Community-owned Renewable Energy Research Articles

Costless renewable energy distribution model based on cooperative game theory for energy communities considering its members’ active contributions

Energy communities enable close cooperation and collaboration among members (i.e., consumers, producers, and prosumers), where buildings, energy resources, and loads can be managed at the members' level while cooperating with the community. To influence and promote the community's members' interactions, models of energy sharing can be applied. This paper addresses the distribution of community-owned renewable energy among the community members' buildings. The proposed costless renewable energy distribution model considers the individual participation of each member in demand response events launched to promote the balance between consumption and generation inside the energy community. The distribution model can distribute renewable energy in a fair and costless approach, meaning that the energy receivers will not pay for the energy they receive. The proposed model uses the Shapley value to distribute renewable energy according to its members' individual contributions to the community. The proposed model is tested using a case study of an energy community, using a dataset for one summer month. The results show an energy cost reduction of 12.86 % for the community and an average energy cost reduction of 31.03 % for the community's members.

Small-Scale Renewable Energy Technology to Support the Sustainability of a Food Security Village in Malang City

Nowadays, the energy transition from fossil fuels to renewable energies is taking place worldwide. Every year, the amount of renewable energy installed increases dramatically. Many small-scale renewable energy technologies have been developed, for example at the household level, or at the environmental level as community-owned renewable energy. This research focuses on the development of renewable energy technology using the resource potential and local community wisdom of Glintung Water Street (GWS), a flood-prone area in Malang City. The objectives of the study were to analyze the potential of water resources in the study area to be developed as renewable energy, particularly under low flow conditions, and to investigate community support for the program of energy independence as a basis for developing a green economy to strengthen GWS as a food security village. This study uses 2 types of data, namely qualitative and quantitative data. Qualitative data is used to deepen the urgency of using renewable energy as alternative energy to replace PLN electricity. Meanwhile, the quantitative data collection consisted of 2 types of data, namely data on the measurement of the hydraulic characteristics of the flow as a source of driving force for the water wheel, and data on the community response and support using a questionnaire instrument. The results showed that the minimum flow to drive the water wheel under low flow conditions was 3 l/s. The maximum RPM recorded during waterwheel operation is 9 RPM, i.e. after it rained the night before the measurement, and the resulting voltage was 20 Volt. However, at higher flow conditions, the voltage generated by the waterwheel can reach 40 Volts. The community strongly supports the energy independence program although there are still doubts due to limited knowledge and experience in applying renewable energy technologies.

Factors influencing intention to invest in a community owned renewable energy initiative in Queensland, Australia

Government support for the ongoing use of fossil fuels has polarised public opinion in Australia regarding the country's transition to low carbon energy generation. Despite this, polls indicate a desire for more meaningful engagement in the global energy transition amongst the Australian populace, which has stimulated a growing interest in Community Owned Renewable Energy (CORE). This study used a questionnaire based on the Theory of Planned Behaviour (TPB) to evaluate intention to invest in a CORE project that would be sited in Queensland, Australia. The analysis also sought to identify the considerations that would have the greatest association with this intention. 67% of respondents indicated an inclination to invest in the project and the mean intention score was 5.0 out of a possible maximum of 7 in favour of investing. This mean was relatively stable across almost all demographic sub-categories for gender, age, employment and income. Beliefs related to the community benefits that the initiative would provide were the most reliable attitudinal predictor of intention to invest. The findings concur with other studies that indicate widespread support for renewables amongst Australians and which suggest that “not in my back yard” (NIMBY) concerns are not a significant influence on negative attitudes towards renewable energy in Australia.

Winds of change: Legitimacy, withdrawal, and interdependency from a decentralized wind-to-hydrogen regime in Orkney, Scotland

Community-owned renewable energy facilities support decentralized low-carbon energy and community development by empowering local political organizations; however, the consequences of community empowerment on local politics are not always anticipated or, in some cases, desired. While there is no shortage of research on the factors for or barriers against energy project outcomes, community renewable energy research lacks engagement with such projects’ effects on local governance post-implementation. ‘Community benefit’ is not a natural product of renewable energy technology implementation, but of accompanying complex socio-political processes, organizations, and arrangements. Drawing from governance perspectives and field research, this ethnographic study describes governance implications associated with a shift to a community wind and hydrogen energy facility on the island of Shapinsay, Scotland. Specifically, it pulls from local perspectives to illuminate pathways in which a particular community renewable energy political group considerably reshaped local power relations. The findings indicate that wind energy income and hydrogen production control created new political opportunities that have transformed governance on the island in novel ways: community legitimacy, state withdrawal, and private interdependence. The study concludes by applying these empirical insights to community renewable energy policy recommendations.

Empowering communities – the role of intermediary organisations in community renewable energy projects in Indonesia

ABSTRACTCommunity Renewable Energy (CRE) has been defying conventional energy systems for decades, though only recently it started to feature in academic and institutional discourses. Despite its new appeal, the literature on the impacts and factors influencing CRE projects is still scarce and builds mostly on studies in Europe and North America. In developing countries, where electricity access is low and energy poverty is prevalent, CRE can offer interesting opportunities for rural electrification and added benefits. The objective of this study is to assess the impacts of community-owned renewable energy projects and identify the internal and external drivers and barriers to their success. An exploratory case-study approach was used for collecting data, through interviews and observations, in two community micro-hydro projects in Indonesia. The results showed positive socio-economic impacts that exceed electrification benefits, and the reported success of community energy projects can be traced back to a combination of community-level as well as external factors. Yet, particularly important is the role of the intermediary organisation (Ibeka) in building communities’ ownership, enhancing (technical, entrepreneurial and managerial) capacities, transferring knowledge and technology, establishing innovative financing models and shaping policy. Such organisations are critical in bridging external and internal factors and thus represent a key element in integrating the proposed analytical frameworks.

A comparative analysis of the costs of onshore wind energy: Is there a case for community-specific policy support?

There is growing policy interest in increasing the share of community-owned renewable energy generation. This study explores why and how the costs of community-owned projects differ from commercially-owned projects by examining the case of onshore wind in the UK. Based on cross-sectoral literature on the challenges of community ownership, cost differences are attributed to six facets of an organisation or project: internal processes, internal knowledge and skills, perceived local legitimacy of the project, perceived external legitimacy of the organisation, investor motivation and expectations, and finally, project scale. These facets impact not only development costs but also project development times and the probability that projects pass certain critical stages in the development process. Using survey-based and secondary cost data on community and commercial projects in the UK, a model is developed to show the overall impact of cost, time and risk differences on the value of a hypothetical 500kW onshore wind project. The results show that the main factors accounting for differences are higher pre-planning costs and additional risks born by community projects, and suggest that policy interventions may be required to place community- owned projects on a level playing field with commercial projects.

Community Owned Renewable Energy: a Case for Economic Localization in Ontario

Ontario is making some strides to promote renewable energy generation, but policies and incentives are ignoring the merits of scale of two renewable energy deployment options: community owned renewable energy and large-scale absentee owned renewables. This literature review discusses the sustainability of each option in terms of the three pillars of sustainable development: economic, environmental and social. Community owned renewable energy (CORE) projects are found to be more sustainable due to their participative process and distributive outcome. Studies from Europe and the UK show that CORE decreases opposition to renewable energy integration, has more economic impact than the centralized approach, and is a socially cohesive and empowering undertaking. The policy environment in Ontario, however, does not promote the growth of this deployment method. Changes must be made to transmission incentive structure for utilities to consider distributed generation, and laws concerning the limits of co-operatives as financial institutions, among many other changes, to provide a suitable avenue for sustainable deployment of a new energy system based on renewables

Climate policy and the siting of renewable energy projects; towards common but differentiated responsibility at the community level

Renewable energy receives state support in most western countries, with the aim to reduce fossil fuel use and thus mitigate anthropogenic climate change. Communities may benefit from these subsidies by setting up community-owned renewable energy projects, but to date their overall contribution to UK renewable energy targets has been very small. The most substantive involvement of local people in renewable energy production has been to reduce renewable energy production by resisting wind farm proposals. In response, developers have started to offer benefits to local communities. What is the moral justification of such ‘community benefits’ from a policy that is already for the common good, and for projects that in general have very few physical effects on people? In this paper I argue that there is a need for a common and spatially explicit justice framework, not just to underpin the siting and development of low carbon energy projects, but also to (simultaneously) engage with other domains of climate policy. I propose some dimensions of such a framework and discuss why its adoption can put the community at the forefront of renewable energy developments; not as passive or reactive ‘impacted communities’ and not necessarily as out-right owners of energy generation projects, but as proactive local stakeholders involved in the governance of the view, the wind and the greenhouse gas emissions in their area, willing and able to decide what ‘common but differentiated responsibilities’ should mean at their local level vis a vis national and international duties and obligations in climate and energy policy.

Transitioning to Community-owned Renewable Energy: Lessons from Germany

Providing mature technologies and in-servicing markets are not enough to foster the public use of renewable energy technologies for green transformation. A promising approach is to help policy makers construct a model for identifying and developing factors that will support community-owned technology initiatives. The literature on incentives for multi-actors to get involved in community-owned renewable energy project reveals that major success factors are of socio-economic character. The theory-collective action approach consists of five integrated dimensions of actors that enable an understanding of the role of, and linkages between, the stakeholders in a community. In this study we examine success factors in the implementation of community-owned renewable energy projects and look for theoretical explanations as to why they are important. We used the case study of Freiamt (a rural community in the Black Forest, Germany), which has already achieved 100% power production from renewable sources, to analyze stakeholders and their motivations for becoming active and investing in renewable energy. The case study shows that participative and bottom-up planning processes are very important for the implementation of the project and that economic and regional motives amongst the relevant stakeholders were dominant.

Community-owned renewable energy (CRE): Opportunities for rural Australia

Community-owned renewable energy (CRE) projects are on the rise across the world, including in Australia. This article applies a STEEP (social, technological, environmental, economic, political) analysis to CRE case studies to elucidate the opportunities, benefits and limitations for CRE in the rural Australian context. While CRE is a new sector in Australia, many opportunities exist for it to contribute to addressing climate change, community development and rural economic health. Case studies indicate, however, these benefits will be difficult to realise on a large scale without a supportive state and federal government policy context.