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Background: Two decades after the launch of Local Agenda 21 in Rio de Janeiro, we have witnessed the emergence and development of local initiatives in sustainable development. Local energy communities are a clear manifestation of this development. The questions the paper raises are as follows: can local energy initiatives be considered seedbeds of innovation? If so, how can such initiatives lead to innovations in the energy supply? Methods: We applied desk research and reviewed secondary literature.

Uncertainties regarding problem definition and policy response are an endemic part of environmental decisionmaking. Some standard responses to uncertainty in decisionmaking are analyzed and then used to suggest the importance of learningoriented policy processes in open, flexible, and adaptive institutional environments. The institutional and policy responses to both types of uncertainties are explored in two different institutional settings: the consensus-oriented setting of the Netherlands and the more adversarial and pluralistic context of the United States. The examination displays tensions accompanying learning-oriented environmental policymaking and the complex impact of institutional environments.Conclusions sketch implications for how to accommodate learning-oriented environmental policy processes.

Background: Increasing numbers of households install renewable energy production systems like photovoltaic panels thereby contributing to a more sustainable energy system. Other developments, like in-home storage or peer-to-peer exchange within a neighbourhood, also contribute to the transition. This paper explores the emerging rise of these prosumers of electricity and its implications, in particular for grid management and electricity supply in the Netherlands. Methods: With the help of an agent-based model, we illustrate the evolution of prosumption in a small Dutch-oriented residential community in five scenarios. The second part of the paper discusses the implications of the modelled rise in prosumption.Results: Depending on the number of prosumers, combined with storage and peer-to-peer supply, we found a share of prosumption in this local community of about 28-30 %. The community will require less electricity from the central power plants. These model results also indicate that the management of the local network will become more important if more households become prosumers in combination with storage and peer-to-peer supply. Conclusions: These trends affect current business models of DSOs and electricity production and supply companies. The latter are facing a loss of turnover which needs to be compensated by developing alternative business models. And, DSOs have to deal with the new needs on the local grid which also require an adaptation of their business models. Developing business models in cooperation with local energy communities could be an attractive alternative to explore.