Stream 15

Renewable Energy Communities and Co-operatives: Trends, Possibilities, and Limitations

Stream leads: Jens Lowitzsch (European University Viadrina / Kelso Institute), Derya Tarhan (University of Guelph)

Description:

Renewable energy communities (REC) represent a form of participatory grassroots involvement in electricity systems often known for their centralized scale, governance, and ownership forms (Lowitzsch, Hoicka, v Tulder 2020). Energy cooperatives (ECoops), an important actor within the REC field, can allow communities to take control of their energy production and consumption, fostering a sense of ownership and engagement that could transform individual and communal relations with energy (Bauwens & Devine-Wright, 2018). They have also been found to stimulate local economies by creating jobs, increasing investment in the community, and keeping energy dollars circulating locally (Berka & Creamer, 2018; Tarhan, 2015).

ECoops, through their participatory ownership and governance, can also address energy access and poverty issues for equity denied communities, although this potential has often not materialized (Bauwens & Defourny, 2017; Hanke & Guyet, 2023; Hanke & Lowitzsch, 2020; D. Tarhan, 2022), with an overwhelming majority of their activity taking place in the Global North, with their membership bodies dominated by “mainly whites, middle class, and men” (Melville et al., 2018, p. 315). ECoops, even in affluent contexts, face significant barriers in project development, including lack of enabling policy and regulatory frameworks, financial constraints, and limited public awareness (Huybrechts & Mertens, 2014). High initial investment costs and limited access to funding hinder their establishment, and many ECoops rely heavily on the volunteer work of their membership, leading to burnout and discontinuation. While ECoops carry strong potential in enhancing local economies and expanding popular participation in energy generation and governance, limitations and barriers to their potential for enacting just and democratic transitions are also prevalent.

In Europe, where ECoops are most prevalent, their federation called REScoop.eu impacted policies at regional, national, and continental levels, demonstrating the potential of RECs in accelerating energy transitions and expanding grassroots participation in energy generation and governance (Lowitzsch & Hanke, 2019). Meanwhile, the legal framework for community ownership of renewables is shifting in many jurisdictions, including in Europe. With the passing of the Clean Energy Package at the European level in Winter 2018/19 and the subsequent transposition in particular of the Renewable Energy Directive (RED II) and in the Internal Electricity Market Directive (IEMD) into national law, consumer co-ownership in RE – both for individual prosumership and for Energy Communities (ECs) – received a new EU wide legal framework (Lowitzsch, 2019). The governance model for RECs and Citizen Energy Communities (CECs) was modelled around cooperative principles, without, however, requiring the legal form of a cooperative for incorporation. As a result, various other forms of incorporation for RECs have emerged like limited liability companies, associations, foundations, and concepts like the Consumer Stock Ownership Plan (CSOP) employing an intermediary entity with a fiduciary element to convey consumer co-ownership (Lowitzsch 2020).

This research stream welcomes contributions that explore and speak to ways through which RECs’ potential for just and democratic energy transitions can be realized. This should include also the comparison of ECoops to other forms of ECs.

We call for contributions from a diversity of jurisdictions and contexts that speak to the following themes:

• RECs and just transitions, energy democracy, and energy justice

• Female empowerment through co-ownership and entrepreneurship in ECs 

• ECs in the global South

• EC intersections with agriculture and rural development

• ECs and Indigenous communities

• Enabling (or disabling) policy and regulatory environments for ECs

• EC business models and innovations

• ECoops’ relations with other community renewable energy organizations

• EC coalitions with social and environmental movements

• Co-operation among ECs and federation-building

• EC governance and member engagement/participation

• ECs and energy conservation

• Municipal actors’ collaborations and support for ECs

• Social/economic/environmental impact assessments for ECs

• Developing a classification of ECs

We encourage authors to visit the “Morphological Box for Energy Communites" (https://kelso-institute-europe.de/tools/energy-communities/) for inspiration with regard to the structural differences of existing and emerging ECs.

References:

Bauwens, T., & Defourny, J. (2017). Social capital and mutual versus public benefit: The case of renewable energy cooperatives. Annals of Public and Cooperative Economics. https://doi.org/10.1111/apce.12166

Bauwens, T., & Devine-Wright, P. (2018). Positive energies? An empirical study of community energy participation and attitudes to renewable energy. Energy Policy. https://doi.org/10.1016/j.enpol.2018.03.062

Berka, A. L., & Creamer, E. (2018). Taking stock of the local impacts of community owned renewable energy: A review and research agenda. Renewable and Sustainable Energy Reviews, 82(3), 3400–3419. https://doi.org/10.1016/j.rser.2017.10.050

Hanke, F., & Guyet, R. (2023). The struggle of energy communities to enhance energy justice: Insights from 113 German cases. Energy, Sustainability and Society, 13(1), 1–16.

Hanke, F., & Lowitzsch, J. (2020). Empowering vulnerable consumers to join renewable energy communities-towards an inclusive design of the clean energy package. Energies, 13(7), 1615. https://doi.org/10.3390/en13071615

Huybrechts, B., & Mertens, S. (2014). The Relevance of the Cooperative Model in the Field of Renewable Energy. Annals of Public and Cooperative Economics, 85(2), 193–212.

Lowitzsch, J. (2019). Investing in a renewable future - renewable energy communities, consumer (Co-)Owner-ship and energy sharing in the clean energy package. RELP 14–36.

Lowitzsch, J., Croonenbroeck, C., Novo, R. (2024). Feeding bees according to desired honey type: tailoring support for European Energy Communities to their function to escape the energy trilemma. ER&SS, no. 114, p. 103579.

Lowitzsch, J., van Tulder, F.J., Hoicka, C.E., (2020). Renewable energy communities under the 2019 European Energy Package – Governance model for the energy clusters of the future?, ER&SS, no. 122, p. 109489, 2019.

Lowitzsch, J., (2020). Consumer Stock ownership Plans (CSOPs) - the prototype business model for renewable energy communities. Energies 13 (118), 1–24, 2020.

Lowitzsch, J., & Hanke, F. (2019). Renewable Energy Cooperatives. In J. Lowitzsch (Ed.), Energy Transition (pp. 139–162). Springer International Publishing. https://doi.org/10.1007/978-3-319-93518-8_7

Melville, E., Burningham, K., Christie, I., & Smallwood, B. (2018). Equality in local energy commons. A UK case study of community and municipal energy. Rassegna Italiana Di Sociologia, 59(2). https://doi.org/10.1423/90582

Tarhan, D. (2022). Community renewable energy’s problematic relationship with social justice: Insights from Ontario. Local Environment, 1–17. https://doi.org/10.1080/13549839.2022.2077713

Tarhan, M. D. (2015). Renewable Energy Cooperatives: A Review of Demonstrated Impacts and Limitations. Journal of Entrepreneurial and Organizational Diversity, 4(1), 104–120. http://dx.doi.org/10.5947/jeod.2015.006