Local Energy Communities: Emergence, Places, Organizations, Decision Tools

This book draws on social science analysis to understand the ongoing dynamics within and surrounding local energy communities in reliably electrified countries: Belgium, Canada, Colombia, France, Germany, India, the Netherlands, Spain, Switzerland and the United Kingdom.

It offers a comprehensive overview of recent results and thus outlines a diversity of drivers and levers for scaling up energy communities or, at least, local energy sharing. Analysing the main types of energy communities such as collective self-consumption, citizen cooperatives and peer-to-peer digital platforms, the book does not only raise new questions for social scientists, but also offers a comprehensive overview for all those contributing to the circular economy and the decentralization of energy production in inhabited areas where energy consumption is concentrated. This book provides input for the ongoing debates in many European countries implementing the national law on the European directives for energy communities. Furthermore, without evading the antagonism between cooperative and market approaches, or the contradictions between different issues, the book outlines the innovative decision-making tools that can facilitate the development of local energy production and sharing systems.

As well as being of interest to postgraduates and researchers in the field of energy studies, this book will be vital to energy professionals looking to support local energy communities’ decision-making and design, who wish to consider sociological, organizational and territorial dimensions.

Gilles Debizet is an Associate Professor of Urban Planning at Université Grenoble Alpes and a researcher at the Pacte Social Sciences Laboratory since 2006. His research focuses on the integration of climate issues in the making of the contemporary city. He was/is a member of scientific committees (Université Grenoble Alpes, Agence Nationale de la Recherche, Réseau RAMAU). He has co-lead the Eco-SESA Cross-Disciplinary Programme since 2017.

Marta Pappalardo is an Architect, with a PhD in Urban Planning, currently researcher at the Institute of Urban Planning and Alpine Geography and Pacte Social Sciences Laboratory (Université Grenoble Alpes, CNRS, Science Po Grenoble). Her research focuses on the practices of occupation and management of energy-efficient buildings and on the governance of energy communities.

Frédéric Wurtz is a CNRS senior researcher at Grenoble Electrical Engineering Laboratory (G2ELAB) of Grenoble INP - Université Grenoble Alpes and CNRS. He has developed skills at the interface of engineering and social science in the design of energy systems: typically, cars, flights, smart-buildings and smart-grids, eco-districts, smart districts and smart cities, with a current focus on micro-grids and local energy communities.