The emergence of renewable energy cooperatives in Spain: A review

Saizarbitoria, Iñaki Heras; Sáez, Lucía; Allur, Erlantz; Morandeira, Jon

doi:10.1016/j.rser.2018.06.049

Cited by 96 publications

(70 citation statements)

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“…Such a transition regarding energy infrastructures is a large-scale one and is beyond the control of a single sector or entity [2]. This is where renewable energy systems cooperatives (REScoops) can play a significant and determinant role [3,4]. RES are exploited in households and commercial buildings through several REScoops' initiatives and are endorsed by their policy agenda.…”

Section: Introductionmentioning

confidence: 99%

“…In the meantime, they are also attempting to share and implement new suggestions at both social and political levels. However, they still have a minor presence in their national energy system [4,21].REScoops have gathered raw data from their attempts during all these years. There is a significant gap regarding the analysis of these specific data and the main conclusions for the effectiveness of the applied practices.…”

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confidence: 99%

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confidence: 99%

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How Much Energy Efficient are Renewable Energy Sources Cooperatives’ Initiatives?

2020

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In this paper is provided a systematic, in-depth, behavioral analysis of renewable energy sources cooperatives' members. The analysis proved that in, on hand, there was a noticeable difference in the portion of affection of each proposed intervention on the actual energy consumption, which may be to even ten times more in some cases, and on the other hand, the difference in energy consumption between the analyzed groups was noticeable as well. So, implementing energy efficiency interventions of various types, such as technical support, special tariffs, energy generation schemes, and smart meters, seems to lead to substantial energy reductions to even more than 10%, cumulatively, and reduces the environmental footprint. Additionally, the majority of energy efficiency interventions applied by the renewable energy sources cooperatives are proved to be effective in achieving their primary goal, sensitizing members, and leading them to a more efficient energy consumption behavior ("greener"). The results of the analysis showed that each proposed intervention had played a different but nonetheless significant role in the diminishing of the energy consumption of the members and that there was a noticeable difference in energy consumption between the analyzed groups. The results of the analysis demonstrated more than 22 GWh totally in green consumption, and almost 4500 tons of CO 2 saved.Energies 2020, 13, 1136 2 of 22 REScoops started to form in the European Union several years ago, offering to their members the opportunity to purchase green energy, such as renewably generated electricity, at reasonable prices. Besides, they were able to become autonomous and independent concerning energy availability. Last, but not least, their members could interact democratically with other members and co-decide the cooperative's future [7,8].Furthermore, REScoops offer to discrete populations and companies the opportunity to become renewable power producers and to actively participate in cooperative energy consumption [9,10]. Additionally, REScoops suggest the established framework in order to implicate citizens with social, political, and nevertheless, financial features of RES distribution [11,12]. Last, but not least, there are several cases where REScoops enhance the effort of other systems relevant to RES systems, such as intelligent transportation one [13].As observed, the members of the contributing REScoops altered their behavior, reducing their final energy consumption, and invested money in order to produce green energy through RES [14,15]. Within the frame of the H2020 REScoop Plus Project, a better understanding is considered, and REScoops fostered this behavioral change employing the actions mentioned above. Energy consumers' dynamic contribution to conservation activities, and in self-production processes as well, seems to be the primary way to meet the European Commission's targets for near-zero carbon footprint, 100% green energy consumption, and energy democracy. As the transition to RES is primarily enforced politi...

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Section: Introductionmentioning

confidence: 99%

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How Much Energy Efficient are Renewable Energy Sources Cooperatives’ Initiatives?

2020

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“…First, let us assume by contradiction that ξ < µ , hence, there exist some j such that µ j > ξ j > 0 with the following equilibrium condition (see (7)) v j (µ j ) =Ċ( µ ) ≥Ċ( ξ ), whereĊ(g) = p(g)+gṗ(g) (see (4)). We can use the equilibrium conditions in (9) to express the previous inequality aṡ…”

Section: Efficiency Loss In Strategic Settingsmentioning

confidence: 99%

“…Although investor owned utilities dominate the electricity markets, non-profit electric cooperatives play an important role in the economic development [3]. Besides, electric cooperatives have properties that foster the social support for renewable energy projects [4,5,6]. 1 On one hand, cooperatives offer transparency in the prices and allow customers to control the source of energy.…”

Section: Introductionmentioning

confidence: 99%

Incentive mechanisms to prevent efficiency loss of non-profit utilities

Barreto

Mojica‐Nava

Quijano

2019

International Journal of Electrical Power & Energy Systems

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The modernization of the power system introduces technologies that may improve the system's efficiency by enhancing the capabilities of users. Despite their potential benefits, such technologies can have a negative impact. This subject has widely analyzed, mostly considering for-profit electric utilities. However, the literature has a gap regarding the impact of new technologies on non-profit utilities.In this work, we quantify the price of anarchy of non-profit utilities, that is, the cost caused by lack of coordination of users. We find that users, in the worst case, can consume up to twice the optimal demand, obtaining a small fraction of the optimal surplus. For this reason, we leverage the theory of mechanism design to design an incentive scheme that reduces the inefficiencies of the system, which preserves the privacy of users. We illustrate with simulations the efficiency loss of the system and show two instances of incentive mechanism that satisfy either budget balance and budget deficit.1 The REScoop.eu network has 1500 renewable energy cooperatives in Europe [7].2 Other electric corporations profit with sales, so they do

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A review of business models for decentralised renewable energy projects

Piterou

Coles

2020

Bus Strat Env

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The diffusion of renewable energy technologies has often been suggested as a means to reduce the emission of greenhouse gases, but emphasis tends to be placed on large scale projects. Adoption of renewable energy at the local level provides opportunities for both distributed energy schemes and domestic microgeneration. However, alternative models of ownership, governance and operation are not well developed. Locally managed energy solutions need to respond to varied end users' requirements to ensure that needs are met, so understanding of different types of end users is a prerequisite to the development of robust business models. This paper presents a review of existing models of decentralised energy generation in which actors such as community groups, energy cooperatives, charities and municipalities participate as owners and coproducers. End users can become involved in the design, development and delivery of energy services in a variety of ways. The focus is active user engagement through coconstruction, coproduction and coprovision of energy services. The following categories will be reviewed with reference to current understandings of both sustainable entrepreneurship and social enterprise: (a) energy service companies (ESCos) as commercial actors that undertake management of these projects, (b) energy cooperatives and (c) municipal energy. This analysis is used to reflect on and refine understanding of the relationship between technical, financial and operational constructs in models of decentralised energy generation which can contribute to social and environmental gains.

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The emergence of renewable energy cooperatives in Spain: A review

Cited by 96 publications

References 22 publications

How Much Energy Efficient are Renewable Energy Sources Cooperatives’ Initiatives?

How Much Energy Efficient are Renewable Energy Sources Cooperatives’ Initiatives?

Incentive mechanisms to prevent efficiency loss of non-profit utilities

A review of business models for decentralised renewable energy projects

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