NEWCOMERS: Potential of energy communities to increase energy literacy, attitudes, perceptions and support for the energy transition among members and the general public
Creators: name: Medved, Primož
name: Kogovšek, Tina
name: Berzelak, Nejc
name: Kamin, Tanja
name: Golob, Urša
Publisher: name: Zenodo
Year: 2022
Subjects: clean energy, energy communities, social practice, consumer value, sustainability

description: Part of the central mission of the NEWCOMERS project is to encourage empowerment processes for EU citizens to participate in and contribute to clean energy transitions by initiating or joining clean energy communities (CECs). In this deliverable, D6.2, our focus is on identifying CEC members’ attitudes and perceptions, trust, perceived value and energy literacy as well as their support for the energy transition. The main aim of D6.2 is to explore the potential of energy communities to increase energy literacy and shape attitudes and perceptions in support of the energy transition among CEC members. This is an important first step towards understanding what kinds of incentives are needed for upscaling projects, such as CECs, across the EU. To achieve our aim, we have combined the findings of two studies carried out among members of CECs, which were selected to be our case studies in the NEWCOMERS project. The conceptual foundation of our enquiry is based on the socio-psychological approach focused on the level of individuals. This is important owing to the considerable emphasis placed on individuals in the EU’s vision of the Energy Union. Moreover, to understand individuals’ inclinations to be part of collective actions, such as CECs, it is important to gain insight into the socio-psychological foundations and rationales that drive their behaviours. The main part of D6.2 consists of the findings obtained from a quantitative survey among members of the studied CECs. These findings are complemented by findings obtained from a qualitative study based on semi-structured interviews across the same CECs, comprehensively presented in D6.1. Overall, our results indicate that the potential of CECs could best be realised by acknowledging the differences among CECs across the various individual-level socio-psychological foundations explored in our study. The results reveal that motivations for taking part in CECs play a quintessential role in considering ways to support and spread CECs. We found that there is not a single but multitude of motives for joining CECs. In some CECs, environmental considerations for joining were predominantly exposed, yet our qualitative data suggest that these are always in close connection with one or more other motives that together influence people to get involved in CECs. In close relation to motives, individuals perceived different types of value that could be derived from taking part in CECs that go beyond economic value, such as decreasing energy costs. Interestingly, people that are considered frontrunners (forerunners) in CECs and often assume the role of (un)official community leaders are perceived as crucial to upholding a CEC’s functioning; they tend to enjoy high trust from community members and are entrusted with all important tasks for the CEC’s strategic and daily management. Moreover, our results show that community-based trust can be seen as a unifying factor within CECs and is maintained by transparency of actions and information sharing among members. Members consider participating in CECs as a way of showing their contribution towards a clean energy transition in society. They also perceive involvement in CECs as empowering both in terms of transforming passive individuals into active agents and in heightening the collective empowerment to shape a ‘better’ future. Interestingly, members also expressed that being part of a CEC had increased their general level of environmental consciousness. Quantitative data further reveal that CEC members think public institutions, such as national and local government, city, communal and regional authorities, play an important role in a country’s energy efficiency and energy conservation policies. While individual engagement is important, public institutions and governments need to be enablers in switching to clean energy sources. Much stronger political support for CECs is expected and better collaboration among all important actors is needed to achieve a faster clean energy transition. Finally, our results indicate that surveyed CEC members feel they are crucial for sharing energy- and CEC-related knowledge within as well as outside their community. They see themselves as important promoters of the CEC’s benefits to the interested public. They expressed pride in being members of CECs and showed a tendency to identify with their respective CECs. Our study showcases that people’s engagement in CECs – which represent various coownership schemes and business models that clearly differ across our case studies and national settings – is playing an increasingly important role by fostering individuals’ participation in clean energy transitions and increasing the acceptance of renewable energy. By studying the individual-level factors, the study also lays the foundation for acknowledging the importance of a plurality of individual actors (citizens-consumers) and their needs in developing appropriate policies and incentives that would achieve the ultimate goal of realising decentralised and democratised energy transitions towards a decarbonised future.