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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.

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Funded by the Interreg North Sea Region Programme, the COBEN project promotes a new process model and business models designed to underpin civic energy systems. The project has built a network of 3,000 organisations with significant impact on regional energy structures.