Scaling mechanisms of energy communities: A comparison of 28 initiatives

Daniel Petrovics; Dave Huitema; Mendel Giezen; Barbara Vis

doi:10.1016/j.gloenvcha.2023.102780

Scaling mechanisms of energy communities: A comparison of 28 initiatives

Daniel Petrovics^*, Dave Huitema, Mendel Giezen, Barbara Vis

^*Corresponding author for this work

Research output: Contribution to journal › Article › Academic › peer-review

Abstract

Energy communities have mushroomed over the past decades. These initiatives have scaled, that is replicated their experiences, expanded membership, and diversified involved actors and technologies. The picture existing literature paints is hopeful that the scaling of local-scale action may translate into global-scale impact and thus effectively contribute to combating climate change. However, important gaps remain in understanding the (combinations of) conditions which are necessary for scaling with this goal in mind. This article pushes the boundaries of knowledge further by examining and comparing 28 energy communities through a fuzzy set Qualitative Comparative Analysis (QCA) and by identifying the necessary conditions of actionable scaling mechanisms. Our analysis identifies a high number (8) of necessary (combinations of) conditions for scaling. Addressing a strong need amongst policy makers to facilitate broader scaling of community initiatives, this article offers concrete insights on mechanisms that need to be in place to scale energy communities. Insights are developed on – for example – the type of capacity support needed, support structures and the tools needed for connecting communities with each other. These insights help corroborate empirically, for the first time the crucial leverage points that will support strategies for upscaling the impact of energy communities, and will enable them to flourish as an essential element of the global climate governance system.

Original language	English
Article number	102780
Journal	Global Environmental Change
Volume	84
DOIs	https://doi.org/10.1016/j.gloenvcha.2023.102780
Publication status	Published - Jan 2024

Bibliographical note

Publisher Copyright:
© 2023 The Author(s)

Funding

The authors would like to thank Cornelia Fast and Nina Valin for reviewing the survey and Ekaterina Paustyan and Lotte Dalgaard Christensen for providing input into the QCA at early stages. We would also like to thank Paul Tobin and Loïc Cobut for their detailed comments on an early draft of this article at the 2022 ECPR General Conference. We further would like to thank the members of the Wageningen University and Research Public Administration and Policy PhD research group – and Nina Valin in particular for a detailed review of the final version of this paper as well as the Urban Planning department from the University of Amsterdam for valuable feedback. Finally, we would like to thank the reviewers who dedicated their time to the double-blind peer review process. This work was supported by the European Union's Horizon 2020 programme [grant agreement #: 837752 – NEWCOMERS project]. This work was supported by the European Union’s Horizon 2020 programme [grant agreement #: 837752 – NEWCOMERS project].

Funders	Funder number
European Union's Horizon 2020 programme
European Union’s Horizon 2020 programme	837752

Keywords

Energy communities
Governance
Necessity
Scaling mechanisms
Upscaling

UN SDGs

This output contributes to the following UN Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs)

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1-s2.0-S0959378023001462-mainFinal published version, 884 KBLicence: CC BY

Cite this

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Scaling mechanisms of energy communities: A comparison of 28 initiatives

Abstract

Bibliographical note

Funding

Keywords

UN SDGs

Access to Document

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