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This paper analyses the evolution of renewable energy cooperatives, examining all such cooperatives founded in German districts between 2006 and 2016. The rise of the cooperative form in renewable energy production is a prominent example of the strong involvement of users in market formation. We investigate the effects of ‘institutional relatedness’, arguing that renewable energy cooperatives can leverage the organizational knowledge and the legitimacy gained by cooperatives active in other industries in the same district. Using an organizational ecology approach, we find that the local presence of cooperatives in other industries indeed supported the founding of renewable energy cooperatives.

Little research exists on how alternative understandings of sustainability and societal well-being, such as those developed by marginalized Indigenous populations, can enrich and possibly challenge dominant visions of sustainability anchored in Western discourses on sustainable development and ecological modernization. This paper addresses this research gap in the context of the transition towards low-carbon energy sources by addressing the following question: how do Indigenous worldviews contrast with modernist visions of sustainability in the context of the energy transition? To do so, it first builds a conceptual framework contrasting modernist and Indigenous sustainability worldviews. Second, it applies this framework to the case of wind energy developments within the territory of three Zapotec communities located in southern Mexico, with the discussion relying on 103 interviews with key stakeholders, six focus groups and participant observation. Results show that the Zapotec sustainability worldview contrasts strikingly with wind developers’ modernist propositions, which tend to reproduce the region’s past colonial arrangements in terms of cultural domination, non-recognition of Indigenous identities and disrespect for local customs. This contrast has led to many conflicts and misunderstandings around wind energy projects. The paper concludes that different conceptualizations of sustainability must be recognized to ensure an inclusive and just energy transition, and advances the concept of “pluriversal technologies” to emphasize the need for technologies that embrace ontological and epistemological diversity by being co-designed, co-produced and co-owned by the inhabitants of the socio-cultural territory in which they are embedded.

This paper aims to extend the energy justice framework by using the capability approach to understand factors affecting community acceptance of energy technologies. The capability approach is a normative framework for assessing people’s well-being and devising interventions for social justice. Whilst recognising that opposition to energy technologies is fundamentally a problem of distributive, recognition and procedural injustices, the paper operationalises the capability approach to unveil what these justice tenets mean to indigenous people living in three communities neighbouring wind installations located in Southern Mexico. Findings conclude that building a bottom-up approach to understand complex conceptions of energy justice within a community can lead to an improved awareness of justice implications relevant to community acceptance of energy technologies. In the Mexican case, these factors relate to inclusive community engagement that pays particular attention to valued ways of being and doing of the local population, such as equal access to employment, higher education and professional training, diversified sources of income, and recognition of the local indigenous everyday life and communal identity. The results also highlight a nested structure of justice concerns, with the three tenets being embedded into one another and presenting different levels of visibility.

It has been suggested that participation in community energy initiatives may play an important role in enabling a transition towards renewable energy (RE) deployment by fostering positive attitudes toward renewables. Yet, little is known about how members of community energy initiatives differ from non-members in terms of energy attitudes and whether different profiles of community energy members exist. This article empirically analyses the relations between community energy membership and attitudes toward RE and onshore wind energy. Based on statistical analyses of a large-scale quantitative dataset from an original survey (N = 3963) conducted with two energy cooperatives in Belgium, it contrasts different groups of cooperative members with each other and a comparison group of non-members. Results show that members have significantly more positive attitudes towards RE than non-members. Results also suggest that non-members tend to be more indifferent or more uncertain, not more objecting, than members to wind power. Finally, significant differences among cooperative members are highlighted, illustrating the contrast between communities of place and communities of interest. The findings suggest a novel perspective on the benefits of community energy membership – to overcome indifference or uncertainty – that is relevant to foster a rapid and socially acceptable low carbon transition.