Volume 13, March 2016, Pages 94–105
Energy Transitions in Europe: Emerging Challenges, Innovative Approaches, and Possible Solutions
Original research article
- a Hanze University of Applied Sciences, P.O. Box 3037, 9701 DA Groningen, Netherlands
- b Faculty of Arts and Social Sciences, Maastricht University, Netherlands
- c Faculty of Economics and Business, University of Groningen, Netherlands
- d Copernicus Institute, Utrecht University, Netherlands
- Received 31 March 2015, Revised 6 December 2015, Accepted 9 December 2015, Available online 4 January 2016
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Highlights
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- New energy movement challenges present governance of energy system.
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- Sustainability and strengthening regional economy are primary goals.
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- Democratic cooperative model should safeguard citizen influence.
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- Grassroots innovation of energy system brought about by networks of motivated citizens.
Abstract
The
transformation from the current energy system to a decentralized
renewable energy system requires the transformation of communities into
energy neutral or even energy producing communities. Increasingly,
citizens become ‘prosumers’ and pool their resources to start a local
energy initiative. In this paper we present an in-depth study of
networks that recently developed, which challenge the established way of
centralized decision-making on energy resources.
Many
local communities are eager to promote sustainable energy production,
to use local financial resources for the local community and to employ
democratic governance of energy production and supply. Furthermore, we
study how these co-operations are linked to local, regional and national
networks for community energy.
We use both
Actor-Network Theory (ANT) and Social Movement Theory (SMT) to
investigate the initiatives, as this allows a dynamic analysis of
collective strategies.
We discuss the obduracy of
the energy system and how this system is challenged by new connections
between communities and global networks and by new types of energy
providers that are rooted in social networks. Furthermore, we draw
attention to the way community energy networks provide a social
innovation while realizing a decentralized and decarbonized energy
system.
Keywords
- Community energy;
- Cooperatives;
- Renewable energy;
- Energy transition
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