• Energy Research

Abstract Active energy citizens are leading energy transitions, co-producing new cultures, practices and structures of production and consumption. This article aims to understand if prosumerism – the collective participation of prosumers in energy projects with social, economic and environmental benefits to society – can be referred to as a social movement. The article draws on a review of Social Movements Theory and applies thematic analysis to characterize 46 prosumer initiatives in Europe. The collective identities, socio-political opponents, knowledge-making activities, collective learning, and collective action aspects of these prosumers are described. The results show that prosumer initiatives converge towards a transformative social movement. This movement upholds decentralized renewable energy production and consumption, and presents itself as a socially inclusive, transparent and participatory energy model, replicable across the globe, in what can be described as a collective action towards a decentralized democratic energy model. The discussion highlights relationships between prosumerism and framings such as energy justice (including energy poverty and gender issues), energy democracy, climate change action and anti-nuclear movements, to reach a conclusion considering the relevance of calling prosumerism a social movement, while opening up some avenues for future research.

By asking how renewable energy sources (RES) prosumerism, integrates sufficiency and inclusivity concerns and/or practices, the study presents the results of a narrative literature review of RES prosumerism research. The review focuses on how these concerns and/or practices emerge across the socio-technical narratives that characterise RES prosumers' research. The study takes stock of a machine-learning topic model and a qualitative thematic coding to identify and discuss key topics, themes, and narrative elements related to sufficiency and inclusivity in RES prosumerism. The results show a crosscutting narrative from early discussions (2005–2018) on energy citizenship, grassroots initiatives, and collective prosumer initiatives, to regulated and institutionalised energy communities (2019–2023). The narrative highlights the relational and systemic dynamics of prosumer projects, embedded in local socioeconomic, sociopolitical, and cultural contexts, and shows that inclusivity and sufficiency have not always been major concerns. However, there are exceptions found in research into “energy commons” and “grassroots innovations”. These findings are discussed in relation to the role of new policy options for sustainable RES prosumerism. The study's conclusions offer therefore policy directions for sustainable energy systems, guided by sufficiency and inclusivity principles. info:eu-repo/semantics/publishedVersion

Robust strategies and action-plans are essential in tackling climate change. Given the local and context-specific nature of climate impacts, the involvement of municipalities is key for effective mitigation and adaptation solutions. Due to its vulnerability and low level of adaptive capacity, Portugal offers insights into adaptation research and practice in Europe. This article hypothesizes that National and European climate change adaptation strategies are not effectively involving municipalities, and are thus losing out on the opportunity to take stock of local responses for climate change mitigation and adaptation. To address this issue, a survey by questionnaire was done to Portuguese municipalities, and data was collected regarding the following: the importance attributed to climate change; the mitigation and adaptation measures planned and implemented; the main drivers, concerns, and triggers promoting climate policy and actions; and access to information and knowledge. 109 valid responses were collected across the country from a universe of 308 municipalities. Results show climate change in planning agendas is still ‘little’ or ‘not important’. There is also a clear difference in the drivers and concerns motivating climate policy, and action between Littoral and Inland regions. Overall, there is a greater focus on mitigation than adaptation. The discussion highlights the need for capacity building, the issue of equity, the role of European networks, and the relevance of cultural differences between Littoral and Inland regions. The conclusion distils the main lessons learned concerning these challenges and needs, the role of transnational networks, and the cultural contexts for building resilience, through adaptation, across Europe.

Renewable energy (RE) prosumerism comes with promises and expectations of contributing to sustainable and just energy systems. In its current process of becoming mainstream, numerous challenges and doubts have arisen whether it will live up to these. Building on insights from sustainability transitions research and institutional theory, this article unpacks the mainstreaming by considering the range of institutional arrangements and logics through which these contributions might be secured. Taking a Multi-actor Perspective, it analyses the differences, combinations, and tensions between institutional logics, associated actor roles and power relations. Firstly, it unpacks how mainstreaming occurs through mechanisms of bureaucratisation and standardisation (state logic), marketisation and commodification (market logic), as well as socialisation and communalisation (community logic). Secondly, it highlights the concomitant hybridisation of institutional logics and actor roles. Such hybrid institutional arrangements try to reconcile not only the more known trade-offs and tensions between for-profit/non-profit logics (regarding the distribution of benefits for energy activities and resources), but also between formal/informal logics (gaining recognition) and public/private logics (delineating access). This institutional concreteness moves the scholarly discussion and policy debate beyond idealistic discussions of ethical principles and abstract discussions about power: Simplistic framings of ‘prosumerism vs incumbents’ are dropped in favour of a critical discussion of hybrid institutional arrangements and their capacity to safeguard particular transformative ideals and normative commitments.

A key strategy in the European Union’s ambition to establish an ‘Energy Union’ that is not just clean, but also fair, consists of empowering citizens to actively interact with the energy market as self-consumers or prosumers. Although renewable energy sources (RES) prosumerism has been growing for at least a decade, two new EU directives are intended to legitimise and facilitate its expansion. However, little is known about the full range of prosumers against which to measure policy effectiveness. We carried out a documentary study and an online survey in nine EU countries to shed light on the demographics, use of technology, organisation, financing, and motivation as well as perceived hindering and facilitating factors for collective prosumers. We identified several internal and external obstacles to the successful mainstreaming of RES prosumerism, among them a mismatch of policies with the needs of different RES prosumer types, potential organisational weaknesses as well as slow progress in essential reforms such as decentralising energy infrastructures. Our baseline results offer recommendations for the transposition of EU directives into national legislations and suggest avenues for future research in the fields of social, governance, policy, technology, and business models.

This database was developed in the context of Horizon Europe project JUSTWIND4ALL. The database of participatory practices and social innovations (e.g., wind energy RESCOOPs, wind energy Community Development Trusts), in the context of onshore and offshore wind energy developments, results from a systematic review of 570 documents. A set of participatory practices is identified, as well as examples of practices by social innovation initiatives, and a categorization of practices in terms of the level of participation, the subjects and objects involved in the process, opportunities and timings for participation, and the social, environmental, and economic impacts of wind energy projects. A first descriptive analysis of these data is provided in JUSTWIND4ALL deliverable 3.1 Database of Good Participatory Practices and Social Innovations in on- and off-shore wind energy developments.  Inês Campos was responsible for designing the database, collecting data, and analyzing data. Flávio Oliveira also collaborated in the design of the database and data collection.