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Community energy can be conceptualized as a social movement, which aims to develop a sustainable, democratic, and localist energy system. Increasingly, community energy initiatives aim to develop citizen-led heating projects. District heating projects are characterized by costly investments, a substantial overhaul of local infrastructure, large installations for heat production, and require specialized technical knowledge. Based on Social Movement Theory, we developed a theoretical framework consisting of three main networks: internal, external, and material. In the Netherlands, we studied four cases of citizen-led heating projects. Our primary research question is what a citizen-led DH-project constitutes. We focus on four themes: the internal organization of the CH-project; its outreach to local citizens; the role of technical knowledge and technology choices; the changing role of municipalities in the local energy transition. We situate our findings against a broader European background. We conclude that a democratic structure, transparency of decision making, and a high level of neighborhood participation are key success factors. However, in some cases the choice for a low-cost solution led to concessions to the sustainability of the proposed solutions.

This paper examines solar power technologies growth in the United States (U.S.) considering the four pillars of the energy system: socio-cultural, policy, science & technology, and markets & companies. The study analyzed the growing use of Photovoltaic panels (PV) technology. The First Solar company was analyzed as a case study to understand the impact of the different energy pillars and challenges on PV technology in the U.S. As a general observation, it was found that solar power in the U.S. is an incredibly fast-growing technology. Solar power does however still only make up a relatively small fraction of the total power consumption in the U.S. - in 2020 of approximately 1.32%. Considering these two observations, solar power in the U.S. is currently in the middle of being a niche-technology and forming its own energy regime. The possibilities for solar power to grow further into a solid regime in the U.S. are supported by developments concerning the four pillars of the energy system. For the science and technology pillar we will focus on main technological developments and R&D. The markets-companies pillar will be discussed by considering the characteristics of main company First Solar and market developments. The social and cultural pillar will be explored by looking at the role of citizens, NGOs, and relevant cultural perspectives. For the policy pillar, we will focus on federal policy, some main policy instruments and implementation problems. Eventually this study explores two different scenarios of solar energy in the U.S: a business-as-usual scenario and a maximally optimistic scenario. In the first scenario solar power production will increase to about 5% by 2031 of the total power demand in the U.S. In the optimistic scenario it will be around 17% of the total power production in the U.S, an increase by a factor 3.4, depending on developments in the four pillars.

Local communities are increasingly taking active roles and emerging as new actors in the energy system. Community energy and energy storage may enable effective energy system integration and get maximum benefits of local generation leading to more flexible and resilient energy supply systems, and playing an important role in achieving renewable energy and climate policy objectives. The central role of citizens is also reflected in recent EU policy. The clean energy for all package of European Union through the 2018 recast of the European Renewable Energy Directive (RED II) and the 2019 recast of the Electricity Market Directive (EMD II) which defines and promotes renewable energy communities and citizen energy communities, respectively. These developments prompted the Universities of Groningen and Twente to organize an international conference on New Pathways for Community Energy and Storage from 6-7 June 2019 in Groningen. In this book, we summarize the different topics covered in this international conference in the form of the 14 articles published in this special issue on the same topic. Both the special issue and the conference aimed at addressing important developments and challenges related to local energy transitions and the role of community energy and energy storage therein. Based on the contributions to the conference and this issue several conclusions can be drawn. We suggest experimenting with new storage technologies, such as more sustainable electric and thermal storage systems, and introducing new types of modelling which are closely connected to real-world experiments. In addition, we advise to conduct more comparative studies, to see what kinds of community energy and community energy storage work in different contexts and what can be learned from new approaches, such as regulatory sandboxes for energy initiatives or combined community ownership models for various energy technologies. We think adaption of national policy, legislation and technology-society interactions is required to enable community energy and community energy storage. One of the key questions is how to combine energy transition and stakeholders involvement in such a way that issues such as access to energy, citizens empowerment and energy poverty are addressed.

This report is a deliverable of the ESTRAC “Case Studies Regional Energy Transition” project, commissioned and funded by the research institute Energy Systems Transition Centre (ESTRAC). ESTRAC is a joint initiative of knowledge and research institutes in the Netherlands – including TNO, ECN (since April 2018 part of TNO), University of Groningen, Hanze University of Applied Sciences, the New Energy Coalition (NEC) and, more recently, PBL – as well as associated partners including Gasunie, Gasterra, EBN and NAM. In addition to funding from the ESTRAC partners, the Case Studies Regional Energy Transition project has benefitted from funding by the Green Deal program of the Dutch government.

One of the emergent trends in the sustainable energy transition is the development of distributed power generation. In Europe, it is estimated that up half of citizens of the European Union (EU) could be energy self-sufficient, potentially supplying 45% of Europe’s final energy demand by 2050 (Kampman, et al., 2016). While there are many challenges with a move towards more distributed, citizen-led energy projects, they are nevertheless supported and promoted by the EU in the RED II (EU Renewable Energy Directive as part of the 2016 “Clean Energy of all Europeans” initiative, directive 2018/2001/EU), which secures the right for citizens and communities to produce, store, consume and sell renewable energy, and other rights such as consumer’s protection or access to all energy markets directly or through third parties. Socially, this often takes the form of community energy projects in the form of collective action initiatives (CAI). CAIs, which include energy cooperatives, prosumer networks, and other citizen-led energy projects, are examples of social innovation (Gregg, et al., 2020) in how they organize and gain power through a social movement mechanism. Social innovation is the development of activities and services to meet a social need, and social innovations are primarily social in both their ends and their means. Among other things, energy CAIs are typically characterized by a focus on the community, open and voluntary participation, democratic governance, and autonomy and independence (ICA, 2021). The social benefits of energy CAIs include: developing local economies, addressing energy poverty, raising awareness about sustainable energy, promoting energy justice, giving a voice to the community, developing local skills and promoting social cohesion. Current research on CAIs explores how they are defined and the different ownership structures (Gorroño-Albizu, 2019), and how they mobilize and attain power (Gregg et al., 2020). Other research traces the history of their development within specific contexts or geographical areas, and how they influence or are influenced by national energy policies (Wierling et al., 2018). Still other research uses the lens of organizational and institutional theory to understand the historical development of energy CAIs (Mey and Diesendorf, 2018).

Contribution to the conference: International Conference on New Pathways for Community Energy and Storage, 6-7 June 2019 ABSTRACT The community renewable energy is often seen as the way to address the societal challenge of energy transition. Many scholars foresee a key role for community energy in accelerating of the energy transition from fossil to renewable energy sources. For example, some authors investigated the transformative role of community renewable energy in the energy transition process (Seyfang and Smith, 2007; Seyfang and Haxeltine 2012; Seyfang et al. 2013; Seyfang et al. 2014; Smith et al. 2017; Martiskainen, 2017; Ruggiero et al. 2018; Hasanov and Zuidema, 2018; de Boer et al. 2018). Recognising the importance of community energy many scholars studied different internal and external conditions that contribute or hinder the success of local renewable energy initiatives (Walker et al. 2007; Bomberg and McEwen, 2012; Seyfang et al. 2013; Wirth, 2014; Hasanov and Zuidema, 2018; Ruggiero et al. 2018). One of such conditions contributing to the success of community energy initiatives is the capacity to adopt and utilize new technologies, for example, in the area of energy storage, which would increase flexibility and resilience of the communal energy supply systems. However, as noted by Ruggiero et al. (2018), the scholarship remains unclear on “how a very diverse and relatively small sector such as community energy could scale up and promote a change in the dominant way of energy production”. What is then the real transformative power of local renewable energy initiatives and whether community energy can offer an alternative to the existing energy system? This paper aims to answer these questions by confronting the critical review of theory with the recent practice of community energy in the Netherlands to build and scale up independent and self-sustaining renewable energy supply structures on the local and national scale and drafting perspectives on the possible role of community energy in the new energy system.

Energy Storage technologies are going through great deal of public discourse, networking and experimentation. The decreasing cost of energy storage and increasing demand for local flexibility is opening up new possibilities for energy storage technologies deployment in community energy systems. In this context, community energy storage can help to better integrate the heat and electricity system at the local level and can positively contribute towards energy transitions while accommodating the needs and expectations of citizens and local communities. Yet, there are technological, societal and systemic challenges of integrating energy storage technologies in the largely centralized present energy system which demands for socio-technical innovation. This article aims to align technical, demand, regulatory and political articulation of new energy storage technologies with potential of application in community level such as DrTen and ECOVAT . In this regard, a number of tools has been applied such as socio-technical configuration, socio-technical scenarios, multi-path mapping. Community energy storage necessitates not only technical innovation but also social innovation for its wider adoption. Socio-technical alignment is crucial to show how the technology works, to validate the business model, actors collaboration, as well to improve the public perception and acceptance regarding the community energy storage. Keywords— energy transition, community energy storage, responsible innovation, energy system inegration

In addition to the protection of nature in reserves, known as the land-sparing approach, another strategy is often suggested, the land-sharing approach, which implies the integration of nature protection with other human activities. Especially in Europe, a rich variety of sharing approaches have been practiced. Using the theoretical concepts of the multilevel perspective on sustainable transitions, we will analyze two experimental cases in the Netherlands, in which the development of a sustainable, nature-friendly form of agriculture was attempted. In these experiments, new concepts of biodiversity monitoring, self-governance, and agriculture were developed in order to enhance biodiversity and the quality of nature on a regional scale. Our conclusion is that this sharing strategy has proved to be promising, at least in terms of relatively extensive use of agricultural areas. It should, however, not only include sharing of land use but also of responsibilities, knowledge development, aims, and means. Moreover, our study revealed that such an approach is possible only if governmental and market structures also change, and if based on new integrating concepts.

How to transform your city into a carbon-neutral community?

The fit between knowledge and policy on the Wadden Sea can and must be improved. Such is the recommendation of an interdisciplinary group of Dutch researchers who since 2013 have been collaborating on action strategies for better knowledge-policy interactions. The idea that ‘more knowledge will produce better policy’ or that ‘research will solve our policy problems’ fails to do justice to the realities of the Wadden region. The connection between knowledge and policy is for instance hampered by a large diversity of stakes and perspectives and by uncertainties about the effects of human activities in the area. The action strategies provide recommendations along three themes in order to deal with such issues, so as to move from frustration to integration of knowledge and policy. The theme of integration presents integrated concepts, processes, and knowledge systems in order to bridge the boundaries between knowledge and policy. The theme of learning capacity suggests learning processes and incentives for knowledge exchange. The final theme of preventing frustration is about giving more attention to reflection and organizing critical review. The action strategies have been tested twice among groups of Wadden Sea professionals to ensure their practical relevance.

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.