Energy communities are a central part of the energy transition strategies that set foot in Europe as a response to the European Green Deal. It is estimated that by 2050, 264 million European citizens will join the energy market as prosumers and generate 45% of the total renewable electricity on the market.[1] Europe is a pioneer in the energy community trend. Leading countries are Germany (1750 active energy communities in 2020), Denmark (700), the Netherlands (500), the United Kingdom (431) and Sweden (200), and they are often enabled by national investments.[2]
On the other hand, energy communities are still underexplored in the Global South, especially in Sub-Saharan Africa, due in part to the still rudimentary energy systems in these countries. Nevertheless, these nascent energy systems, coupled with strong entrepreneurship and keenness to new technologies, offer the opportunity to co-create a framework in which energy communities can thrive and are effectively enabled to tackle energy poverty.[3]
In fact, when thinking of energy poverty, most of the times examples from Global South countries come to mind, where the struggle involves billions of people, it is more easily perceived by the wider public and recognized in international and national policy. Many countries in Africa are taking a stance towards addressing the needs of the vulnerable communities in fighting climate change and be part of the sustainable transition by redirecting funds to the most vulnerable groups.
For instance, in the 2016 Climate Change Act,[4] Kenya created a regulatory framework that provides mechanisms and measures to foster low carbon development through the Climate Change Fund. Regulatory frameworks are accompanied by NGOs’ efforts to engage local communities in the energy transition by developing energy communities, such as the case of Power Africa.[5] The regulatory frameworks and NGOs actions are examples of the efforts being put in by countries and international development organizations to enable vulnerable communities to take part in the transition, even if more strategic financing options and recommendations to support policy actions that will ensure effective economic growth are needed.
It seems that in many Global South countries, energy poverty is at least acknowledged at the national and international level, even if several difficulties are present when it comes to implementation, in particular due to the relatively low levels of investments in renewable energy. In fact, less than 8% of investments in energy transition technologies were made in the Asia-Pacific region in 2021 (excluding China), less than 4% in Latin America and the Caribbean, and less than 2% in Africa and the Middle East. Since the Paris Agreement was signed in 2015, annual investment in zero-carbon energy has stalled in developing nations outside China. By the end of the 2020s, yearly capital investment on zero-carbon energy in poor nations must grow by more than seven times, to more than USD 1 trillion, to put the world on pace to achieving net-zero emissions by 2050.[6]
As exemplified by the European case, Global North countries are in the front row for what concerns energy communities. Despite so, there is a lack of acknowledgment in some countries concerning energy poverty. For example, in the Netherlands there is consistent national investment towards the energy transition but it is not directed at vulnerable communities. In fact, there is still no national policy that addresses energy poverty, which challenges the possibility to employ a bottom-up approach and implement local level policies.[7] This perspective undermines the general efforts to accelerate the energy transition, since if the needs of the vulnerable communities are not addressed, they will not be prompted to act sustainably, having more short-term pressing matters to deal with.
In contrast, in other Global North countries, the social aspect of energy communities and the attention to energy poverty is accentuated. One example is Italy, in which the presence of energy communities is much more limited than in other EU countries (only 35 active, 41 developing and 24 moving initial steps in 2022), but many of them are developed with a strong social drive and converge in the Network of Renewable and Solidarity Energy Communities(Rete delle Comunità Energetiche Rinnovabili e Solidali).[8]
According to Legambiente, an Italian environmental NGO, the development of energy communities can lead to savings of up to 25 percent for domestic users and up to 20 percent for SMEs, schools, and other facilities. This is a vital contribution for the more than two million households in energy poverty that struggle to secure power continuity, forced to forego energy services such as heating or to use outdated technologies risking their health and safety.[9]
The forthcoming research by Chiara Scalia aims at developing two experimental projects in the EU as a tool to fight energy poverty. The first is Co-Roma, a Rome-based platform that supports the development of social energy communities. Co-Roma has a wider scope of mapping and supporting common goods, in the wider Co-City framework. The second is Tilburg JET, a social energy community developed in a vulnerable district in Tilburg, NL, which provides a pathway for vulnerable communities to take part in the renewable energy transition.
The projects are supported by several stakeholders: Luiss Guido Carli University, the MSc in Law, Digital Innovation and Sustainability, the research center LabGov.City, the multi-utility Acea, the research agency ENEA, the ENGAGE.EU university network and the Tilburg Municipality.
Chiara Scalia
[1] https://yeseurope.org/the-potential-of-energy-communities-in-the-new-sharing-economy/
[2] Tarpani, E.; Piselli, C.; Fabiani, C.; Pigliautile, I.; Kingma, E.J.; Pioppi, B.; Pisello, A.L. Energy Communities Implementation in the European Union: Case Studies from Pioneer and Laggard Countries. Sustainability 2022, 14, 12528. https://doi.org/10.3390/ su141912528
[3] Ambole,A.; Koranteng,K.; Njoroge, P.; Luhangala, D.L. A Review of Energy Communities in Sub-Saharan Africa as a Transition Pathway to Energy Democracy. Sustainability 2021, 13, 2128. https://doi.org/10.3390/su13042128
[4] The Climate Change Act 2016, 10 179 (2016). Kenya.
[5] https://powerafrica.medium.com/engaging-kenyan-communities-in-energy-development-d8b16848e7b4
[6] Aydos, M., Toledano, P., Dietrich Brauch, M., Mehranvar, L., Iliopoulos, T.G. and Sasmal, S., 2022. Scaling Investment in Renewable Energy Generation to Achieve Sustainable Development Goals 7 (Affordable and Clean Energy) and 13 (Climate Action) and the Paris Agreement: Roadblocks and Drivers. Available at SSRN 4309067.
[7] See Feenstra M, Middlemiss L, Hesselman M, Straver K and Tirado Herrero S (2021) Humanising the Energy Transition: Towards a National Policy on Energy Poverty in the Netherlands. Front. Sustain. Cities 3:645624. doi: 10.3389/frsc.2021.645624.
See also Straver, K., Mulder, P., Hesselman, M., Tirado Herrero, S., Middlemiss, L., and Feenstra, M. (2020). Energy Poverty and the Energy Transition. TNO.
[8] Comunità Rinnovabili (2022) Report by Legambiente. See www.comunirinnovabili.it
[9]https://www.legambiente.it/comunicati-stampa/nasce-la-rete-delle-comunita-energetiche-rinnovabili-e-solidali/