Abstract
There is a shortage of scholarly research into understanding the cultural values, drivers and outcomes of community renewable developments. This paper contributes towards addressing this gap, by comparing four community renewable projects set in Scottish Gaelic speaking Scotland and in Welsh speaking Wales. Not only do cultural values drive the developments of these community energy projects, but evidence gathered here through qualitative interviews show that these communities aim to contribute towards the long term cultural sustainability of their respective areas. This research paper focuses on how community wind energy projects in Scotland and Wales have contributed towards the retention of cultural attributes, particularly language retention and revitalisation. It also contributes to a deeper understanding of the cultural reasons why historically indigenous communities are turning towards the renewable energy sector (and developing their own local projects) as a way to help achieve cultural sustainability through economic development.
Highlights
Community involvement in renewable energy generation and in regulating energy consumption has increased during the course of the past decade as concerns regarding climate change and energy prices intensify [2]
Traditional power plants will continue to have a role to play in energy generation, it is becoming increasingly accepted that decentralised and community owned projects will have a role in the future energy mix [3]
The aim of this paper is to look in depth at the cultural context in which community energy groups have been established and are being established in Wales and Scotland
Summary
Community involvement in renewable energy generation and in regulating energy consumption has increased during the course of the past decade as concerns regarding climate change and energy prices intensify [2]. Cultural values and sustainability within the energy sector remains an issue rarely discussed and a research area rarely explored This is despite growing evidence showing that culture, world views, native language and history can play a significantly important role in the way that communities have shaped concerns and goals in relation to the energy sector [24]. We will bring into focus cultural sustainability within the community energy sector through exploring four CEPs within marginalised, peripheral communities in Scotland and Wales These case studies will be discussed in relation to peripheral communities elsewhere, with the hope being that our findings relating to cultural sustainability in connection with community energy developments, will have wider international resonance. The remainder of this paper is divided into four sections, beginning with a more detailed review of cultural dimensions of energy developments
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