Now showing 1 - 3 of 3
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    A Characterization of European Collective Action Initiatives and Their Role as Enablers of Citizens’ Participation in the Energy Transition
    (2021-12-14) Lupi, Veronica; Candelise, Chiara; Calull, Merce Almuni; Delvaux, Sarah; Valkering, Pieter; Hubert, Wit; Sciullo, Alessandro; Ivask, Nele; van der Waal, Esther; Iturriza, Izaskun Jimenez; Paci, Daniele; Della Valle, Nives; Koukoufikis, Giorgos; Dunlop, Tessa; Policies for Innovation and Technology
    This paper provides novel additional evidence on the characteristics of Collective Action Initiatives (CAIs), investigating their role within the European energy sector. It analyses and presents results of a survey administered in six European countries: the Netherlands, Belgium, Italy, Poland, Estonia, and Spain. CAIs are studied in light of four key dimensions, those being their creation dynamics, the way they are organized, financed, and the activities they undertake. The results presented are also interpreted to reflect on their role as drivers of social innovation (SI) within energy transition in Europe. The analysis shows that the contribution of CAIs to the energy transition has a much wider scope than the development of energy projects and provision of energy services. CAIs are intrinsically socially innovative models of implementation as characterised by a strong level of citizen involvement and participation. Moreover, they have a potential multi-level role in the energy transition, from the technological and social perspectives. Indeed, alongside traditional energy activities, our results show that CAIs are evolving and expanding towards socially innovative activities, raising awareness on environmental issues, promoting citizens’ mobilization, and fostering social inclusion.
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    Collective Action and Social Innovation in the Energy Sector: A Mobilization Model Perspective: A mobilization model perspective
    (2020) Gregg, Jay Sterling; Nyborg, Sophie; Hansen, Meiken; Schwanitz, Valeria Jana; Wierling, August; Zeiss, Jan Pedro; Delvaux, Sarah; Saenz, Victor; Polo-Alvarez, Lucia; Candelise, Chiara; Gilcrease, Winston; Arrobbio, Osman; Sciullo, Alessandro; Padovan, Dario; Tecnalia Research & Innovation; Policies for Innovation and Technology
    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.
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    Exploring Institutional and Socio-Economic Settings for the Development of Energy Communities in Europe
    (2022-02-21) Sciullo, Alessandro; Gilcrease, Gregory Winston; Perugini, Mario; Padovan, Dario; Curli, Barbara; Gregg, Jay Sterling; Arrobbio, Osman; Meynaerts, Erika; Delvaux, Sarah; Polo-Alvarez, Lucia; Candelise, Chiara; van der Waal, Esther; van der Windt, Henny; Hubert, Wit; Ivask, Nele; Muiste, Marek; Tecnalia Research & Innovation; Policies for Innovation and Technology
    Energy communities (ECs), intended as collective action initiatives in the energy field involving citizens’ participation, have been gaining relevance for the past decades as an alternative way to organize the energy chain to challenge the incumbent system. With Europe’s recently adopted Clean Energy Package, ECs found a formal recognition by the European Union as potential actors of the transition of the energy system towards a wider and more decentralized use of renewable sources. Although the potential role of ECs in the transition is therefore hardly questionable, a thorough comprehension of the enabling factors that might foster their diffusion and scaling up is still lacking. Through a comparative analysis of the evolutionary trajectories in six EU countries regarding their energy systems, their regulatory frameworks and their historical evolution of ECs, namely through the example of cooperative models, this paper aims at providing some preliminary evidence about the factors and dynamics that seem to have played, and may play, a role in hampering or facilitating EC model diffusion. Attention is therefore specifically paid to three dimensions of analysis referring to: the energy mix and market structure; the institutional and policy landscape; the wider social attitudes towards environmental issues and cooperation among citizens. In addition to providing a wide comparison of different EU countries, the paper shows that the historical evolution pathways have to be carefully taken into account to understand what might trigger ECs exploitation in the EU.