Recommendations for initiating and engaging local energy communities in alignment with justice principles – evidence from seven European citizen engagement processes

Abstract

Background The promotion of local energy communities is highlighted as a solution to accelerate the transition towards a more decentralised, decarbonised and just energy system. EU policies are actively trying to strengthen the role of local energy communities as vital actors in the energy system. These developments open up a space for energy communities across Europe that are initiated, supported and/or strengthened from actors outside of the community. Such approaches have received limited attention by academic literature. The perspective of energy justice can serve as a normative framework to assess how the engagement of local residents and stakeholders in energy communities should take place. This paper points out injustices in seven different community engagement trajectories that took place as part of the Horizon project Lightness. Methods Relevant data was collected over the course of more than two years of field work, including interviews with residents and engagement leaders, workshops and site visits. A framework based on justice principles called The Voicer model was applied to analyse the data and pinpoint injustices. Results Based on these findings it provides ten recommendations for engaging residents and other local stakeholders in a just manner in local energy communities (LECs). These recommendations address among others the competences required for engaging residents in community-building, the importance of accessible communication and how to deal with the complexity of multi-stakeholder involvement. Conclusions The pathways for just engagement shown in this paper are limited in scope and would benefit from application in contexts with different legal, economic and governance configurations. Doing so can provide engagement practitioners with tangible tools to let diverse groups of residents enjoy the benefits that a just energy transition has in offer.