RT Journal Article
T1 Exploring Institutional and Socio-Economic Settings for the Development of Energy Communities in Europe
A1 Sciullo, Alessandro
A1 Gilcrease, Gregory Winston
A1 Perugini, Mario
A1 Padovan, Dario
A1 Curli, Barbara
A1 Gregg, Jay Sterling
A1 Arrobbio, Osman
A1 Meynaerts, Erika
A1 Delvaux, Sarah
A1 Polo-Alvarez, Lucia
A1 Candelise, Chiara
A1 van der Waal, Esther
A1 van der Windt, Henny
A1 Hubert, Wit
A1 Ivask, Nele
A1 Muiste, Marek
AB 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.
SN 1996-1073
YR 2022
FD 2022-02-21
LA eng
NO Sciullo , A , Gilcrease , G W , Perugini , M , Padovan , D , Curli , B , Gregg , J S , Arrobbio , O , Meynaerts , E , Delvaux , S , Polo-Alvarez , L , Candelise , C , van der Waal , E , van der Windt , H , Hubert , W , Ivask , N & Muiste , M 2022 , ' Exploring Institutional and Socio-Economic Settings for the Development of Energy Communities in Europe ' , Energies , vol. 15 , no. 4 , 1597 , pp. 1597 . https://doi.org/10.3390/en15041597
NO Publisher Copyright: © 2022 by the authors. Licensee MDPI, Basel, Switzerland.
DS TECNALIA Publications
RD 1 jul 2024