Statistical Evidence on the Role of Energy Cooperatives for the Energy Transition in European Countries

By A. Wierling, Valeria Jana Schwanitz, Jan Pedro Zeiss, C. Bout, C. Candelise, Winston Gilcrease, J. Gregg. Sustainability, 2018

159 citations recorded by the source corpus.

The share of renewable energy is increasing throughout Europe. Yet, little is known about how much can be attributed to different actors, other than those commercially active. This paper provides empirical evidence of activities by energy cooperatives in the field of renewable energy in four different European countries. It draws from a database consisting of 2671 entries, contrasting results from current literature. We find that energy cooperatives are important enablers of the energy transition. However, their role is shrinking in recent years due to a tightening or removal of supportive schemes. We conclude that it is necessary to develop a systematic accounting system to properly track and make visible the contributions by different actors. In turn, this will help to better model the likely speed of Europe’s energy transition.

Subfields: Economics and Econometrics, Global and Planetary Change, Sociology and Political Science

View Paper: https://www.semanticscholar.org/paper/7f50f57a06069fa58edbf14bdabf942e75f19161

How researchers see this paper

The researchers whose trusted networks rank it highest, strongest advocate first. Every researcher gets a different order.

In Economics and Econometrics

1. Thomas Hoppe
2. G. de Vries
3. Jarosław Brodny
4. Magdalena Tutak

In Global and Planetary Change

1. Thomas Hoppe
2. G. de Vries
3. Jarosław Brodny
4. Magdalena Tutak

In Sociology and Political Science

1. Thomas Hoppe
2. Jarosław Brodny
3. Magdalena Tutak

Citations in the corpus

• Analyzing Similarities between the European Union Countries in Terms of the Structure and Volume of Energy Production from Renewable Energy Sources (2020, background): “In turn, a study by [55] discusses the role and significance of activities conducted by energy cooperatives in terms of their participation in energy transition in Europe.”
• Social Innovation and the Energy Transition (2018, background): “Article contributions to this special issue came from a wide set of academic disciplines from the behavioral and social sciences, like law [49,62], psychology [46,50,51,56], sociology [45,53], governance and policy studies [54,57,59], economics [48,60,63], econometrics [61], anthropology [47,52], et”