IDEAS home Printed from https://ideas.repec.org/a/gam/jeners/v11y2018i11p2914-d178392.html
   My bibliography  Save this article

A Process Approach to Mainstreaming Civic Energy

Author

Listed:
  • Gerard McGovern

    (COAST Centre for Environment and Sustainability Research, University of Oldenburg, Ammerländer Heerstr. 114-118, 26129 Oldenburg, Germany)

  • Thomas Klenke

    (COAST Centre for Environment and Sustainability Research, University of Oldenburg, Ammerländer Heerstr. 114-118, 26129 Oldenburg, Germany)

Abstract

Civic energy has developed to become a key driver of a transition of the energy system to a locally-sourced, renewables-based economy whereby individual civic energy initiatives exhibit highly diverse forms and agency characteristics. Together they challenge the incumbent corporate, fossil-based energy system and its underlying techno-economic paradigm. For civic energy to meet this challenge, we argue that the potential for process optimization needs to be systematically assessed and propose a civic energy process design as a continuous improvement process in order to address the need for professionalization and capture the synergies presented by process standardization. The resulting Civic Energy Cycle deploys elements of creative destruction to identify alternative value propositions. The Cycle comprises Initiation, Planning, Roll-Out, Refection and Adoption phases, and a total of eleven process stages that extend beyond standardized technical and business processes; in addition to economic process objectives, the targeted social-economic and community benefits play a key role in shaping the process. The civic energy process is presented as a social transition framework that makes the shift in energy patterns manageable and acts as a mechanism that serves community needs.

Suggested Citation

  • Gerard McGovern & Thomas Klenke, 2018. "A Process Approach to Mainstreaming Civic Energy," Energies, MDPI, vol. 11(11), pages 1-12, October.
    • Handle: RePEc:gam:jeners:v:11:y:2018:i:11:p:2914-:d:178392
    as

    Download full text from publisher

    File URL: https://www.mdpi.com/1996-1073/11/11/2914/pdf
    Download Restriction: no
    File URL: https://www.mdpi.com/1996-1073/11/11/2914/
    Download Restriction: no
    ---><---

    References listed on IDEAS

    as
    1. Smith, Adrian & Raven, Rob, 2012. "What is protective space? Reconsidering niches in transitions to sustainability," Research Policy, Elsevier, vol. 41(6), pages 1025-1036.
    2. de Santoli, Livio & Mancini, Francesco & Nastasi, Benedetto & Piergrossi, Valentina, 2015. "Building integrated bioenergy production (BIBP): Economic sustainability analysis of Bari airport CHP (combined heat and power) upgrade fueled with bioenergy from short chain," Renewable Energy, Elsevier, vol. 81(C), pages 499-508.
    3. Bauwens, Thomas, 2016. "Explaining the diversity of motivations behind community renewable energy," Energy Policy, Elsevier, vol. 93(C), pages 278-290.
    4. Seyfang, Gill & Park, Jung Jin & Smith, Adrian, 2013. "A thousand flowers blooming? An examination of community energy in the UK," Energy Policy, Elsevier, vol. 61(C), pages 977-989.
    5. Andreas Goldthau, 2012. "From the State to the Market and Back: Policy Implications of Changing Energy Paradigms," Global Policy, London School of Economics and Political Science, vol. 3(2), pages 198-210, May.
    6. Blind, Knut & Petersen, Sören S. & Riillo, Cesare A.F., 2017. "The impact of standards and regulation on innovation in uncertain markets," Research Policy, Elsevier, vol. 46(1), pages 249-264.
    7. Kivimaa, Paula & Kern, Florian, 2016. "Creative destruction or mere niche support? Innovation policy mixes for sustainability transitions," Research Policy, Elsevier, vol. 45(1), pages 205-217.
    8. Gill Seyfang & Alex Haxeltine, 2012. "Growing Grassroots Innovations: Exploring the Role of Community-Based Initiatives in Governing Sustainable Energy Transitions," Environment and Planning C, , vol. 30(3), pages 381-400, June.
    Full references (including those not matched with items on IDEAS)

    Citations

    Citations are extracted by the CitEc Project, subscribe to its RSS feed for this item.
    as


    Cited by:

    1. Bauwens, Thomas & Schraven, Daan & Drewing, Emily & Radtke, Jörg & Holstenkamp, Lars & Gotchev, Boris & Yildiz, Özgür, 2022. "Conceptualizing community in energy systems: A systematic review of 183 definitions," Renewable and Sustainable Energy Reviews, Elsevier, vol. 156(C).
    2. McGovern, Gerard, 2021. "Capturing community value in civic energy business model design," Energy Policy, Elsevier, vol. 156(C).
    3. Nayeem Rahman & Rodrigo Rabetino & Arto Rajala & Jukka Partanen, 2021. "Ushering in a New Dawn: Demand-Side Local Flexibility Platform Governance and Design in the Finnish Energy Markets," Energies, MDPI, vol. 14(15), pages 1-23, July.

    Most related items

    These are the items that most often cite the same works as this one and are cited by the same works as this one.
    1. Jay Sterling Gregg & Sophie Nyborg & Meiken Hansen & Valeria Jana Schwanitz & August Wierling & Jan Pedro Zeiss & Sarah Delvaux & Victor Saenz & Lucia Polo-Alvarez & Chiara Candelise & Winston Gilcrea, 2020. "Collective Action and Social Innovation in the Energy Sector: A Mobilization Model Perspective," Energies, MDPI, vol. 13(3), pages 1-24, February.
    2. Thomas Hoppe & Frans H. J. M. Coenen & Maria T. Bekendam, 2019. "Renewable Energy Cooperatives as a Stimulating Factor in Household Energy Savings," Energies, MDPI, vol. 12(7), pages 1-33, March.
    3. Beau Warbroek & Thomas Hoppe & Frans Coenen & Hans Bressers, 2018. "The Role of Intermediaries in Supporting Local Low-Carbon Energy Initiatives," Sustainability, MDPI, vol. 10(7), pages 1-28, July.
    4. Frans H. J. M. Coenen & Thomas Hoppe, 2022. "Renewable Energy Communities as a New Actor in Home Energy Savings," Urban Planning, Cogitatio Press, vol. 7(2), pages 108-122.
    5. Mock, Mirijam & Omann, Ines & Polzin, Christine & Spekkink, Wouter & Schuler, Julia & Pandur, Vlad & Brizi, Ambra & Panno, Angelo, 2019. "“Something inside me has been set in motion”: Exploring the psychological wellbeing of people engaged in sustainability initiatives," Ecological Economics, Elsevier, vol. 160(C), pages 1-11.
    6. Hilde Nykamp, 2020. "Policy Mix for a Transition to Sustainability: Green Buildings in Norway," Sustainability, MDPI, vol. 12(2), pages 1-17, January.
    7. Lacey-Barnacle, M. & Smith, A. & Foxon, T.J., 2023. "Community wealth building in an age of just transitions: Exploring civil society approaches to net zero and future research synergies," Energy Policy, Elsevier, vol. 172(C).
    8. Befort, N., 2020. "Going beyond definitions to understand tensions within the bioeconomy: The contribution of sociotechnical regimes to contested fields," Technological Forecasting and Social Change, Elsevier, vol. 153(C).
    9. Attila Havas & Doris Schartinger & K. Matthias Weber, 2022. "Innovation Studies, Social Innovation, and Sustainability Transitions Research: From mutual ignorance towards an integrative perspective?," CERS-IE WORKING PAPERS 2227, Institute of Economics, Centre for Economic and Regional Studies.
    10. Guetlein, Marie-Charlotte & Schleich, Joachim, 2024. "Empirical insights into enabling and impeding factors for increasing citizen investments in renewable energy communities," Energy Policy, Elsevier, vol. 193(C).
    11. Chiara Candelise & Gianluca Ruggieri, 2017. "Community Energy in Italy: Heterogeneous institutional characteristics and citizens engagement," IEFE Working Papers 93, IEFE, Center for Research on Energy and Environmental Economics and Policy, Universita' Bocconi, Milano, Italy.
    12. Edmondson, Duncan L. & Kern, Florian & Rogge, Karoline S., 2019. "The co-evolution of policy mixes and socio-technical systems: Towards a conceptual framework of policy mix feedback in sustainability transitions," Research Policy, Elsevier, vol. 48(10).
    13. Kazuki Horiuchi, 2018. "Diverse interpretations enabling the continuity of community renewable energy projects: A case study of a woody biomass project in rural area of Japan," Local Economy, London South Bank University, vol. 33(8), pages 822-841, December.
    14. Weigelt, Carmen & Lu, Shaohua & Verhaal, J. Cameron, 2021. "Blinded by the sun: The role of prosumers as niche actors in incumbent firms’ adoption of solar power during sustainability transitions," Research Policy, Elsevier, vol. 50(9).
    15. Kejia Yang & Johan Schot & Bernhard Truffer, 2020. "Shaping the Directionality of Sustainability Transitions: The Diverging Development Patterns of Solar PV in Two Chinese Provinces," SPRU Working Paper Series 2020-14, SPRU - Science Policy Research Unit, University of Sussex Business School.
    16. Paula Kivimaa & Wouter Boon & Sampsa Hyysalo & Laurens Klerkx, 2017. "Towards a Typology of Intermediaries in Transitions: a Systematic Review," SPRU Working Paper Series 2017-17, SPRU - Science Policy Research Unit, University of Sussex Business School.
    17. Jonas Heiberg & Christian Binz & Bernhard Truffer, 2020. "Assessing transitions through socio-technical network analysis – a methodological framework and a case study from the water sector," Papers in Evolutionary Economic Geography (PEEG) 2035, Utrecht University, Department of Human Geography and Spatial Planning, Group Economic Geography, revised Aug 2020.
    18. Collier, Samuel H.C. & House, Jo I. & Connor, Peter M. & Harris, Richard, 2023. "Distributed local energy: Assessing the determinants of domestic-scale solar photovoltaic uptake at the local level across England and Wales," Renewable and Sustainable Energy Reviews, Elsevier, vol. 171(C).
    19. Raven, Rob & Walrave, Bob, 2020. "Overcoming transformational failures through policy mixes in the dynamics of technological innovation systems," Technological Forecasting and Social Change, Elsevier, vol. 153(C).
    20. Pel, Bonno & Raven, Rob & van Est, Rinie, 2020. "Transitions governance with a sense of direction: synchronization challenges in the case of the dutch ‘Driverless Car’ transition," Technological Forecasting and Social Change, Elsevier, vol. 160(C).

    Corrections

    All material on this site has been provided by the respective publishers and authors. You can help correct errors and omissions. When requesting a correction, please mention this item's handle: RePEc:gam:jeners:v:11:y:2018:i:11:p:2914-:d:178392. See general information about how to correct material in RePEc.

    If you have authored this item and are not yet registered with RePEc, we encourage you to do it here. This allows to link your profile to this item. It also allows you to accept potential citations to this item that we are uncertain about.

    If CitEc recognized a bibliographic reference but did not link an item in RePEc to it, you can help with this form .

    If you know of missing items citing this one, you can help us creating those links by adding the relevant references in the same way as above, for each refering item. If you are a registered author of this item, you may also want to check the "citations" tab in your RePEc Author Service profile, as there may be some citations waiting for confirmation.

    For technical questions regarding this item, or to correct its authors, title, abstract, bibliographic or download information, contact: MDPI Indexing Manager (email available below). General contact details of provider: https://www.mdpi.com .

    Please note that corrections may take a couple of weeks to filter through the various RePEc services.

    IDEAS is a RePEc service. RePEc uses bibliographic data supplied by the respective publishers.