A thousand flowers blooming? An examination of community energy in the UK

Seyfang, Gill ORCID: https://orcid.org/0000-0003-4696-0798, Park, Jung Jin and Smith, Adrian (2013) A thousand flowers blooming? An examination of community energy in the UK. Energy Policy, 61. pp. 977-989. ISSN 0301-4215

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Abstract

Community energy has been proposed as a new policy tool to help achieve the transition to a low-carbon energy system, but the evidence base for this strategy is partial and fragmented. We therefore present new empirical evidence from the first independent UK-wide survey of community energy projects. Our survey investigates the objectives, origins and development of these groups across the UK, their activities and their networking activities as a sector. We also examine the strengths and weaknesses of these groups, along with the opportunities and threats presented by wider socioeconomic and political contexts, in order to improve understanding of the sector's potential and the challenges it faces. We highlight several key issues concerning the further development of the sector. First, this highly diverse sector is not reducible to a single entity; its multiple objectives need joined-up thinking among government departments. Second, its civil society basis is fundamental to its success at engaging local communities, and makes the sector quite distinct from the large energy companies these community groups are aiming to work alongside. There are inherent tensions and vulnerabilities in such a model, and limits to how much these groups can achieve on their own: consistent policy support is essential.

Item Type:	Article
Uncontrolled Keywords:	sustainable energy,grassroots innovations,civil society
Faculty \ School:	Faculty of Science > School of Environmental Sciences
UEA Research Groups:	Faculty of Science > Research Centres > Centre for Social and Economic Research on the Global Environment (CSERGE) Faculty of Science > Research Groups > Science, Society and Sustainability Faculty of Science > Research Groups > Resources, Sustainability and Governance (former - to 2018) Faculty of Science > Research Groups > Environmental Social Sciences
Depositing User:	Pure Connector
Date Deposited:	24 Jul 2013 13:11
Last Modified:	19 Dec 2023 02:16
URI:	https://ueaeprints.uea.ac.uk/id/eprint/43061
DOI:	10.1016/j.enpol.2013.06.030

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