Community Innovation in Sustainable Energy

社区主导的可持续能源项目在英国蓬勃发展。社区项目涉及当地团体开发适合当地情况的低碳能源解决方案，并由社区团体对成果拥有所有权。例子包括太阳能热水器俱乐部或绝缘俱乐部，它们为系统安装提供相互支持；能源认识和行为网络，它们就与邻国有关的能源问题向邻国提供指导和保证；以及合作拥有的小型可再生能源系统，如微型水电和风能。政府的低碳社区挑战加入了一系列帮助创新社区项目的政策。有人认为，这些措施将培育地方对更广泛的低碳能源转型进程的支持。中介组织，如地方和国家能源机构，通过他们的技术建议跨越地方团体，并帮助新的社区项目获得资源和网络。如果新的政策兴趣要导致有效的机构支持，那么就需要关于社区扩散过程、绩效以及与主流能源系统相互作用的证据。独立的学术分析努力跟上创新的步伐，或记录所涉及的社区活动的多样性。人们对社区主导的创新在什么情况下传播或不扩散知之甚少。类似的项目在不同社区复制的过程仍然不清楚。扩大项目规模以使后续项目惠及更广泛的当地社区的机会也同样模糊。社区主导的创新可能提供可适应和适用的可持续发展解决方案，并可转化为主流能源市场环境，这一可能性尚未得到认真考虑。我们的目标是分析社区能量，以了解其扩散，并解释其在更广泛的能量转换中的潜力。我们将社区能源分为三个大的领域--社区可再生能源、社区需求减少和社区提高认识/行为支持。我们希望看到过去十年在每个领域的扩散是否导致标准社区模式的发展，这些模式更容易复制，可以扩大规模，或可以转化为主流商业环境。我们将通过参与的研究方法实现这一目标，该方法将实现四个具体目标：1.分析多样化的社区主导项目如何通过复制、扩大和翻译过程扩散；2.评估当地社区能源项目的表现，并评估其在更广泛的低碳转型过程中的潜力(使用UK Foresight情景)；3.为国家政策制定者和主要能源公司提供批判性思考和有经验支持的建议，说明如何支持社区方法以实现人人互利；4.发展和推进适用于社区主导的可持续能源的创新理论。网络调查将辅之以深入的案例研究。对社区能源中介机构、政策制定者和企业的采访将补充“最佳实践”报告的内容分析。利益相关者研讨会将为未来社区参与能源和建筑环境制定四个UK Foresight场景，以及它们对不同低碳过渡路径的贡献。最后的分析和综合将产生明确的政策建议。我们的建议有助于EPSRC-EDF对人、能源和建筑的社会科学和经济学的呼吁：a)解释当地社区如何干预能源系统；b)量化它们在传播节能技术和当地可再生能源方面的作用；以及c)评估社区能源项目在一系列未来情景下如何为英国能源系统做出贡献。

Community-led sustainable energy projects are flourishing in the UK. Community projects involve local groups developing low carbon energy solutions appropriate to local situations, and with community groups having ownership over outcomes. Examples include solar water heating clubs, or insulation clubs, which provide mutual support for system installation; energy awareness and behaviour networks, which provide guidance and reassurance to neighbours on energy matters relevant to them; and co-operatively-owned small-scale renewable energy systems, such as micro-hydro and wind. The Government's Low Carbon Community Challenge joins a portfolio of policies helping innovative community projects. It is argued these will nurture local support for wider processes of low carbon energy transition. Intermediary organizations, such as local and national energy agencies, span local groups through their technical advice, and helping new community projects access resources and networks. If renewed policy interest is to lead to effective institutional support, then evidence is needed about community diffusion processes, performance, and interaction with mainstream energy systems. Independent academic analysis struggles to keep pace with the extent of innovation or to document the diversity of community activity involved. Little is known about the conditions under which community-led innovations do or do not diffuse. The processes by which similar projects replicate in different communities remain unclear. Opportunities for scaling-up projects so that follow-on projects benefit wider sets of local community are similarly obscure. And the possibilities that community-led innovations may provide adaptable and appropriable sustainability solutions that can be translated into mainstream energy market settings has yet to be seriously considered. Our aim is to analyse community energy in order to understand its diffusion and explain its potential in wider energy transitions. We divide community energy into three broad fields - community renewable, community demand reduction, and community awareness-raising/behaviour-support. We wish to see whether diffusion over the last ten years in each field is leading to the development of standard community models that replicate more readily, can be scaled-up, or can be translated into mainstream business settings.We will meet this aim through an engaged research approach that will deliver on four specific objectives: 1. Analyse how diverse community-led projects diffuse through processes of replication, scaling-up, and translation; 2. Evaluate the performance of local community energy projects and assess their potential in wider low carbon transition processes (using UK Foresight scenarios); 3. Provide critical reflection and empirically-backed recommendations for national policy-makers and key energy companies on how to support community approaches to everyone's mutual benefit; 4. Develop and advance innovation theory appropriate to community-led sustainable energy. A web-based survey will be complemented with in-depth case studies. Interviews with community energy intermediaries, policy-makers and businesses will complement a content analysis of 'best practice' reports. Stakeholder workshops will develop four UK Foresight scenarios for community involvement in energy and the built environment in the future, and their contribution to different low carbon transition pathways. Final analysis and synthesis will lead to clear recommendations for policy. Our proposal contributes to the EPSRC-EdF call on the social and economic sciences of People, Energy and Buildings by: a) explaining how local communities intervene in energy systems; b) quantifying their role in the diffusion of energy efficient technologies and local renewable energy; and c) assessing how community energy projects could contribute to UK energy systems under a range of future scenarios.