E-Library

Websites related to energy justice/energy citizenship/energy communities

AFIEGO – African Institute for Energy Governance: https://www.afiego.org/

AFIEGO undertakes public policy research and advocacy to influence energy policies to benefit the poor and vulnerable. Based in Kampala-Uganda, the non-profit company was born out of the need to contribute to efforts to turn Africa’s clean energy potential into reality and to ensure benefits for all sectors of society

Alliance for Rural Electrification: https://www.ruralelec.org/

The Alliance for Rural Electrification is an international business association, promoting sustainable, decentralised energy provision for the 21st Century. Based in Brussels, their work focuses on both stand-alone systems and mini-grids, across a range of renewable energy technologies and associated technologies.

Climate Litigation Database: https://climaterightsdatabase.com/

This database collects litigation on human rights and climate change worldwide. It is maintained by the researchers of the Climate Rights and Remedies (CRRP) project at the University of Zurich. Project link: https://www.climaterights.uzh.ch/en.html

Energy prosumers: https://energy-democracy.org/

“Prosumer”-focused advocacy group. Transition goal is from passive consumers of centrally, large-scale generated electricity and heat to more active players. House owners or tenants in a multi-unit dwellings – all consumers dispose of a portfolio of valuable goods enabling and empowering them to participate and collaborate on the energy market. Big data focus.

Energy Citizenship and Energy Communities: https://ec2project.eu/

Law, economics and psychology research for decentralised energy supply and demand management: new energy systems, participatory governance. Gathering insights from the fields of law, economics and psychology, EC² will provide answers on how to facilitate and strengthen energy citizenship.

European Commission Energy Communities Repository: https://energy-communities-repository.ec.europa.eu/index_en

Launched in April 2022, the objective of the Energy Communities Repository is to assist local actors and citizens willing to set up a Citizens Energy Community or a Renewable Energy Community in urban areas through technical and administrative advice, and encourage their development.

European Commission Rural Energy Community Advisory Hub: https://rural-energy-community-hub.ec.europa.eu/index_en

The Rural Energy Community Advisory Hub was launched in June 2022. It focuses on assisting citizens, rural actors and local authorities in setting up a Citizen Energy Community or Renewable Energy Community in rural areas through technical and administrative advice, and encourage their development.

Front commun pour la transition énergétique: https://www.pourlatransitionenergetique.org/

Le Front commun pour la transition énergétique regroupe des organisations qui contribuent à l’élaboration collective et à la mise en oeuvre d’une transition énergétique structurante et porteuse de justice sociale.

[GCRF] Community Energy and the Sustainable Energy Transition in Ethiopia, Malawi & Mozambique: https://cesetproject.com/community-energy-systems-and-sustainable-energy-transitions-ethiopia-malawi-and-mozambique-ceset

CESET is a three-year research programme exploring how communities can support just energy transitions in East Africa. The project focuses on diversity: diversity of models of community energy and diversity of communities that engage in renewable energy projects.

GRETA Project: https://projectgreta.eu/project/

GRETA studies the social side of the energy transition. We want to understand how energy citizenship works in different contexts and geographical levels. What kind of knowledge, social structures, technology or financial resources are needed to make an active energy citizen?

Groundwork – Environmental Justice Action: https://groundwork.org.za/

Groundwork is a non-profit environmental justice organisation based in and primarily focused on South Africa, with active campaigns in the areas of climate & energy justice, coal, environmental health, global green & healthy hospitals and waste, as well as offering training for future generations of activists and practitioners

Institut de la Fracophonie pour le Développment Durable:  https://www.ifdd.francophonie.org/

Based in Québec, Canada, the IFDD is a subsidiary of l’Organisation internationale de la Francophonie (OIF), with a mission to coordinate the achievement of the Sustainable Development Goals, energy transitions and environmental protection in the world’s Francophone nations.

LCEDN – Low Carbon Energy for Development Network: https://www.lcedn.com/ 

Founded in 2012 and centred around hubs at the Durham Energy Institute and Loughborough University, on behalf of the Midlands Energy Consortium, the LCEDN brings together practitioners, policy-makers, researchers and the private sector to collaborate on issues relating to low-carbon energy for development

Proactive Strategies and Policies for Energy Citizenship Transformation: https://www.energyprospects.eu/about-the-project/about-the-project/

EnergyPROSPECTS (PROactive Strategies and Policies for Energy Citizenship Transformation) will work with a critical understanding of energy citizenship that is grounded in state-of-the-art Social Sciences and Humanities (SSH) insights. EnergyPROSPECTS aims to develop a broad understanding of energy citizenship as a policy concept, a sociotechnical imaginary, a knowing-of-governance, i.e. a social construction of desirable/normal civic agency in future energy systems.

Trade Unions for Energy Democracy (TUED): https://www.tuedglobal.org/

Website of unions currently participating in TUED represent workers in 35 countries and regions with a good selection of working papers

Sustainable Economies Law Center – Energy Democracy: https://www.theselc.org/energy_democracy

From 2013 to 2021, Sustainable Economies Law Center focused on legal support and policies to build democratic community-owned renewable energy projects. Prior work sought to build pockets of energy democracy within a field dominated by investor-owned utilities and profit-extracting energy companies. Now this center is going beyond the narrow strategy of developing cooperative solar projects, and is exploring bigger possibilities for climate and economic justice.

Webinaire sur les communautés d’énergie: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Vi9FipkyKV4&ab_channel=EnergieCommuneasbl

Au printemps 2019, l’Union européenne finalisait le nouveau cadre légal de sa politique énergétique. L’une des grandes nouveautés de cette réforme est l’introduction d’un nouvel acteur sur le marché de l’énergie : « Les communautés d’énergie ». Celui-ci peut exercer quasiment toutes les activités possibles : production, vente, partage d’électricité, flexibilité, services d’efficacité énergétique, … Ce webinaire organisé par l’APERe se veut une opportunité pour les futurs membres des communautés d’énergie, de les informer sur ce que ce sont ces communautés, ce qu’elles peuvent y réaliser et les bénéfices pour leurs membres.

Open-Access Articles

Abe (2022) Between control and confrontation: The pitfalls and potential of corporate-community participatory development in Africa’s energy and extractive industries. The Extractive Industries and Society, 11, pp. 101095, https://doi.org/10.1016/j.exis.2022.101095

Ambole et al (2021) A Review of Energy Communities in Sub-Saharan Africa as a Transition Pathway to Energy Democracy. Sustainability, Vol. 13, Issue 4, pp. 2128, https://www.mdpi.com/2071-1050/13/4/2128

Antwi & Ley (2021) Renewable energy project implementation in Africa: Ensuring sustainability through community acceptability. Scientific African, Vol. 11, pp. e00679, https://doi.org/10.1016/j.sciaf.2020.e00679

Bally F. (2015) Vers une transition énergétique citoyenne. La réappropriation des questions environnementales par les acteurs ordinaires, Rives Méditerranéennes 51, https://doi.org/10.4000/rives.4940

Brière L. (2022) La formation réciproque sur les questions de justice énergétique dans l’espace politique local: enjeux et possibilités, Éducation et sensibilisation à l’environnement 22 (3), https://journals.openedition.org/vertigo/38584

Burke, M.J. & Stephens, J.C. (2017) Energy democracy: Goals and policy instruments for sociotechnical transitions. Energy Research and Social Science, 33, pp. 35 – 48, https://doi.org/10.1016/j.erss.2017.09.024

Burke, M.J. & Stephens, J.C. (2018) Political power and renewable energy futures: A critical review. Energy Research and Social Science, 35, pp. 78-93, https://doi.org/10.1016/j.erss.2017.10.018

Butu et al (2021) Leveraging community based organizations and fintech to improve small-scale renewable energy financing in sub-Saharan Africa. Energy Research & Social Science, 73, pp. 101949, https://doi.org/10.1016/j.erss.2021.101949

Chilvers, J. Longhurst, N. (2016) Participation in Transition(s): Reconceiving Public Engagements in Energy Transitions as Co-Produced, Emergent and Diverse, Journal of Environmental Policy and Planning, 18 (5), 585-607, https://www.tandfonline.com/doi/full/10.1080/1523908X.2015.1110483

Clulow, Z.; Reiner, D.M. (2022) Democracy, Economic Development and Low-Carbon Energy: When and Why Does Democratization Promote Energy Transition? Sustainability, 14, 13213. https://doi.org/10.3390/su142013213

DellaValle, N. & Czako, V. (2022) Empowering energy citizenship among the energy poor. Energy Research & Social Science, 89, 102654, https://doi.org/10.1016/j.erss.2022.102654

Ganda (2020) The influence of corruption on environmental sustainability in the developing economies of Southern Africa. Heliyon, Vol. 6, Issue 7, pp. e04387, https://doi.org/10.1016/j.heliyon.2020.e04387

Hällström (2021) A Global Just Transition From Fossil Fuels Concept Note. Available at: https://static1.squarespace.com/static/5dd3cc5b7fd99372fbb04561/t/6183c251e4c9b637d921fb38/1636024916489/FFNPT+Pillar+III+Concept+note+.pdf

Haines, M.B., Moore, S. & Adornetto, T. (2023) Suspending democratic (dis)belief: Nonliberal energy polities of solar power in Morocco and Tanzania. Energy Research and Social Science, 96, pp. 102942, https://doi.org/10.1016/j.erss.2023.102942

IFDD (2022) L’État de la participation citoyenne pour le développement durable, https://www.ifdd.francophonie.org/publications/letat-de-la-participation-citoyenne-pour-le-developpement-durable/

IFDD (2022) Le genre dans la planification énergétique : définitions et applications en Afrique de l’Ouest – 2022, https://www.ifdd.francophonie.org/publications/le-genre-dans-la-planification-energetique-definitions-et-applications-en-afrique-de-louest-2022/

Ikejemba & Schuur (2020) The empirical failures of attaining the societal benefits of renewable energy development projects in Sub-Saharan Africa. Renewable Energy, Vol. 162, pp. 1490 – 1498, https://doi.org/10.1016/j.renene.2020.08.052

Lennon, B. et al (2020) Citizen or consumer? Reconsidering energy citizenship. Journal of Environmental Policy and Planning, 22(2), pp. 184 – 197, https://doi.org/10.1080/1523908X.2019.1680277

Mohapatra et al (2022) Understanding the Clean Energy Transition with Community-Driven Decentralised Renewable Energy projects in Germany and Sub-Saharan Africa. Alliance for Rural Electrification, https://www.ruralelec.org/publications/understanding-clean-energy-transition-community-driven-dre-projects-germany-and-sub

Nayak, S. & Swain, A.K. (2023) Gender and Just Transition: Envisioning a Gender-transformative Pathway to Energy Transition in India’s Coal States. Centre for Policy Research, New Delhi, India. Available at: https://cprindia.org/briefsreports/gender-and-just-transition-envisioning-a-gender-transformative-pathway-to-energy-transition-in-indias-coal-states/

Okpanachi, Ambe-Uva & Fassih (2022) Energy regime reconfiguration and just transitions in the Global South: Lessons for West Africa from Morocco’s comparative experience. Futures, 139, pp. 102934, https://doi.org/10.1016/j.futures.2022.102934

Olivadese et al (2020) Towards Energy Citizenship for a Just and Inclusive Transition: Lessons Learned on Collaborative Approach of Positive Energy Districts from the EU Horizon2020 Smart Cities and Communities Projects. Proceedings, 65(1), 20, https://www.mdpi.com/2504-3900/65/1/20

Palmia, F. et al (2023) Enabling Meaningful Public Participation in Spatial Planning Processes. UN-HABITAT, Nairobi, Kenya. Available at: https://urbanpolicyplatform.org/download/enabling-meaningful-public-participation-in-spatial-planning-processes-2/ 

Ramirez (2021) Governance in energy democracy for Sustainable Development Goals: Challenges and opportunities for partnerships at the Isthmus of Tehuantepec. Journal of International Business Policy, Vol. 4, pp. 119 – 135, https://doi.org/10.1057/s42214-020-00077-3

Soler, Jæger & Lecoque (2020) Women Entrepreneurs as Key Drivers in the Decentralised Renewable Energy Sector. Alliance for Rural Electrification, https://www.ruralelec.org/publications/women-entrepreneurs-key-drivers-decentralised-renewable-energy-sector-best-practices

Sovacool (2021) Clean, low-carbon but corrupt? Examining corruption risks and solutions for the renewable energy sector in Mexico, Malaysia, Kenya and South Africa. Energy Strategy Reviews, 38, pp. 100723, https://doi.org/10.1016/j.esr.2021.100723

Szulecki, K. and I. Overland, (2020). Energy democracy as a process, an outcome and a goal: A conceptual review, Energy Research & Social Science, 69, 101768, https://doi.org/10.1016/j.erss.2020.101768.

Wahlund & Palm (2022) The role of energy democracy and energy citizenship for participatory energy transitions: A comprehensive review. Energy Research & Social Science, Vol. 87, pp. 102482, https://www.sciencedirect.com/science/article/pii/S2214629621005697?via%3Dihub

Żuk & Żuk (2022) Civic energy and the traditions of the idea of civil society: Dilemmas, frames and discussions. Energy Research & Social Science, Vol. 92, pp. 102798, https://doi.org/10.1016/j.erss.2022.102798