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Introduction & outline. Historic and current energy cooperatives have a role to play in driving the energy transition. Historic energy cooperatives often started by seeing a need to organize local access to the central electricity grid (1900-1940) or to enable non-nuclear alternatives to the provision of energy (since 1980s). Today's energy cooperatives seek a variety of goals ranging from realizing business opportunities to fostering a more democratic organization of the energy system. Renewable energy cooperatives are often seen as a promising form of social innovation that is able to drive the low carbon energy transition. First, by analyzing long-term data on European energy initiatives, we look for evidence that supports this view. We utilize the transition theory framework of Geels et al. (2018) as well as technology innovation theory (TIS) of Suurs et al. (2009) and apply it to a statistical analysis of the dominant socio-technical regime (e. g. the role of renewable energy policy support, the role of mega-trends and sudden events). Secondly, we aim at identifying drivers and obstacles that distinguish successful energy cooperatives from those that have been closed down by their members. Our main research questions are: What explains the temporal and thematic clustering of energy cooperatives? Do we observe a spatial clustering? For example, is the sphere of activity of energy cooperatives dominantly local/regional or national/international? How are these clusterings linked to chosen regulatory systems and potential business models? Preliminary results reveal European-wide but also country-specific findings, such as a trend towards larger cooperatives (by number of registered members & complexity of organizational statutes). While the overall shift to renewable energies is stimulated by the policy framework, the renewable mix chosen by the energy cooperatives aligns with the profile of the country. Source of data & method. The main sources for our statistical analysis are the database of the European Federation of Renewable Energy Cooperatives (RESCOOP) as well as the British, German and Danish Business Registers, in addition to our own mining of data from various gray and peer reviewed literature. The RESCOOP database, for example, provides information on more than 650 different energy cooperatives from various European countries (in particular GBR, DEU, DNK, SWE, and BEL), detailing the year of foundation, location, the cooperatives thematic foci, their legal status etc. We also utilize google analytics and other search engines that provide information on access statistics, web content etc. This is the input for the statistical and network analysis (incl. multi-variant time-series analysis, time dependent principal component analysis, clustering, geo-referenced network analysis).

This paper provides novel additional evidence on the characteristics of Collective Action Initiatives (CAIs), investigating their role within the European energy sector. It analyses and presents results of a survey administered in six European countries: the Netherlands, Belgium, Italy, Poland, Estonia, and Spain. CAIs are studied in light of four key dimensions, those being their creation dynamics, the way they are organized, financed, and the activities they undertake. The results presented are also interpreted to reflect on their role as drivers of social innovation (SI) within energy transition in Europe. The analysis shows that the contribution of CAIs to the energy transition has a much wider scope than the development of energy projects and provision of energy services. CAIs are intrinsically socially innovative models of implementation as characterised by a strong level of citizen involvement and participation. Moreover, they have a potential multi-level role in the energy transition, from the technological and social perspectives. Indeed, alongside traditional energy activities, our results show that CAIs are evolving and expanding towards socially innovative activities, raising awareness on environmental issues, promoting citizens' mobilization, and fostering social inclusion. ; This research was funded by the European Union's Horizon 2020 research and innovation programme under grant agreement No 837722, project COMETS (COllective action Models for Energy Transition and Social Innovation).

Energy communities (ECs), intended as collective action initiatives in the energy field involving citizens' participation, have been gaining relevance for the past decades as an alternative way to organize the energy chain to challenge the incumbent system. With Europe's recently adopted Clean Energy Package, ECs found a formal recognition by the European Union as potential actors of the transition of the energy system towards a wider and more decentralized use of renewable sources. Although the potential role of ECs in the transition is therefore hardly questionable, a thorough comprehension of the enabling factors that might foster their diffusion and scaling up is still lacking. Through a comparative analysis of the evolutionary trajectories in six EU countries regarding their energy systems, their regulatory frameworks and their historical evolution of ECs, namely through the example of cooperative models, this paper aims at providing some preliminary evidence about the factors and dynamics that seem to have played, and may play, a role in hampering or facilitating EC model diffusion. Attention is therefore specifically paid to three dimensions of analysis referring to: the energy mix and market structure; the institutional and policy landscape; the wider social attitudes towards environmental issues and cooperation among citizens. In addition to providing a wide comparison of different EU countries, the paper shows that the historical evolution pathways have to be carefully taken into account to understand what might trigger ECs exploitation in the EU. ; This research has received funding from the H2020 project COMETS—Collective Action Models for Energy Transition and Social Innovation (GA 837722)

Energy communities (ECs), intended as collective action initiatives in the energy field involving citizens' participation, have been gaining relevance for the past decades as an alternative way to organize the energy chain to challenge the incumbent system. With Europe's recently adopted Clean Energy Package, ECs found a formal recognition by the European Union as potential actors of the transition of the energy system towards a wider and more decentralized use of renewable sources. Although the potential role of ECs in the transition is therefore hardly questionable, a thorough comprehension of the enabling factors that might foster their diffusion and scaling up is still lacking. Through a comparative analysis of the evolutionary trajectories in six EU countries regarding their energy systems, their regulatory frameworks and their historical evolution of ECs, namely through the example of cooperative models, this paper aims at providing some preliminary evidence about the factors and dynamics that seem to have played, and may play, a role in hampering or facilitating EC model diffusion. Attention is therefore specifically paid to three dimensions of analysis referring to: the energy mix and market structure; the institutional and policy landscape; the wider social attitudes towards environmental issues and cooperation among citizens. In addition to providing a wide comparison of different EU countries, the paper shows that the historical evolution pathways have to be carefully taken into account to understand what might trigger ECs exploitation in the EU.

Energy communities (ECs), intended as collective action initiatives in the energy field involving citizens' participation, have been gaining relevance for the past decades as an alternative way to organize the energy chain to challenge the incumbent system. With Europe's recently adopted Clean Energy Package, ECs found a formal recognition by the European Union as potential actors of the transition of the energy system towards a wider and more decentralized use of renewable sources. Although the potential role of ECs in the transition is therefore hardly questionable, a thorough comprehension of the enabling factors that might foster their diffusion and scaling up is still lacking. Through a comparative analysis of the evolutionary trajectories in six EU countries regarding their energy systems, their regulatory frameworks and their historical evolution of ECs, namely through the example of cooperative models, this paper aims at providing some preliminary evidence about the factors and dynamics that seem to have played, and may play, a role in hampering or facilitating EC model diffusion. Attention is therefore specifically paid to three dimensions of analysis referring to: the energy mix and market structure; the institutional and policy landscape; the wider social attitudes towards environmental issues and cooperation among citizens. In addition to providing a wide comparison of different EU countries, the paper shows that the historical evolution pathways have to be carefully taken into account to understand what might trigger ECs exploitation in the EU.