‘Commoning practices’ for energy justice? Perspectives on the heat transition in the city of Amsterdam

Decarbonisation of the built environment is needed to abate the use of fossil fuels and greenhouse gas emissions. In the city of Amsterdam, multiple bottom-up initiatives have been initiated to reach these goals. In this paper, we explore how energy justice is reshaped by these initiatives on an urban scale. This is done by a case study on a...

Responsive FLEXibility: A smart local energy system

The transition towards a more decarbonised, resilient and distributed energy system requires local initiatives, such as Smart Local Energy Systems (SLES), which lead communities to gain self-sufficiency and become electricity islands. Although many SLES projects have been recently deployed, only a few of them have managed to be successful,...

Value dynamics in energy democracy: An exploration of community energy initiatives

In the European Union, energy democracy (ED) is considered a socially desirable policy goal. One way to achieve ED is through empowering local communities to become agents of value change who can pursue more sustainable and equitable energy provision with community energy initiatives (CEI). However, such people-driven value change is complex in...

Constructing an inclusive vision of sustainable transition to decentralised energy: Local practices, knowledge, values and narratives in the case of community-managed grids in rural India

This chapter claims that the global North’s vision of sustainable energy transition (SET), which informs policies and infrastructure developments, holds a partial account of diverse energy-related practices and associated values that are endemic to local communities. Referring to the EU directive, this chapter points towards the implicit bias...

Testing the social, organizational, and governance factors for success in local low carbon energy initiatives

Evidence from academic studies that analyze social and institutional factors that influence success with community energy projects is scarce. To address this, we pose the question: What are the social, organizational, and governance factors that explain success with ‘local low-carbon energy initiatives’ (LLCEIs)? To answer this question, claims...

Facilitating energy transition through energy commons: An application of socio-ecological systems framework for integrated community energy systems

Integrated Community Energy Systems (ICES) are an emerging local energy system focusing on the collective use of distributed energy resources (DER). These socio-technical systems (STSs) have a high potential to advance the transition towards socially inclusive, environmentally-friendly energy systems and to stimulate the local economy. While...

The role of intermediaries in supporting local low-carbon energy initiatives

Recent scholarly attention shows that grassroots civil society low-carbon energy initiatives increasingly become part of the subnational climate change governance landscape. Despite their potency in view of consumer-owned distributed generation and enhanced citizen influence in the organization of the energy infrastructure, local low-carbon...

Innovation in the European energy sector and regulatory responses to it: Guest editorial note

The European energy sector is an important economic sector that is also traditionally highly regulated. With the increasing tempo in which innovations in technology and markets occur, catalysed inter alia by the energy transition and accompanied by new formats of innovation (disruptive and bottom-up), the question arises whether existing...