Abstract Summary
The Clean Energy for all Europeans package (2019) and the Renewable Energy Directive (2018) paved the way for Renewable Energy Communities (RECs) to become part of the energy landscape of the EU (Hearn & Castaño-Rosa, 2021). Although progress is heterogenous across different member states, increasing citizen engagement in such projects is a shared concern throughout the EU. RECs greatly increase the complexity of energy markets, whilst simultaneously providing greater energy security and aiding in decarbonization efforts, hence attracting and retaining citizen engagement is vital if they are to become prevalent. Research has shown that REC members engage in REC communities for various reasons, perceiving different kinds of benefits (Shortall et al., 2022). Although financial benefits are often considered to be an incentive for REC membership, variations in national energy landscapes mean that this is not always the case and that engagement is dependent on both financial and non-financial factors. Furthermore, cultural differences may influence the success rate of commonly applied engagement strategies (de Witte et al., 2021), such as tailored information and communication campaigns as well as different workshop formats. In this research, we investigate different engagement strategies applied by seven different REC creators, with varying underlying business models and from six different European Countries. To this end, we conducted a series of in-depth interviews with major stakeholders involved in the creation of RECs in Ireland, Austria, Hungary, Portugal, Greece and Spain. Our talk will draw conclusions regarding promising methods to increase engagement in RECs, perceived barriers and success factors. We additionally aim to provide country specific recommendations regarding engagement, based on our case studies. References De Witte, N. A., Adriaensen, I., Broeckx, L., Van Der Auwera, V., & Van Daele, T. (2021). Cross-cultural differences in user-centred research: an international living lab survey. Health Informatics Journal, 27(3), 14604582211038268. Hearn, A. X., & Castaño-Rosa, R. (2021). Towards a just energy transition, barriers and opportunities for positive energy district creation in Spain. Sustainability, 13(16), 8698. Shortall, R., Mengolini, A., & Gangale, F. (2022). Citizen Engagement in EU Collective Action Energy Projects. Sustainability, 14(10), 5949.
