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A Thousand Flowers Blooming? Energy Policy 61 (2013) 977–989 Contents lists available at ScienceDirect Energy Policy journal homepage: www.elsevier.com/locate/enpol A thousand flowers blooming? An examination of community energy in the UK Gill Seyfang a,n, Jung Jin Park b, Adrian Smith b a 3S (Science, Society and Sustainability) Research Group, School of Environmental Sciences, University of East Anglia, Norwich NR4 7TJ, United Kingdom b SPRU (Science and Technology Policy Research), University of Sussex, Brighton BN1 9RH, United Kingdom HIGHLIGHTS The community-led sustainable energy sector is diverse, and growing in the UK. Sometimes it is more about the community than the energy. Joined-up policy thinking is needed to properly measure performance and impact. There are limits to how much civil society-led groups can achieve on their own. Consistent policy support is essential to the sector's development. article info abstract Article history: Community energy has been proposed as a new policy tool to help achieve the transition to a low-carbon Received 26 September 2012 energy system, but the evidence base for this strategy is partial and fragmented. We therefore present Accepted 6 June 2013 new empirical evidence from the first independent UK-wide survey of community energy projects. Available online 6 July 2013 Our survey investigates the objectives, origins and development of these groups across the UK, their Keywords: activities and their networking activities as a sector. We also examine the strengths and weaknesses of Sustainable energy these groups, along with the opportunities and threats presented by wider socioeconomic and political Grassroots innovations contexts, in order to improve understanding of the sector's potential and the challenges it faces. Civil society 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. & 2013 Elsevier Ltd. All rights reserved. 1. Introduction individuals” (ibid p. 92) and the government's task is to “create an environment where the innovation and ideas of communities [in The twin sustainability challenges of climate change and response to climate change] can flourish” (p. 92). energy security require fundamental shifts in the nature of Community energy projects are one example of this type of large-scale energy systems (UK Energy Research Centre (UKERC), grassroots-led innovation, which aim to create more sustainable 2009; Grin et al., 2010). The previous UK government's Low energy systems. They encompass a wide range of initiatives such Carbon Transition Plan presents a national strategy for climate as locally-owned renewable energy generation, community hall and energy which includes reducing energy consumption through refurbishments, collective behaviour change programmes, and so conservation and efficiency measures, and the development of on, and are claimed to bring additional public engagement low-carbon electricity generation systems (HM Government, benefits to top-down policy initiatives. To this end, a range of 2009). A key element of this plan is the role of households and government funding programmes and prize competitions have communities, as “we often achieve more acting together than as been instigated, to stimulate and support community-led sustain- able energy initiatives. Community energy has therefore been proposed as a new n Corresponding author. Tel.: +44 160 359 2956. policy tool to help achieve the transition to a low-carbon energy E-mail address: [email protected] (G. Seyfang). system, but the evidence base for this strategy is partial and 0301-4215/$ - see front matter & 2013 Elsevier Ltd. All rights reserved. http://dx.doi.org/10.1016/j.enpol.2013.06.030 978 G. Seyfang et al. / Energy Policy 61 (2013) 977–989 fragmented: existing research on community energy consists Defining ‘community energy’ precisely is somewhat proble- mostly of qualitative studies of small numbers of projects, and matic: there is no consensus over the term, and policymakers, focuses on either renewable energy technologies or behaviour- intermediary organisations, practitioners and academics infer change to reduce carbon emissions, rather than community energy varying degrees of community involvement (Muller et al., 2011; per se. The few existing quantitative surveys of the community Hoffman and High-Pippert, 2010; Walker and Devine-Wright, energy sector have been similarly limited by focusing on either 2008). Walker et al. (2007) reviewed a number of different supply or demand-side measures and have tended to be under- community renewable energy projects to investigate the varia- taken by NGOs with specific remits within the broader sector. tions in community ownership and outcomes across the range, Consequently, there is no existing dataset providing an empiri- and to examine the diversity of interpretations of ‘community cal overview of the whole community energy sector, addressing energy’ in use amongst different actors. While offering a slippery both supply and demand-side initiatives. There is a pressing need concept for analysis, the ‘flexibility’ of interpretations did work in for independent, sector-wide data about the scope, scale and favour of wide acceptability of the concept of community energy. character of community energy in the UK, to provide evidence For the purposes of this paper we follow Walker and Devine- for policymakers to inform their decision-making about the sector, Wright's (2008) lead and consider community energy to refer to and to better inform practitioners and intermediary organisations those projects where communities (of place or interest) exhibit a about how to meet the needs of the sector and support it to high degree of ownership and control, as well as benefiting achieve its potential. collectively from the outcomes, and we include both supply- and We aim to address that knowledge deficit by presenting new demand-side sustainable energy initiatives. In the next section we empirical evidence from the first independent UK-wide survey of describe a principally instrumental policy perspective on the community energy projects. Our survey investigates the objec- sector which has been developed in government strategies for tives, origins and development of these groups across the UK, their sustainable energy. activities and their networking as a sector. We also examine the strengths and weaknesses of these groups, along with the oppor- tunities and threats presented by wider contexts, in order to 2.2. Policy support for community energy improve understanding of the sector's potential and the challenges it faces. Community action has, for some time, been seen as a key part The paper proceeds with a review of the policy and research of government strategy for delivering sustainable development. contexts of community energy in the UK, synthesising existing The UK government has stated that: knowledge on the sector and identifying key issues from the literature which require further investigation. We then describe Community groups can help tackle climate change, develop our research methodology, and reflect on the limitations of the community energy and transport projects, help minimise data obtained. Next, we present our survey results and identify the waste, improve the quality of the local environment, and most important findings in light of the previous review, and we promote fair trade and sustainable consumption and produc- discuss their significance for the transition to sustainable energy. tion (HM Government, 2005, p. 27). We conclude by considering the implications of these findings for further research, and outline some policy recommendations to And within this context, community energy projects are deemed support the sector to achieve its potential. suitable vehicles for raising awareness of sustainable energy issues, improving public receptivity to renewable energy installations, increasing engagement in behaviour-change initiatives and reducing carbon emissions as a result. Thus, communities are seen as critical 2. Community energy: The policy and research context players in sustainable energy generation and energy saving efforts, in key polices of the previous New Labour UK and devolved govern- 2.1. Introducing community energy ments (HM Government, 2005, 2010), and this has been reiterated by the UK's Conservative-Liberal Democrat coalition government: “Com- The last few years have seen a flourishing of community-led munity energy is a perfect expression of the transformative power of sustainable energy projects (hereafter ‘community energy’) in the the Big Society” (Department of Energy and Climate Change (DECC), UK, building on an historical foundation of alternative energy 2010). To this end, several policy initiatives have explicitly aimed to initiatives from the 1970s, and benefiting from recent policy catalyse increased community energy activity such as Scotland's measures to support the transition to a low-carbon economy. Scottish Community and Householder Renewables Initiative A recent study identified over 500 community
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