Abstract
As they foster active participation in their daily operations, energy communities (ECs) are often regarded as important tools for the empowerment of civil stakeholders in the energy system. To ensure the incorporation of stakeholder needs, participation must also be guaranteed throughout the design phase of the EC. Despite a general consensus on the importance of stakeholder engagement in the setup of sustainability-fostering projects, the impact of engagement initiatives often goes unassessed. This makes it difficult to determine whether their application advances stakeholder interest. Therefore, we wanted to study the effects of a specific stakeholder engagement tool (Multi Actor Multi Criteria Analysis, MAMCA) that was used in the setup phase of eight different ECs. Through a survey with 102 participants, three core aspects are assessed: 1) the effect on participants' knowledge of ECs, 2) the effect on social learning, and 3) the extent to which the engagement goals and participant expectations are fulfilled. The study results show that stakeholder appreciation of the method is high and MAMCA has important value as a learning methodology, with 96% of participants indicating their knowledge was raised significantly and 94% marking increased awareness of other viewpoints. This led to a relevant rise in willingness to join an EC (from 75% of participants to 93%). The interactive aspect and expert assistance are seen as crucial elements in the MAMCA process. More attention to raising participants’ technical knowledge and feedback on the follow-up of the engagement initiative results are identified points of improvement for future applications.
| Original language | English |
|---|---|
| Article number | e23068 |
| Number of pages <span style="color:red"p> <font size="1.5"> ✽ </span> </font> | 21 |
| Journal | Heliyon |
| Volume | 10 |
| Issue number | 1 |
| DOIs | |
| Publication status | Published - 15 Jan 2024 |
Bibliographical note
Funding Information:This work has been funded by the European Commission in the H2020 project RENAISSANCE [grant number 824342 ].
Funding Information:
ECs are generally believed to be able to play an important role in the energy transition and the potential subsequent carbon emissions reduction [17,18]. They can form a crucial driver toward the use of more RE sources [19,20], as they act as a stimulus for private (citizen) investment in RE [21]. CE Delft predicts that by 2050 around 17% of the EU's electricity demand will be covered by collective energy citizen projects [22]. Research also shows that participation in EC initiatives can significantly enhance knowledge, energy efficiency awareness, and subsequent behavior change, as well as the willingness to embrace low-carbon technologies and other sustainable practices that support the energy transition [13,23].The inquiry about stakeholders’ willingness to compromise, to reach a consensus EC that has wide support among all stakeholders, shows a high level of goodwill (Fig. 10). A Shapiro-Wilk test on the data sets of the post- and pre-workshop answers showed a significant departure from normality: W (82) = 0.87, p <.001 and W (82) = 0.81, p <.001 respectively. The performed Wilcoxon Signed-Rank test marked no statistically significant difference between the answers that were given before and after the workshop (p =.28,462). Fig. 11 shows that 35 participants showed more willingness to compromise after the workshop, 25 were less willing, and for 22 actors the participation did not affect their willingness.This work has been funded by the European Commission in the H2020 project RENAISSANCE [grant number 824342].
Publisher Copyright:
© 2023 The Authors
Keywords
- Awareness
- Energy communities
- MAMCA
- Results assessment
- Social learning
- Stakeholder engagement
- Survey