Adoption of renewable heating systems and thermal energy communities in the Netherlands: An empirical study

Renewable heating systems (RHS), such as solar thermal, geothermal, heat pumps, wood pellets, biomass, are essential to reduce dependence on fossil fuel-based heating systems and resulting CO₂ emissions. Despite their benefits in terms of CO₂ emissions, the widespread adoption of RHS has yet to be achieved. This paper...

Exploring industrial community energy systems: A missing link in the industrial energy transition?

The transition to renewable energy sources affects all sectors of society, including the industrial sector. Besides climate policy ambitions and other concerns regarding the social and environmental acceptability of energy provision, the transition to renewables may also improve the availability and affordability of energy services. The latter...

Unleashing or domesticating the vitality of citizens' initiatives? The paradoxical relationship between governments and citizens' initiatives in the energy transition

In their quest to create vital cities, West European city governments stimulate citizens to self-organize in citizens' initiatives. This trend it accompanied by conflicting scientific and governmental discourses: on the one hand, citizens' initiatives are praised for giving ‘power to the people’, on the other hand, citizens' initiatives are...

Energy Security of Thermal Energy Communities

This thesis aims to support the design and implementation of energy-secure thermal energy communities (TEC) by investigating their technical, behavioural and institutional settings through a collective action perspective. The thesis shows that energy-secure TEC initiatives are collective energy systems with particular characteristics and...

Simulating thermal energy community formation: Institutional enablers outplaying technological choice

Energy communities are key elements for local energy transitions, collectively generating, distributing and consuming energy, using renewable energy technologies. Thermal energy communities, as one type of energy community, are focused on thermal energy applications, such as heating, cooling, bathing, showering and providing hot tap water. As...

Collaborating with Communities: A Stedin service enabling Local Energy Communities to become their own electricity supplier

The energy grid is transitioning from a centrally controlled demand response system to a decentralized supply response system. There are multiple reasons for this, but the main one is the need to transition to a low carbon energy system to tackle climate change and decrease our dependency on non-renewable energy sources. Next to this consumers...

Low voltage power grid congestion reduction using a community battery: Design principles, control and experimental validation

By installing a battery storage system in the power grid, Distribution Network Operators (DNOs) can solve congestion problems caused by decentralized renewable generation. This paper provides the necessary theory to use such a community battery for grid congestion reduction, backed up by experimental results. A simple network model was...

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...

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...

Trust, awareness, and independence: Insights from a socio-psychological factor analysis of citizen knowledge and participation in community energy systems

In order to decarbonize the energy sector, there is a widespread consensus that the role of end-users in the energy system should change from passive consumption to active prosumption and engagement. This is of particular importance as an increasing number of technologies and business models are focusing on the end-users. These developments...

Energetic Communities: Planning support for sustainable energy transition in small- and medium-sized communities

Small- and medium-sized communities might prove to be game-changers in the overall energy transition because many problems have to be solved within their ambit. Urban planning is dealing with the numerous processes of urban change. Energy is a fairly new task to be addressed and many stakeholders lack experience and criteria for strategic...