Becoming green together: The case of SAENZ

To reach the Dutch renewable energy (RE) targets of 2030, the entire Netherlands has been investing in solar energy, electric vehicles and other systems based on RE. This increase of electricity use does not come without problems and the most pressing one is that of network congestion. Due to this, businesses are no longer able to expand their...

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...

Establishing industrial community energy systems: Simulating the role of institutional designs and societal attributes

The importance of decreasing industrial CO2 footprints has become evident, as also highlighted in COP26. As such, the transition to renewable energy in the industrial sector is essential to meet the targets. To this aim, establishing industrial community energy systems (InCES) where industries collectively invest in a shared energy system is an...

Cost Allocation in Integrated Community Energy Systems

With the growing concerns over energy depletion and environmental protection all over the world, more and more attention is being paid to energy transition towards renewable energy sources (RESs), energy efficiency improvement, and CO$_2$ emission reduction. Integrated community energy systems (ICESs) emerge in the development of local energy...

Collaborative Renewable Energy Generation among Industries: The Role of Social Identity, Awareness and Institutional Design

Like many other sectors, climate change strategies have put various restrictions on industry, the most prominent one being caps on CO₂ and other energy-related emissions. At the same time, and especially in many developing economies, the industry struggles with an increasing gap between the fast development of the sector and...

Industrial community energy systems: Simulating the role of financial incentives and societal attributes

Considering that the industrial sector consumes almost one-third of the energy demand globally, it is an urgent call to reduce the carbon footprints in this sector. Among different approaches to meet this goal, such as the employment of carbon capture technologies and increasing energy efficiency within industries, transitioning to renewable...

Cost allocation in integrated community energy systems — Performance assessment

Integrated community energy systems (ICESs) are a modern development of local energy systems by integrating distributed energy resources and local communities. Cost allocation is one of the key issues affecting the success of ICESs. Costs should be allocated to those who cause them, and benefits to those who make the investments. A well-designed...

Cost allocation in integrated community energy systems—social acceptance

Integrated community energy systems (ICESs) are a good representative of local energy systems by integrating local distributed energy resources and local communities. It is proposed that costs should be allocated in a socially acceptable manner since there is no regulation in ICESs. In this paper, social acceptance is conceptualized from the...

Cost allocation in integrated community energy systems - A review

Integrated community energy systems (ICESs) emerged in the reform of local energy systems during the energy transition. Cost allocation within an ICES is one of the key issues determining the success of ICESs. The costs should be allocated fairly among the members of a local energy community. However, not much research has been directed...

Can industries be parties in collective action? Community energy in an Iranian industrial zone

The industrial sector plays a huge role in creating economic growth. While energy is vital for industries to thrive, various factors are undermining the availability of energy including phasing out of fossil fuels, CO2 emission caps and, the large gap between the fast developments of industrial clusters and the energy supply, especially in...

Growing community energy initiatives from the bottom up: Simulating the role of behavioural attitudes and leadership in the Netherlands

Local energy initiatives (LEIs) are communities of households who self-organize to meet their energy demand with locally produced green energy. They facilitate citizen participation by developing context-specific solutions, which calls for leadership and complex social dynamics. We present an agent-based simulation model to explore the...

Integrated Community Energy Systems

Energy systems across the globe are going through a radical transformation as a result of technological and institutional changes, depletion of fossil fuel resources, and climate change issues. Accordingly, local energy initiatives are emerging and increasing number of the business models are focusing on the end-users. In this context,...

Resisting The Iron Law of Oligarchy: case of community energy system

The iron law of oligarchy claims that the complex organisation will always end up in an oligarchy, no matter it was constituted originally. In that sense, the oligarchy should also happen in the Community Energy System (CES) as a complex self-govern common-pool resource system. The oligarchy situation raises the issue of the fairness and the...

Addressing Different Approaches for Evaluating Low-Exergy Communities

The IEA Annex 64 focusing on low-ex communities aims at the improvement of energy conversion chains on a community scale, using exergy analysis as the primary evaluation mode. Within this Annex the participants discuss important aspects and available methods for energy and exergy assessment as well as the added value of aiming for low exergy ...

Actual Energy Savings of Renovated Dwellings: the Case of Amsterdam

The existing housing stock plays a major role in the realization of the energy efficiency targets. The non-profit housing sector in the Netherlands dominates the housing market as it represents 31% of the total housing stock. In the municipality of Amsterdam, where this share is even 46%, subsidies were given to housing associations between 2011...

Multi-objective optimisation of Integrated Community Energy Systems and assessment of the impact on households

Sustainability has gained considerable interest at all levels in society during the last decades. Climate change has been a large contributor to this mentality change. As current energy systems are inefficient and contribute to climate change, a transition towards more efficient energy systems is sought. The share of local produced energy in the...

Viability of Self-Governance in Community Energy Systems: Structuring an Approach for Assessment

This paper sets out to formulate a structured approach to assist in analyzing the viability of self-governance in community energy systems. Existing research in self-governance in the framework of socio-ecological systems provides a basis for analysis in applications concerning socio-technical systems, but more than a basis is needed. Although...