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Abstract:
Citizen-driven Renewable Energy (RE) projects of various kinds, known collectively as
community energy (CE), have an important part to play in the worldwide transition
to cleaner energy systems. On the basis of evidence from 8 European countries,
we investigate CE, over approximately the last 50 years (c.1970–2018), through the
lens of Social Innovation (SI). We carry out a detailed review of literature around the
social dimension of renewable energy; we collect, describe and map CE initiatives
from Belgium, France, Germany, Italy, Poland, Spain, Sweden, and the UK; and we
unpack the SI concept into 4 operational criteria which we suggest are essential to
recognizing SI in CE. These are: (1) Crises and opportunities; (2) the agency of civil
society; (3) reconfiguration of social practices, institutions and networks; (4) new ways
of working. We identify three main phases of SI in CE. The environmental movements
of the 1960s and the “oil shocks” of the 1970s provided the catalyst for a series of
innovative societal responses around energy and self-sufficiency. A second wave of SI
relates to the mainstreaming of RE and associated government support mechanisms.
In this phase, with some important exceptions, successful CE initiatives were mainly
confined to those countries where they were already embedded as innovators in the
previous phase. The third phase of CE innovation relates to the societal response to the
Great Recession that began in 2008 and lasted most of the subsequent decade. CE
initiatives formed around this time were also strongly focused around democratization of
energy and citizen empowerment in the context of rising energy prices, a weak economy,
and a production and supply system dominated by excessively powerful multinational
energy firms. CE initiatives today are more diverse than at any time previously, and are
likely to continue to act as incubators for pioneering initiatives addressing virtually all
aspects of energy. However, large multinational energy firms remain the dominant vehicle
for delivery of the energy transition, and the apparent excitement in European policy
circles for “community energy” does not extend to democratization of energy or genuine
empowerment of citizens.
