Collective Energy Practices: A Practice-Based Approach to Civic Energy Communities and the Energy System

Nick Verkade and Johanna Höffken
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Nick Verkade: School of Industrial Engineering and Innovation Sciences, Eindhoven University of Technology, Room ATL 8.406, P O Box 513, 1600 MB Eindhoven, The Netherlands
Johanna Höffken: School of Industrial Engineering and Innovation Sciences, Eindhoven University of Technology, Room ATL 8.406, P O Box 513, 1600 MB Eindhoven, The Netherlands

Sustainability, 2019, vol. 11, issue 11, 1-15

Abstract: Civic energy communities (CECs) have emerged throughout Europe in recent years, developing a range of activities to promote, generate, and manage renewable energy within the community. Building on theories of Social Practice, we develop the notion of Collective Energy Practice to account for the activity of CECs. This expands the practice-based understanding of energy, which thus far has mostly focused on energy practices of the home. Additionally, we build on earlier practice-based thinking to come to our understanding of a ‘system of energy practices’. This view places the collective energy practices of CECs in a broader mesh of sites of practice, including policymaking, commercial activity, and grid management. Taking account of the enabling and/or restricting the influence of this broad system of energy practices is crucial in understanding the development of CECs’ practices. We accomplish this through the qualitative analysis of our long-term empirical research of five Dutch CEC sites, but also draw on our earlier fieldwork on smart grid projects in the Netherlands.

Keywords: civic energy communities; community energy; local energy initiatives; grassroots innovation; energy transition; social practice theory; energy practices (search for similar items in EconPapers)
JEL-codes: O13 Q Q0 Q2 Q3 Q5 Q56 (search for similar items in EconPapers)
Date: 2019
References: View references in EconPapers View complete reference list from CitEc
Citations: View citations in EconPapers (9)

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