Application of Multi-Actor Multi-Criteria Analysis for Transition Management in Energy Communities

Maria Luisa Lode, Geert te Boveldt, Cathy Macharis and Thierry Coosemans
Additional contact information
Maria Luisa Lode: Mobility, Logistics and Automotive Technology Research Center, Vrije Universiteit Brussel, 1050 Ixelles, Belgium
Geert te Boveldt: Mobility, Logistics and Automotive Technology Research Center, Vrije Universiteit Brussel, 1050 Ixelles, Belgium
Cathy Macharis: Mobility, Logistics and Automotive Technology Research Center, Vrije Universiteit Brussel, 1050 Ixelles, Belgium
Thierry Coosemans: Mobility, Logistics and Automotive Technology Research Center, Vrije Universiteit Brussel, 1050 Ixelles, Belgium

Sustainability, 2021, vol. 13, issue 4, 1-18

Abstract: Energy communities (ECs) play a role in the transition towards a low-carbon economy by 2050 and receive increasing attention from stakeholders within the energy sector. To foster ECs, transition management (TM) is a promising managerial approach to steer and guide the transition towards more sustainable practices. However, TM lacks a consistent methodology that addresses the criticism of the current application. To investigate what a structured and replicable TM approach for ECs can look like, this paper applies the multi-actor multi-criteria analysis (MAMCA), a participative multi-criteria decision method, to a case study EC in the Netherlands involving various stakeholders. The impact of the application on power relations, the political sphere, sustainability conceptualization, guidance of transitions, and representation was analyzed. MAMCA was found useful for multi-stakeholder settings seen in potential ECs, offering a unifying methodology for the practical application of TM. In the EC setting, the added value of MAMCA within TM lies more in the social representation, insight into stakeholder viewpoints, and communication rather than in final decision-making.

Keywords: energy transition; transition management; multi-actor multi-criteria analysis; energy communities; multi-criteria analysis (search for similar items in EconPapers)
JEL-codes: O13 Q Q0 Q2 Q3 Q5 Q56 (search for similar items in EconPapers)
Date: 2021
References: View references in EconPapers View complete reference list from CitEc
Citations: View citations in EconPapers (6)

Downloads: (external link)
https://www.mdpi.com/2071-1050/13/4/1783/pdf (application/pdf)
https://www.mdpi.com/2071-1050/13/4/1783/ (text/html)

Related works:
This item may be available elsewhere in EconPapers: Search for items with the same title.

Export reference: BibTeX RIS (EndNote, ProCite, RefMan) HTML/Text

Persistent link: https://EconPapers.repec.org/RePEc:gam:jsusta:v:13:y:2021:i:4:p:1783-:d:494971

Access Statistics for this article

Sustainability is currently edited by Ms. Alexandra Wu

More articles in Sustainability from MDPI
Bibliographic data for series maintained by MDPI Indexing Manager ().