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Mapping the energy community cooperation chains

Panel: 5. Smart and sustainable communities

This is a peer-reviewed paper.

Authors:
CS SEBI, GRENOBLE ECOLE DE MANAGEMENT Univ Grenoble Alpes ComUE, France
Anne-Lorène Vernay, GRENOBLE ECOLE DE MANAGEMENT Univ Grenoble Alpes ComUE, France
Julien Doutre, GRENOBLE ECOLE DE MANAGEMENT Univ Grenoble Alpes ComUE, France

Abstract

In response to growing concerns about climate change and the will to take individual actions, citizens increasingly want to be involved in renewable or sustainable energy development projects. This involvement can take different forms, from, for example, financing only via crowdfunding platforms to co-governing when a local energy cooperative is created. Many argue that involving local communities is crucial to help accelerate the energy transition. It is often key to overcome NIMBY opposition (Not In My BackYard) and can provide additional sources of financing. Besides setting up an energy community can be a way to strengthen the local economy and the local social fabric.

In this paper, we argue that besides looking at individual initiatives, it is important to study the cooperation chain (Becker, 2008) that supports their creation and growth, and more generally, to position these communities in a “world” of citizen led energy production. The paper intends to benchmark the structure of citizen led energy production “world” in two countries, namely France and The Netherlands, to better understand what is key for such cooperation chains to function.

These two countries present different level of maturity. Indeed, The Netherlands has a high density (in relation to its population) of communities engaged in energy management solutions. And France which is maybe less mature compared to The Netherlands but where a momentum is starting. Ultimately, our objective is to map the chains of cooperation in order to understand why certain work better than others and to derive preliminary recommendations to facilitate the development of energy communities.

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