• Energy Research
• 2021-2025close

In community energy systems, the energy demand of a group of households is met by collectively generated electricity and heat from renewable energy sources. What makes these systems unique is their collective and collaborative form of organization and their distributed energy generation. While these features are crucial to the resilience of these systems and are beneficial for the sustainable energy transition in general, they may at the same time undermine the security of energy within these systems. This paper takes a comprehensive view of the energy security of community energy systems by considering dimensions such as energy price, environment and availability, which are all impacted by decentralized and collective means of energy generation and distribution. The study analyses community energy systems' technical and institutional characteristics that influence their energy security. An agent-based modelling approach is used for the first time to study energy security, focusing on thermal energy communities given the considerable share of thermal energy applications such as heating, cooling, and hot tap water. The simulation results articulate that energy communities are capable of contributing to the energy security of individual households. Results demonstrated the substantial potential of energy communities in CO2 emissions reduction (60% on average) while being affordable in the long run. In addition, the results show the importance of project leadership (particularly regarding the municipality) concerning energy security performances. Finally, the results reveal that the amount of available subsidy and natural gas prices are relatively more effective for ensuring high energy security levels than CO2 taxes. ; Energie and Industrie ; Organisation & Governance ; Economics of Technology and Innovation ; Applied Sciences

This paper demonstrates an approach to assess, ex ante, the social acceptance of sustainable heating systems in city districts. More sustainable heating systems are required in city districts to reduce greenhouse gas emissions. However, these systems may lack social acceptance as they often require significant adjustments to homes and may lead to a noticeable loss of in-home thermal comfort. Predicting social acceptance is often difficult due to the long-term planning horizon for energy systems. It is therefore unclear which design requirements and policy guidelines need to be specified ex ante. We suggest an approach to anticipate social acceptance by identifying value conflicts embedded in sustainable heating systems in specific social settings. These value conflicts might cause a lack of social acceptance over time due to value change. We demonstrate this approach using a case of community-driven heating initiative in The Hague, the Netherlands. We identify value conflicts embedded in various sustainable heating systems using an agent-based model. We formulate scenarios of value change to understand the severity of resulting social acceptance issues and discuss suitable heating systems for the city district. The approach can be used to support the decision-making process of policymakers at the local level, even in situations of limited local expertise.