Community energy: concepts, analysis, values

Adrian Smith, SPRU, University of Sussex

presentation to UKERC workshop on local energy governance

Oxford, 3rd October 2011

Thinking about community energy:concepts, analysis, values

Community energy in the UK: diverse and dynamic

Wide variety:- energy generation, efficiency, behaviours - technologies- organisation - resource models- geography and social groups - established, planned, aspiring

Policy narratives - government favourably disposed over last decade, but linked to different agendas (‘local awareness’ to ‘role in transition’ to ‘Localism’ and ‘Big Society’)

Policy support - advice services, grant programmes, competitions, market frameworks & social enterprise (CRI, LCBP/CCF, LCCCP, FIT/Green Deal)

Governance networks shifting & developing roles in response to policy and groundswell:

initiate community work and/or maintain networks (e.g. CORE, EST)

share experience, good practice, expertise and advice (e.g. CSE)

lobby and advocate community energy in the policy context (e.g. LCCN)

provide specific products to community initiatives (e.g. revolving funds)

create an interface between initiatives and policy-makers/ business actors (e.g. CCAA)

create partnerships with community energy initiatives (e.g. LAs)

Definitions

Godfrey Boyle (1978) Community Technology:“Community technology likewise implies ... An emphasis on technologies tailored to the needs of, and amenable to control by, ‘the community’, where the community is of a size small enough to enable genuine face-to-face participation in all important decisions, and where the political institutions of the community place power in the hands of the community in general, rather than in the hands of an elite of ‘leaders’.”

Kate Hathway,(2010) Community Power Empowers“Community projects involve local groups developing low carbon energy solutions appropriate to local situations and with community groups having ownership over the outcomes. Examples include solar water heating clubs, or insulation clubs, which provide mutual support for system installation; energy awareness and behaviour networks, which provide guidance and reassurance to neighbours on energy matters relevant to them; and co-operatively owned small-scale renewable energy systems such as micro-hydro and wind.”

United Nations (1953) Community development is “a movement to promote better living for the whole community, with active participation and if possible on the initiative of the community.”

Walker and Cass, 2007

Community energy as a mode of energy governance

Steward et al (2009) – 6 characteristics:• doing things together

• reaching the parts others can’t reach

• increased visibility of personal behaviour

• acting holistically

• local not parochial

• developing and demonstrating

Community energy as set of characteristics

Source: Walker and Devine-Wright (2008)

Community development is ‘a movement to promote better living for the whole community [i.e. outcome], with active participation and if possible on the initiative of the

community [i.e. process]’(UN, 1953; italics added)

Community energy as community development

Community energy as a social enterprise

Source: Pearce (2003)

Development issue?

Energy issue?

Energy initiatives:-Organisation & ownership-Resources & returns-Forms of energy service

Policy goal:-Drivers and barriers-General policies-Specific CE policies

Innovative space:-Adaptable forms of energy service-Diffusion of elements-System effects

Partnerships:-Local authorities-Business-Advice, support & advocacy

Normative claims:-Collective rewards-Reach & depth-Power of demonstration-Legitimacy

Social enterprise:-Business models- Entrepreneurship-Leadership

Capabilities:-Individual & group-Cohesion & trust

Participation:-Inclusion-Exclusion-Representation-Power relations

Aspirations and values:-Asset/means to other goals-Local resilience / community-Alternative energy

Measurement:-Metrics-Definitions-Monitoring processes-Performativity of research

Localities and scales:-Geography of CE-Distribution of consequences-Communities of interest

Social movement:-Identities and meanings-Resource mobilisation-Opportunity structures and influence

Performance:-Generation-Reduction-Awareness-Distribution

Conceptualising community energy and analytical themes

Development issue?

Energy issue?











Social movement:-Identities and imaginaries-Resource mobilisation-Opportunity structures and influence


Social enterprise:-Business models- Entrepreneurship-Leadership

Conceptualising community energy and analytical themes

Theoretical approaches

Development issue?

Energy issue?












Performance:-Generation-Reduction-Awareness-Practices

Practice theory


Development issue?

Energy issue?













Theories of energy systems


Development issue?

Energy issue?













Theories of social justice


Development issue?

Energy issue?













Incumbent energy systems:-Utility strategies-Political economy of energy-Consumers

Socio-technical transitions theory

Values towards community energy Forms of knowledge emphasised

Visionary vanguardPioneering new sustainability economies and societies

Instrumental- Socio-technical practices under different value systems

- Capabilities and resources required

- Economic, social and environmental performance and feasibility

under different contexts

- Production and maintenance requirements

- Advocate and participant perspectives – materiality of radical

sustainability discourses

R&D lab for utopiaNaive R&D lab for utopia – flawed without a political programme for structural change

Critical- Institutional misfit (and their reform)

- Lack of infrastructure (and provision - material and social)

- Economic (re-)structures, lack of capital and markets

- Political context (opposing powers, allies and mobilisation)

Coping strategyThird sector coping for absent or unsatisfactory provision through existing market and state processes

Ethnographic- Needs and aspirations unrealised by markets and states

- Livelihood conditions and responses

- Pragmatic sustainability improvements

- Augmentation opportunities for bottom-up solutions

Source of diversityProviding experimental space – diversity in debates and practices for sustainable innovation

Plural- Spaces for socio-technical experimentation and learning

- Sources of adaptable ideas and resources

- Manifestation of alternate agendas for policy

- Interpreting sustainability differently

- Enriching debate though different perspectives

Values and knowledge

Community Innovation in Sustainable Energy

www.grassrootsinnovations.org

Community energy reminds us in quite stark ways how energy governance involves issues of social development

A plurality of research approaches helps to reflect a dynamic and plural reality

Comparing research in enriching ways requires us to be clear about our respective starting points, perspectives and purposes

The kinds of knowledge we help develop, either in ‘linear’ or ‘co-produced’ modes, will be interpreted, emphasised, and remembered through the values and framings in play

Plural research that emphasises the different energy and development issues is therefore important for policy too – keeping open an awareness of the different possibilities and countering restricting top-down tendencies

Summarising

Community energy: concepts, analysis, values

Technology

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