Breffní Lennon

Forming energy communities and the governance structures needed to facilitate their development is proving more difficult than previously foreseen. This is evidenced by the rather uneven development of sustainable energy communities in Europe and beyond. Living labs offer a useful pathway for co-creating the dynamic renewable energy ecosystems needed to foster user-driven innovation, particularly with regards to integrating digital technology into the engagement practices of citizens in new energy communities. This paper uses the COM-B Model of behaviour to explore the potential of living labs in facilitating more active participation and co-creation among stakeholders, particularly in terms of integrating demand response strategies that foster collaborative end-user engagement. Indeed, it is this interplay between information and communication technology (ICT) and innovation which emerges from living labs that can empower participants to co-design solutions that are more responsive to real-world needs. Also, it should lead to fostering more sustainable changes in behaviour and improve the efficacy of the technical solutions available to us. This paper presents recent findings from multinational European research utilising the living lab model and the collaborative environment it provided for citizens to vision the types of participation they prioritise in bridging the gap between technological potential and user-centric innovation. Such collaborative, co-learning opportunities offer a means towards ensuring current ICT advancements align with the practical demands of the low-carbon societies we wish to create.

As the energy transition deepens, a key component of this effort has been the advancement of citizen energy communities (EC) which are vital for fostering the innovation needed to achieve net zero. While notable effort has been made to capture the perspectives of energy cooperatives, little attention has been paid to the shared perspectives of energy cooperatives and the energy distribution system operators they must engage with when establishing an energy community. This paper seeks to address this by examining how collaborative learning, a participatory approach where stakeholders share knowledge and experiences to identify challenges and co-develop strategies, can help practitioners identify and better understand the key barriers and drivers to citizen energy community formation. Drawing from original research conducted across four distinct EC situated in four European countries, it outlines how a living lab, a real-world, user-centred research environment for testing and refining energy solutions, was utilised to understand the motivations that underscore people’s attitudes towards, and participation in, a ‘community’. Findings indicate that togetherness—expressed through social and functional relationships—is a foundational component of EC, supported by key factors such as context, values, and needs. The study also highlights major challenges, including a lack of social democracy, regulatory issues, and uncertainty about benefits, with social engagement emerging as the most effective strategy for building resilience, or the capacity of communities to adapt and sustain participation. The paper also engages with the wider debates found within this journal on the deployment of living labs and their applicability as a tool for socio-technical innovation that can empower EC and build greater resilience amongst stakeholders.

The development of marine renewable energies and wave energy (WE) in particular, are vital components of sustainable ocean governance and the transition towards a low-carbon economy. In a new industry like marine renewable energy (MRE), and Wave Energy (WE) in particular, time-consuming procedures linked to uncertainty about project environmental impacts, the need to consult with numerous stakeholders and potential conflicts with other marine users appear to be the main obstacles to consenting WE projects. These are considered as non-technological barriers that could hinder the future development of WE in EU. Through three different strategies (environmental demonstration strategy, consenting and planning strategy and education and public engagement strategy), the aim of the SafeWAVE project has been to contribute to overcome these barriers through the knowledge and tools developed during the project life.

This chapter moves the discussion on by examining the conceptualisation of energy citizenship. Situating the reader within the authors’ understanding of energy systems as fundamentally social structures, the chapter adopts an inclusive perspective of the citizen in the energy domain. It posits that an energy citizen is not something one becomes, nor something one earns, rather it is something that inherently exists. This chapter expands the discourse on energy citizenship by exploring emerging (often normative) notions that shape citizen engagement in energy. It also acknowledges how engagement is framed by different processes, including political struggles for recognition and prescriptive institutional ideas about being a ‘good citizen’.

This chapter concludes the book. Despite considerable effort having been already expended within the academic communityṇ on conceptualising energy citizenship, a fundamental question remains. How can ideas around energy citizenship be harnessed for actioning fairer and more just citizen participation in the energy transition? Drawing together the key themes presented throughout the book, it seeks to conceptualise energy citizenship as a sociotechnical imaginary of the “roles that citizens could, or perhaps should play in the energy system” (Dunphy & Lennon, 2022, p. 435). Acknowledging its position as a contested notion, it provides an overview of its many expressions before summing up our definition of energy citizenship and the role it should take, along with potential avenues for future study.

This chapter further develops these ideas of energy citizenship, particularly the concept of the ‘good citizen’ in the context of system change as it appears to be emerging as the rapidly normative notion shaping citizen engagement in energy. Broadening this discussion on emerging normative expressions, assumptions, and expectations that influence how citizens participate in the energy sector, the chapter provides an analysis of emerging ideals of energy citizenship from a normative perspective, focusing on solidarity, cosmopolitanism, and resilience. Embracing this dynamic and evolving concept to redefine its normative significance for diverse communities and locations can significantly serve as a foundational framework for questioning the processes of inclusion or exclusion within energy citizenship discourses.

This chapter connects the discourse on participation and energy citizenship to reframe participation as a vehicle for citizens’ agency, rather than a mechanism for government authorities to gain legitimacy, acceptance, or control. The chapter explores how existing modes of participation can be enriched by incorporating a view of energy citizenship in the context of democratic processes to align the values of energy justice with the goals of the energy transition. It also considers the relationship between these modes of participation, expressions of energy citizenship, and its implications for energy justice. Finally, the chapter makes a link between how participation and energy citizenship as merged concepts may point the way to a “human-centred” approach to designing democratic processes to accompany major technological paradigm shifts within the energy transition.