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.
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Energy cooperatives are beginning to expand their role from stimulating small-scale electricity production to developing local energy systems, including cooperatively owned energy storage solutions. However, many technical, social and financial obstacles are encountered in this process. It is as yet unclear how new roles of citizens, building owners, grid operators and energy cooperatives will develop. Furthermore, it is difficult to assess if a feasible business case is at all possible given present context conditions in the Netherlands.
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Far from being negligible in quantity, decentralized energy production delivers a considerable part of the renewable energy production in the Netherlands. Decentralized production takes place by individual households, companies as well as citizen groups. Grassroots initiatives have sprung up in the Netherlands in the last 5 years, in a recent inventory 313 formally instituted local energy cooperatives were found. Cooperatives’ aims are sustainability, strengthening local economy and promoting a democratic governance structure for energy production.The energy industry in the Netherlands has traditionally been dominated by large energy companies, and the Groningen gas field has resulted in a very high dependency on natural gas for both consumer and business households. The climate for grassroots initiatives has improved since the so-called Energy Covenant in 2013. This covenant pertains to an agreement between government, industry representatives, labor unions and non-governmental organizations to arrive at a substantial reduction of energy use, ambitious increase in the production of renewable energy, and new jobs in the renewable energy sector.The covenant also announced new policies to stimulate community energy activities, such as the Zip-code-rose policy . The governmental interest in new forms of energy transition, is also demonstrated by the ‘Experiments Electricity Law’ facility, which gives local business and community initiatives an opportunity to experiment with a local energy system. This policy is meant as a ‘learning facility’; experiences are expected to lead to adaptations in Dutch electricity law and regulation.
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Initiatives in the field of local renewable energy appear to be very successful in several countries. Because of their activities, the share of renewable energy and the involvement of citizens and civil society organizations in energy transition have increased. Examples form Denmark are well known, but also in other countries such as UK, Germany, Austria, Japan and USA these types of initiatives exist. They also lay the foundation for innovation: changes in the organization of supply, social cohesion and new technologies.
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The goal of a local energy community (LEC) is to create a more sustainable, resilient, and efficient energy system by reducing dependence on centralized power sources and enabling greater participation and control by local communities and individuals. LEC requires transformations in local energy systems, and strongly depends on the preferences and actions of the local actors involved. The necessity for extensive stakeholder involvement adds complexity to the energy transition, posing a significant challenge for all involved parties. The municipality of Leidschendam-Voorburg has committed to the national decision for energy transition. It has taken a strategic approach by proceeding De Heuvel/Amstelwijk as the pioneer in this initiative, leading the way for other neighborhoods to follow. It is crucial to devise strategies that effectively facilitate stakeholder engagement. To this end, a thorough stakeholder analysis is needed. Such an analysis can focus on the identification of key stakeholders, their interests, their influence, and their behavioral characteristics in relation to the energy transition. Additionally, it's crucial to uncover the challenges encountered by these stakeholders and finally develop appropriate strategies to address them hence enhance their engagement. This thesis begins with an introduction to the research background, including a presentation of the case study and a statement of the problem identified in the field, followed by the research questions underpinning the study. A thorough literature review ensues, providing a robust synthesis of existing research relating to stakeholder engagement in LECs, with a view to expediting energy transitions. The literature review not only forms the foundation for the research methods adopted in this study but also promotes in the construction of the conceptual model. Subsequent to the literature review, the research method is detailed. The filed research is conducted in five steps: Step 1 - identification of stakeholders, Step 2 - prioritization of stakeholders, Step 3 - interviewing, Step 4 - data analysis, including stakeholder profiling with mapping and addressing challenges, and finally, Step 5 - proposal of strategies for stakeholder engagement enhancement based on the expected and current levels of stakeholders engagement. This research collects necessary information to understand the profiles of stakeholders in De Heuvel/Amstelwijk, tackle challenges faced by different stakeholders, propose strategies to increase stakeholders engagement. It not only aims to enrich the depth of theoretical knowledge on the subject matter but also strives to aid in the development of a localized energy strategy that is optimally suited for the De Heuvel/Amstelwijk neighborhood as good example for other neighborhoods.
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Abstract: The transition towards renewable and sustainable energy is being accompanied by a transformation of communities and neighbourhoods. This transition may have huge ramifications throughout society. Many cities, towns and villages are putting together ambitious visions about how to achieve 100% sustainable energy, energy neutrality, zero carbon emission or zero-impact of their communities. We investigate what is happening at the local community level towards realizing these ambitions from a social perspective. We use the case study approach to answer the following question: how do local community energy initiatives contribute to a decentralized sustainable energy system? We find that especially the development of a shared vision, the level of activities and the type of organisation are important factors of the strength of the ‘local network’.
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The energy transition requires the transformation of communities and neighbourhoods. It will have huge ramifications throughout society. Many cities, towns and villages have put together ambitious visions about how to achieve e.g. energy neutrality, zero-emission or zero-impact. What is happening at the local level towards realizing these ambitions? In a set of case study’s we investigate the following questions: How are self-organized local energy initiatives performing their self-set tasks? What obstacles are present in the current societal set-up that can hinder decentralized energy production? In our cases local leadership, vision, level of communication and type of organisation are important factors of the strength of the ‘local network’. (Inter)national energy policy and existing energy companies largely determine the ‘global’ or outside network. Stronger regional and national support structures, as well as an enabling environment for decentralized energy production, are needed to make decentralized sustainable energy production a success.
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There is an ongoing transition towards renewable energy sources in order to combat climate change. National power grids are suffering due to the rapid introduction of new energy sources and have other disadvantages. Local Energy Systems (LESs) are a beneficial example of an off-grid energy systems that can aid the energy transition. LESs are community driven and require participating and steering members. This can be achieved through empowering end-users to become active participants or steerers. End-users can be empowered to become an active participant through engagement with energy management activities. This does not work for empowering to steer, which begs the question, how to empower end-users or participants to become steerers in Local Energy Systems. Through a literature review this study explores the importance of establishing a group containing steerers with diverse skills, strong leadership, and engagement with the environment and community. Additionally, this study identifies the strategy that empowers end-users to steer. Which is training technological and managemental skills; and training capabilities in establishing relations with local participants and intermediary organisations. To apply these findings more precisely a secondary analysis is conducted on a survey with 599 participants. The original study researched willingness to participate in LESs, however the secondary analysis establishes three important factors to predict willingness to steer. These are energy independence, community trust, and community resistance. Additionally, men with a high level of education are most willing to become steerers per default, thus different demographics generally require more empowerment.
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In the last decade, the number of local energy initiatives (LEIs) has increased in western European countries. Although several success factors and barriers in the development of LEIs have been studied by other scholars, there has been limited scholarly interest in the overall impact of LEIs so far. Therefore, the aim of this study was to explore their impact by determining their achievement. Additionally, levels of engagement were used to categorise the success factors for and barriers that impede this impact. Initiatives in two provinces in the north of the Netherlands were studied. For the data collection, 84 in-depth interviews were conducted with the initiators of LEIs. In general, it can be concluded that the impact of LEIs is limited. Success factors and barriers in the development of LEIs play out at different levels of engagement: the level of the initiative itself; the community level; and the public–private level. Theoretically, this study provides empirical insights on how to measure the impact of LEIs. Furthermore, the study brings together a variety of factors that influence this impact based on the levels of engagement. Practically, this research offers indications on how to contribute to the further development of LEIs.
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To facilitate energy transition, in several countries regulators have devised ‘regulatory sandboxes’ to create a participatory experimentation environment for exploring revision of energy law. These sandboxes allow for a two-way regulatory dialogue between an experimenter and an approachable regulator to innovate regulation and enable new socio-technical arrangements. We focus on the Dutch Energy Experimentation Decree (EED) that invites homeowners’ associations and energy cooperatives to propose projects prohibited by extant regulation. In order to localize, democratize and decentralize energy provision, local experimenters can, for instance, organise peer-to-peer supply and determine their own tariffs for energy transport.
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