Resources

This report encompasses an assessment of interdisciplinary terminology, incl. a glossary, the definition of ‘energy citizenship’, specific research questions to be challenged by the Integrated Consensus Paper, discipline-wise theoretical framework for the research questions, discipline-wise best practice methodology for addressing the research question and a discussion of contradictions and consensus between disciplines along the theoretical/methodological dimensions.
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Citizens are expected to play a significant role to the current energy transition in Europe, such as through prosumerism and collective initiatives for energy efficiency. While there are many platforms for domestic energy analytics and for engaging citizens and transition stakeholders on energy topics, context-specific information is frequently lacking. This article outlines the development of an Interactive Policy Platform that aims to provide contextualized, impact-driven, and ready-to-use information on the role of citizen initiatives in the energy and low-carbon transition in Europe. Specifically, it will help researchers, policymakers, and citizens to explore different dimensions of energy citizenship, understand the decarbonization potentials of diverse clusters of citizens, and identify the conditions under which citizen-led energy initiatives are currently operating. The Platform will be co-designed together with a sample of its future users, ensuring the usability of its interface and the relevance of the provided information. Ultimately, the Platform is envisioned to help transition stakeholders understand and support initiatives related to energy citizenship around Europe, thus contributing to the EU’s promise of a just and inclusive decarbonization.
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Analyzing two collective actions from the United States—the civil rights movement and the fall of the tobacco industry—brings valuable insights that may be applied to the energy transition context. More specifically, the two case studies show the different transformation pathways through which change happens at a large scale. These collective actions are also centered around different resources – cigarettes as a tangible product, and justice as a non-tangible resource. As the energy transition has elements from both collective actions, the insights from the analysis may be related not only to the use of technology and the related practices but also to the justice elements found within the changes that need to be carried out in the future.
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In the transition to a state of net-zero emissions of greenhouse gases, citizens are supposed to play a much larger role, including as self-consumers and participants in energy communities. As a result of this increasingly participatory role of citizens in the energy system, the new concept of energy citizenship has emerged in recent years. Around this term, we can also find emerging trends/ patterns that can relate to: (i.) the active participation in the energy market, such as the concept of prosumerism, smart technologies, etc., (ii.) behavioral attributes of citizens, (iii.) individual lifestyle changes, (iv.) collective initiatives and expressions of energy citizenship, and (v.) political activities.
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This report captures the results of an extensive literature review of studies that cluster citizens regarding their energy/environmental behaviors. The report maps the factors that might be used in the literature to create clusters for decarbonization under the work of WP4. Outputs of the review are presented at two levels: individual and collective. At an individual level, major variables for clustering energy behaviors were categorized as socio-economic and demographic, psychological, energy consumption/environmental patterns across different areas of life (housing, transport, etc.), and other contextual variables. At a collective level, major variables were categorized as socio-economic and demographic, energy infrastructure variables, energy consumption profiles, environmental performance, and other contextual factors.
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This deliverable presents a treatment of existing and emerging ideas of citizenship in the energy system and around energy more generally. An analysis of modes of (citizen) participation and related manifestations of energy citizenship is forwarded. This report – the first of two on characterizing and (re)conceptualizing expressions of energy citizenship – will both contribute to the ongoing discourse on the place of the citizen in the energy domain, and feed into the development of an energy citizenship typology to be presented in the second report from this package of work. Acknowledging that privilege(s) shape the type of relationships particular individuals and groups might have with energy, this report opens a discussion on the type(s) of energy citizenship experienced by those at the margins. In this way, an understanding of multiple (sometime overlapping) expressions of citizenship around energy is forwarded. This report will be of interest to both researchers and practitioners interesting in transforming the currently energy system (and its implications) for the way we live our lives.
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This deliverable describes the conceptual framework on energy citizenship. It lays down the key definitions, theoretical underpinnings and social constructions of the required systematic energy citizenship understanding. The conceptual framework discloses the diversity of more and less ‘active’ energy citizenship forms, identifying the main distinctions brought forward in the state-of-the-art of social innovation and transitions, political science, sociology, energy studies, social psychology, geography and critical social theory. This also involves elaboration of the different understandings of the energy systems that energy citizenship can be taken to refer to.
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Project GRETA is studying energy communities in Germany, Italy, the Netherlands, Portugal, and Spain. Citizens in these communities will adopt renewable energy technologies and electric vehicles, monitor their efficient energy behaviours, and participate in the sustainable planning of mobility.
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Energy communities (ECs) are widely recognised for their potential to generate renewable energy. By contrast, the capacity of ECs to reduce energy demand and foster flexibility has attracted little attention to date, despite their theoretical potential to do so. To address this gap, we apply three perspectives – social representations theory, actor-network theory, and business models – to the analysis of nine case studies based in six European countries (Germany, Italy, Slovenia, Sweden, Netherlands, and United Kingdom). The core of the article comprises analysis of the nine cases from each perspective. Our results highlight the (un)intended effects of ECs on the energy representations of members; the configurational work required by focal actors to assemble new socio-technical configurations; and the value creation and capture opportunities open to ECs in the creation of novel business models; These factors in turn impact whether and how ECs achieve demand reduction and flexibility. We summarise and discuss these results in a process of meta-theoretical triangulation to produce a multifaceted and relational account of the potential of ECs to develop demand-side solutions. This leads us to conclude that ECs have a distinct capacity to develop demand-side solutions, rooted in the creation of innovative socio-technical configurations; and that this distinct capacity of ECs has the potential to complement and extend the contemporary focus on the use of market mechanisms to achieve demand reduction and increase flexibility.
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