Collective Renewable Energy Prosumers and the Promises of the Energy Union: Taking Stock

Lanka Horstink, Julia M. Wittmayer, Kiat Ng, Guilherme Pontes Luz, Esther Marín-González, Swantje Gährs, Inês Campos, Lars Holstenkamp (), Sem Oxenaar and Donal Brown
Additional contact information
Lanka Horstink: Faculty of Engineering, University of Porto (FEUP), Rua Dr. Roberto Frias, 4200-465 Porto, Portugal
Julia M. Wittmayer: DRIFT—Dutch Research Institute for Transitions, Erasmus University Rotterdam, Postbus 1738, 3000 DR Rotterdam, The Netherlands
Kiat Ng: Faculty of Engineering, University of Porto (FEUP), Rua Dr. Roberto Frias, 4200-465 Porto, Portugal
Guilherme Pontes Luz: Centre for Ecology, Evolution and Environmental Changes (CE3C), Faculty of Sciences of Lisbon University, Campo Grande, 1749-016 Lisboa, Portugal
Esther Marín-González: Centre for Ecology, Evolution and Environmental Changes (CE3C), Faculty of Sciences of Lisbon University, Campo Grande, 1749-016 Lisboa, Portugal
Swantje Gährs: Institute for Ecological Economy Research (IÖW), Potsdamer Str. 105, 10785 Berlin, Germany
Inês Campos: Centre for Ecology, Evolution and Environmental Changes (CE3C), Faculty of Sciences of Lisbon University, Campo Grande, 1749-016 Lisboa, Portugal
Sem Oxenaar: DRIFT—Dutch Research Institute for Transitions, Erasmus University Rotterdam, Postbus 1738, 3000 DR Rotterdam, The Netherlands
Donal Brown: Sustainability Research Institute, University of Leeds, Leeds LS2 9JT, UK

Energies, 2020, vol. 13, issue 2, 1-30

Abstract: 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.

Keywords: renewable energy prosumer; energy transition; collective prosumer; energy union; community energy (search for similar items in EconPapers)
JEL-codes: Q Q0 Q4 Q40 Q41 Q42 Q43 Q47 Q48 Q49 (search for similar items in EconPapers)
Date: 2020
References: View references in EconPapers View complete reference list from CitEc
Citations: View citations in EconPapers (31)

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