The role of community energy in renewable energy use and development

摘要

As a number of researchers have observed, local communities play an important role in facilitating decentralized renewable energy (RE). Based on a literature review, this study identifies viewpoints with implications for community energy organization models that merit further investigation. First, the study identifies key features of community energy--economic and financial advantages, and community autonomy and sustainability--in the research literature. In regard to these features, the study then presents four viewpoints with implications for community energy: economic efficiency, common pool resource management, social networking, and social system context. Further research from these viewpoints will provide a better understanding of community energy and the development of RE.