Publication:
David against Goliath? Challenges and opportunities for energy cooperatives in Southern Europe

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Date
2023
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Authors
Delicado, Ana ; Pallarès-Blanch, Marta ; García-Marín, Ramón ; Valle, Carolina del ; Prados, María-José
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Publisher
Elsevier
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Geografía
DOI
https://doi.org/10.1016/j.erss.2023.103220
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info:eu-repo/semantics/article
Description
2214-6296/© 2023 The Authors. Published by Elsevier Ltd. This is an open access article under the CC BY-NC-ND license (http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-nc-nd/4.0/). This article is available under the Creative Commons CC-BY-NC-ND license and permits non-commercial use of the work as published, without adaptation or alteration provided the work is fully attributed. For commercial reuse, permission must be requested below.
Abstract
Unlike in some northern European countries, renewable energy cooperatives in Portugal, Spain and Italy are few and represent a very small share of the energy market. This article aims to understand the social, political, economic and cultural factors that affect the development of renewable energy cooperatives in southern Europe, but also the opportunities and benefits cooperatives offer over other energy providers in the energy transition. It is based on a comparative analysis of four case studies of cooperatives in Portugal, Spain and Italy, relying on document analysis, observation and interviews with cooperative representatives, complemented with legal, policy and statistical data for contextualisation. We ascertain that energy policies have favoured large utility companies and concentrated energy generation, while a lack of civic culture of participation and mistrust of cooperatives have also hindered their development. Furthermore, we show how cooperatives have unique features that make them valuable actors in energy systems: promotion of environmental and social values, local embeddedness, flexibility to diversify activities, ability to mobilise networks of similar organisations and fostering democratic governance and participation.
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Renewable energy , Cooperatives , Southern Europe , Energy policy , Energy transition
Citation
Energy Research & Social Science, Volume 103, September 2023, 103220
URI
http://hdl.handle.net/10201/138434
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