Abstract
In order to decarbonize the energy sector, there is a widespread consensus that the role of end-users in the energy system should change from passive consumption to active prosumption and engagement. This is of particular importance as an increasing number of technologies and business models are focusing on the end-users. These developments provide new opportunities for further technical and social innovation to smarter, flexible and integrated systems such as community energy systems (CESs). Through system integration and community engagement CESs assist in transition to a low-carbon energy system. Despite the high importance, there is limited knowledge on willingness of local citizens to participate in the local energy systems such as CESs as well as associated factors determining such willingness. Through a survey among 599 citizens in the Netherlands, this research analyses the impact of demographic, socio-economic, socio-institutional as well as environmental factors on willingness to participate in CESs. Factor and multi-variate regression analysis reveals that the environmental concern, renewables acceptance, energy independence, community trust, community resistance, education, energy related education and awareness about local energy initiatives are the most important factors in determining the citizens’ willingness to participate in CESs. Citizens should be empowered to take active role in steering the local energy initiatives.
Highlights
Transforming societies into sustainable patterns of production, consumption and prosumption is a key challenge of this century [1]
This study aims at determining the willingness of Dutch citizens to be part of local energy initiatives such as community energy systems (CESs)
The students are instructed to pass on the link for the web based digital survey to mainly adult relatives and acquaintances, who could legally participate in community energy initiatives in their local area
Summary
Transforming societies into sustainable patterns of production, consumption and prosumption is a key challenge of this century [1]. In addition to individual behavioral change, system wide transformation through collective action is required to solve the challenges of the present energy systems as collective action has historically been a successful motor of social transformation [2]. In this regard, local energy systems can potentially contribute to the efficient overall energy production and distribution and help meeting climate objectives by helping reversal of energy consumption and emissions trends [3]. The energy system, providing heat and electricity to houses and businesses, is transforming from a centrally coordinated fossil-fuels powered system towards a bottom-up and decentralized low-carbon systems [4,5]. The acceptance, support and participation of citizens is essential to successfully manage these ongoing energy transitions [10]
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