IDEAS home Printed from https://ideas.repec.org/a/gam/jsusta/v14y2022i6p3169-d766837.html
   My bibliography  Save this article

On the Future(s) of Energy Communities in the German Energy Transition: A Derivation of Transformation Pathways

Author

Listed:
  • Lisa Hanna Broska

    (Research Centre Juelich, Institute of Energy and Climate Research–Systems Analysis and Technology Evaluation (IEK-STE), 52425 Jülich, Germany
    Chair of Environmental and Resource Economics, Faculty of Business Administration, Technical University Bergakademie Freiberg, Schloßplatz 1, 09596 Freiberg, Germany)

  • Stefan Vögele

    (Research Centre Juelich, Institute of Energy and Climate Research–Systems Analysis and Technology Evaluation (IEK-STE), 52425 Jülich, Germany)

  • Hawal Shamon

    (Research Centre Juelich, Institute of Energy and Climate Research–Systems Analysis and Technology Evaluation (IEK-STE), 52425 Jülich, Germany)

  • Inga Wittenberg

    (Department of Personality and Social Psychology, Institute of Psychology, Otto von Guericke University Magdeburg, 39106 Magdeburg, Germany)

Abstract

Active participation of citizens in the sustainable energy transition—particularly in energy communities—is explicitly desired by the European Union and considered vital for a successful transformation of Europe’s energy system. Currently, energy communities, i.e., citizen-led groups generating energy from renewable sources can be found across Europe, though current numbers are small. However, it is expected that the majority of EU households will be active in some form in the generation of energy by 2050. In order to understand how such a development could come about, and if desired, how it could be ensured, we developed and applied a quasi-dynamic model using the Cross-Impact Balance (CIB) approach and with it analyzed and assessed such a transition in detail. Data for the CIB model was derived from case studies, interviews, three surveys including two discrete choice experiments, expert workshops, and complementary secondary data. A central consideration of the model is a differentiated representation of the heterogeneity of actors in society and their interactions. Main results obtained from the application of the model are possible transformation pathways of citizen participation in the energy transition of Germany. A key finding was that if current trends continue, a citizen-driven energy transition based on energy communities will unlikely be successful. We conclude that several framework conditions must change simultaneously from the status quo so that different social groups in society can be active in the generation of energy. These include changes such as the abolition of hindering regulations and the expansion of financial support schemes with a focus on lower socioeconomic groups. Furthermore, only in a combination of conducive social factors such as neighborhood cohesion and conducive social influence, as well as favorable economic conditions, can energy communities become an important player in Germany’s future energy system.

Suggested Citation

  • Lisa Hanna Broska & Stefan Vögele & Hawal Shamon & Inga Wittenberg, 2022. "On the Future(s) of Energy Communities in the German Energy Transition: A Derivation of Transformation Pathways," Sustainability, MDPI, vol. 14(6), pages 1-31, March.
    • Handle: RePEc:gam:jsusta:v:14:y:2022:i:6:p:3169-:d:766837
    as

    Download full text from publisher

    File URL: https://www.mdpi.com/2071-1050/14/6/3169/pdf
    Download Restriction: no
    File URL: https://www.mdpi.com/2071-1050/14/6/3169/
    Download Restriction: no
    ---><---

    References listed on IDEAS

    as
    1. Stefan Vögele & Dirk Rübbelke & Kristina Govorukha & Matthias Grajewski, 2020. "Socio-technical scenarios for energy-intensive industries: the future of steel production in Germany," Climatic Change, Springer, vol. 162(4), pages 1763-1778, October.
    2. Robinson, Scott A. & Rai, Varun, 2015. "Determinants of spatio-temporal patterns of energy technology adoption: An agent-based modeling approach," Applied Energy, Elsevier, vol. 151(C), pages 273-284.
    3. Itzhak Ben-David & Elyas Fermand & Camelia M. Kuhnen & Geng Li, 2018. "Expectations Uncertainty and Household Economic Behavior," NBER Working Papers 25336, National Bureau of Economic Research, Inc.
    4. Vanessa Schweizer & Brian O’Neill, 2014. "Systematic construction of global socioeconomic pathways using internally consistent element combinations," Climatic Change, Springer, vol. 122(3), pages 431-445, February.
    5. Romero-Rubio, Carmen & de Andrés Díaz, José Ramón, 2015. "Sustainable energy communities: a study contrasting Spain and Germany," Energy Policy, Elsevier, vol. 85(C), pages 397-409.
    6. Michalena, Evanthie & Angeon, Valrie, 2009. "Local challenges in the promotion of renewable energy sources: The case of Crete," Energy Policy, Elsevier, vol. 37(5), pages 2018-2026, May.
    7. Mehmet Efe Biresselioglu & Siyami Alp Limoncuoglu & Muhittin Hakan Demir & Johannes Reichl & Katrin Burgstaller & Alessandro Sciullo & Edoardo Ferrero, 2021. "Legal Provisions and Market Conditions for Energy Communities in Austria, Germany, Greece, Italy, Spain, and Turkey: A Comparative Assessment," Sustainability, MDPI, vol. 13(20), pages 1-25, October.
    8. Walker, Gordon & Devine-Wright, Patrick, 2008. "Community renewable energy: What should it mean," Energy Policy, Elsevier, vol. 36(2), pages 497-500, February.
    9. Schleich, Joachim & Faure, Corinne & Meissner, Thomas, 2021. "Adoption of retrofit measures among homeowners in EU countries: The effects of access to capital and debt aversion," Energy Policy, Elsevier, vol. 149(C).
    10. Vögele, Stefan & Hansen, Patrick & Poganietz, Witold-Roger & Prehofer, Sigrid & Weimer-Jehle, Wolfgang, 2017. "Building scenarios for energy consumption of private households in Germany using a multi-level cross-impact balance approach," Energy, Elsevier, vol. 120(C), pages 937-946.
    11. Mignon, Ingrid & Rüdinger, Andreas, 2016. "The impact of systemic factors on the deployment of cooperative projects within renewable electricity production – An international comparison," Renewable and Sustainable Energy Reviews, Elsevier, vol. 65(C), pages 478-488.
    12. Tobias Witt & Matthias Klumpp, 2021. "Multi-Period Multi-Criteria Decision Making under Uncertainty: A Renewable Energy Transition Case from Germany," Sustainability, MDPI, vol. 13(11), pages 1-20, June.
    13. Aniello, Gianmarco & Shamon, Hawal & Kuckshinrichs, Wilhelm, 2021. "Micro-economic assessment of residential PV and battery systems: The underrated role of financial and fiscal aspects," Applied Energy, Elsevier, vol. 281(C).
    14. Inglehart, Ronald, 1971. "The Silent Revolution in Europe: Intergenerational Change in Post-Industrial Societies," American Political Science Review, Cambridge University Press, vol. 65(4), pages 991-1017, December.
    15. Ortwin Renn & Alexander Jager & Jurgen Deuschle & Wolfgang Weimer-Jehle, 2009. "A normative-functional concept of sustainability and its indicators," International Journal of Global Environmental Issues, Inderscience Enterprises Ltd, vol. 9(4), pages 291-317.
    16. Thomas Pregger & Tobias Naegler & Wolfgang Weimer-Jehle & Sigrid Prehofer & Wolfgang Hauser, 2020. "Moving towards socio-technical scenarios of the German energy transition—lessons learned from integrated energy scenario building," Climatic Change, Springer, vol. 162(4), pages 1743-1762, October.
    17. Wolfgang Weimer-Jehle & Stefan Vögele & Wolfgang Hauser & Hannah Kosow & Witold-Roger Poganietz & Sigrid Prehofer, 2020. "Socio-technical energy scenarios: state-of-the-art and CIB-based approaches," Climatic Change, Springer, vol. 162(4), pages 1723-1741, October.
    18. Gjorgievski, Vladimir Z. & Cundeva, Snezana & Georghiou, George E., 2021. "Social arrangements, technical designs and impacts of energy communities: A review," Renewable Energy, Elsevier, vol. 169(C), pages 1138-1156.
    19. Inês, Campos & Guilherme, Pontes Luz & Esther, Marín-González & Swantje, Gährs & Stephen, Hall & Lars, Holstenkamp, 2020. "Regulatory challenges and opportunities for collective renewable energy prosumers in the EU," Energy Policy, Elsevier, vol. 138(C).
    20. Rogers, Jennifer C. & Simmons, Eunice A. & Convery, Ian & Weatherall, Andrew, 2012. "Social impacts of community renewable energy projects: findings from a woodfuel case study," Energy Policy, Elsevier, vol. 42(C), pages 239-247.
    21. Berka, Anna L. & Creamer, Emily, 2018. "Taking stock of the local impacts of community owned renewable energy: A review and research agenda," Renewable and Sustainable Energy Reviews, Elsevier, vol. 82(P3), pages 3400-3419.
    22. Bryan Bollinger & Kenneth Gillingham, 2012. "Peer Effects in the Diffusion of Solar Photovoltaic Panels," Marketing Science, INFORMS, vol. 31(6), pages 900-912, November.
    23. Jonas Torrens & Phillip Johnstone & Johan Schot, 2018. "Unpacking the Formation of Favourable Environments for Urban Experimentation: The Case of the Bristol Energy Scene," Sustainability, MDPI, vol. 10(3), pages 1-28, March.
    24. Pons-Seres de Brauwer, C. & Cohen, J.J., 2020. "Analysing the potential of citizen-financed community renewable energy to drive Europe's low-carbon energy transition," Renewable and Sustainable Energy Reviews, Elsevier, vol. 133(C).
    25. Thomas Hoppe & Antonia Graf & Beau Warbroek & Imke Lammers & Isabella Lepping, 2015. "Local Governments Supporting Local Energy Initiatives: Lessons from the Best Practices of Saerbeck (Germany) and Lochem (The Netherlands)," Sustainability, MDPI, vol. 7(2), pages 1-32, February.
    26. Zhikun Ding & Wenyan Gong & Shenghan Li & Zezhou Wu, 2018. "System Dynamics versus Agent-Based Modeling: A Review of Complexity Simulation in Construction Waste Management," Sustainability, MDPI, vol. 10(7), pages 1-13, July.
    27. Brummer, Vasco, 2018. "Community energy – benefits and barriers: A comparative literature review of Community Energy in the UK, Germany and the USA, the benefits it provides for society and the barriers it faces," Renewable and Sustainable Energy Reviews, Elsevier, vol. 94(C), pages 187-196.
    Full references (including those not matched with items on IDEAS)

    Citations

    Citations are extracted by the CitEc Project, subscribe to its RSS feed for this item.
    as


    Cited by:

    1. Chuanjia Du & Chengjun Wang & Tao Feng, 2023. "The Impact of China’s National Sustainable Development Experimental Zone Policy on Energy Transition," Sustainability, MDPI, vol. 15(10), pages 1-21, May.
    2. Alyssa Diva Mustika & Rémy Rigo-Mariani & Vincent Debusschere & Amaury Pachurka, 2022. "New Members Selection for the Expansion of Energy Communities," Sustainability, MDPI, vol. 14(18), pages 1-15, September.
    3. Chonghao Zhao, 2023. "An approach to extend Cross-Impact Balance method in multiple timespans," Papers 2308.06223, arXiv.org.

    Most related items

    These are the items that most often cite the same works as this one and are cited by the same works as this one.
    1. Vögele, Stefan & Poganietz, Witold-Roger & Kleinebrahm, Max & Weimer-Jehle, Wolfgang & Bernhard, Jesse & Kuckshinrichs, Wilhelm & Weiss, Annika, 2022. "Dissemination of PV-Battery systems in the German residential sector up to 2050: Technological diffusion from multidisciplinary perspectives," Energy, Elsevier, vol. 248(C).
    2. Haji Bashi, Mazaher & De Tommasi, Luciano & Le Cam, Andreea & Relaño, Lorena Sánchez & Lyons, Padraig & Mundó, Joana & Pandelieva-Dimova, Ivanka & Schapp, Henrik & Loth-Babut, Karolina & Egger, Christ, 2023. "A review and mapping exercise of energy community regulatory challenges in European member states based on a survey of collective energy actors," Renewable and Sustainable Energy Reviews, Elsevier, vol. 172(C).
    3. Busch, Henner & Ruggiero, Salvatore & Isakovic, Aljosa & Hansen, Teis, 2021. "Policy challenges to community energy in the EU: A systematic review of the scientific literature," Renewable and Sustainable Energy Reviews, Elsevier, vol. 151(C).
    4. F.G. Reis, Inês & Gonçalves, Ivo & A.R. Lopes, Marta & Henggeler Antunes, Carlos, 2021. "Business models for energy communities: A review of key issues and trends," Renewable and Sustainable Energy Reviews, Elsevier, vol. 144(C).
    5. Viktor Bukovszki & Ábel Magyari & Marina Kristina Braun & Kitti Párdi & András Reith, 2020. "Energy Modelling as a Trigger for Energy Communities: A Joint Socio-Technical Perspective," Energies, MDPI, vol. 13(9), pages 1-44, May.
    6. Mehmet Efe Biresselioglu & Siyami Alp Limoncuoglu & Muhittin Hakan Demir & Johannes Reichl & Katrin Burgstaller & Alessandro Sciullo & Edoardo Ferrero, 2021. "Legal Provisions and Market Conditions for Energy Communities in Austria, Germany, Greece, Italy, Spain, and Turkey: A Comparative Assessment," Sustainability, MDPI, vol. 13(20), pages 1-25, October.
    7. Bauwens, Thomas & Schraven, Daan & Drewing, Emily & Radtke, Jörg & Holstenkamp, Lars & Gotchev, Boris & Yildiz, Özgür, 2022. "Conceptualizing community in energy systems: A systematic review of 183 definitions," Renewable and Sustainable Energy Reviews, Elsevier, vol. 156(C).
    8. Dalia Streimikiene & Tomas Baležentis & Artiom Volkov & Mangirdas Morkūnas & Agnė Žičkienė & Justas Streimikis, 2021. "Barriers and Drivers of Renewable Energy Penetration in Rural Areas," Energies, MDPI, vol. 14(20), pages 1-28, October.
    9. Brummer, Vasco, 2018. "Community energy – benefits and barriers: A comparative literature review of Community Energy in the UK, Germany and the USA, the benefits it provides for society and the barriers it faces," Renewable and Sustainable Energy Reviews, Elsevier, vol. 94(C), pages 187-196.
    10. Ruggiero, S. & Busch, H. & Hansen, T. & Isakovic, A., 2021. "Context and agency in urban community energy initiatives: An analysis of six case studies from the Baltic Sea Region," Energy Policy, Elsevier, vol. 148(PA).
    11. Bauwens, Thomas, 2019. "Analyzing the determinants of the size of investments by community renewable energy members: Findings and policy implications from Flanders," Energy Policy, Elsevier, vol. 129(C), pages 841-852.
    12. Julia Maria Wittmayer & Tessa de Geus & Bonno Pel & F. Avelino & Sabine Hielscher & Thomas Hoppe & Marie Susan Mühlemeier & Agata Stasik & Sem Oxenaar & Karoline K.S. Rogge & Vivian Visser & Esther Ma, 2020. "Beyond instrumentalism: Broadening the understanding of social innovation in socio-technical energy systems," ULB Institutional Repository 2013/312323, ULB -- Universite Libre de Bruxelles.
    13. Nuñez-Jimenez, Alejandro & Mehta, Prakhar & Griego, Danielle, 2023. "Let it grow: How community solar policy can increase PV adoption in cities," Energy Policy, Elsevier, vol. 175(C).
    14. Lanka Horstink & Julia M. Wittmayer & Kiat Ng & Guilherme Pontes Luz & Esther Marín-González & Swantje Gährs & Inês Campos & Lars Holstenkamp & Sem Oxenaar & Donal Brown, 2020. "Collective Renewable Energy Prosumers and the Promises of the Energy Union: Taking Stock," Energies, MDPI, vol. 13(2), pages 1-30, January.
    15. Neska, Ewa & Kowalska-Pyzalska, Anna, 2022. "Conceptual design of energy market topologies for communities and their practical applications in EU: A comparison of three case studies," Renewable and Sustainable Energy Reviews, Elsevier, vol. 169(C).
    16. Jenny Palm, 2021. "The Transposition of Energy Communities into Swedish Regulations: Overview and Critique of Emerging Regulations," Energies, MDPI, vol. 14(16), pages 1-15, August.
    17. Mier, Mathias & Siala, Kais & Govorukha, Kristina & Mayer, Philip, 2023. "Collaboration, decarbonization, and distributional effects," Applied Energy, Elsevier, vol. 341(C).
    18. Liu, Zhengguang & Guo, Zhiling & Song, Chenchen & Du, Ying & Chen, Qi & Chen, Yuntian & Zhang, Haoran, 2023. "Business model comparison of slum-based PV to realize low-cost and flexible power generation in city-level," Applied Energy, Elsevier, vol. 344(C).
    19. Grashof, Katherina, 2019. "Are auctions likely to deter community wind projects? And would this be problematic?," Energy Policy, Elsevier, vol. 125(C), pages 20-32.
    20. Horstink, Lanka & Wittmayer, Julia M. & Ng, Kiat, 2021. "Pluralising the European energy landscape: Collective renewable energy prosumers and the EU's clean energy vision," Energy Policy, Elsevier, vol. 153(C).

    Corrections

    All material on this site has been provided by the respective publishers and authors. You can help correct errors and omissions. When requesting a correction, please mention this item's handle: RePEc:gam:jsusta:v:14:y:2022:i:6:p:3169-:d:766837. See general information about how to correct material in RePEc.

    If you have authored this item and are not yet registered with RePEc, we encourage you to do it here. This allows to link your profile to this item. It also allows you to accept potential citations to this item that we are uncertain about.

    If CitEc recognized a bibliographic reference but did not link an item in RePEc to it, you can help with this form .

    If you know of missing items citing this one, you can help us creating those links by adding the relevant references in the same way as above, for each refering item. If you are a registered author of this item, you may also want to check the "citations" tab in your RePEc Author Service profile, as there may be some citations waiting for confirmation.

    For technical questions regarding this item, or to correct its authors, title, abstract, bibliographic or download information, contact: MDPI Indexing Manager (email available below). General contact details of provider: https://www.mdpi.com .

    Please note that corrections may take a couple of weeks to filter through the various RePEc services.

    IDEAS is a RePEc service. RePEc uses bibliographic data supplied by the respective publishers.