CoChat
Sign Up
Cited by 43

The DOI matches its Crossref record.

Scaling renewable energy cooperatives for a net-zero Canada: Challenges and opportunities for accelerating the energy transition

Boucher, Martin, Pigeon, Marc-André·2024·Energy Research & Social Science
DOI 10.1016/j.erss.2024.103618
Open this paper in CoChat — free account

Abstract

Employing a niche-management framework, we conduct a census of renewable energy cooperatives (RECs) to study their potential role in helping Canada achieve its net-zero greenhouse gas emission targets. Based on a review of more than 250 websites as well as 27 semi-structured interviews with representatives from RECs and cooperative associations across Canada, we find that Canada's REC sector is struggling to break out of its niche, with inconsistent and often unavailable data on energy production making it difficult to tally the sector's contribution. Nevertheless, based on the available data, we estimate that the sector contributed at most 73 MW, or less than 0.05 % to Canada's total installed capacity in 2021. We also find that the number of RECs declined by 44 % ( n = 40) between 2016 and 2021. While we found evidence of REC merger activity, the overwhelming picture is of a sector where volunteers are stretched and often forced to wind-up their cooperative. Drawing on cooperative scholarship and a scan of other jurisdictions, we note that RECs could follow the path of other cooperative sectors and become an important part of the regime by forming a second-tier cooperative association. • The number of active Renewable Energy Cooperatives (RECs) in Canada has decreased, with nearly half becoming inactive since 2015, and Ontario being the central hub of activity. • The energy production of active RECs is dominated by solar, followed by wind and biofuels, with a small focus on…

Overview

Integrity signals

Registry

Crossref · 10.1016/j.erss.2024.103618

Cites

Statistics

Recomputing p-values needs the paper’s full text.

Verification

Claims the paper makes

This paper’s full text isn’t openly available, so its claims and self-check weren’t run. The registry and citation checks still apply.

Claims other papers make about this one

Each is checked against this paper’s own text: does it say what the citing paper says it does?

Citations

Cites

No references could be resolved yet.

Research works printed but not linked: 49

  1. Wierling, 2018, Statistical evidence on the role of energy cooperatives for the energy transition in European countries, Sustain. Sci. Pract. Policy, 10, 3339
  2. Dolter, 2018, The cost of decarbonizing the Canadian electricity system, Energy Policy, 113, 135, 10.1016/j.enpol.2017.10.040 · DOI
  3. Desmarais, 2022, How old Crow’s solar farm is changing green energy projects in Yukon, CBC News [Internet]
  4. Fiander, 2024, Energy democracy, public participation, and support for local energy system change in Canada, Energy Res. Soc. Sci., 113, 10.1016/j.erss.2024.103526 · DOI
  5. Brisbois, 2019, Powershifts: a framework for assessing the growing impact of decentralized ownership of energy transitions on political decision-making, Energy Res. Soc. Sci., 50, 151, 10.1016/j.erss.2018.12.003 · DOI
  6. IPCC, 2021, Climate change 2021: the physical science basis [internet], UN
  7. Newcomb, 2013, Distributed energy resources: policy implications of decentralization, Electr J., 26, 65, 10.1016/j.tej.2013.09.003 · DOI
  8. Perex-Arriaga, 2016, Utility of the future [internet], MIT
  9. Meadowcroft, 2011, Engaging with the politics of sustainability transitions, Environ. Innov. Soc. Trans., 1, 70, 10.1016/j.eist.2011.02.003 · DOI
  10. Schot, 2008, Strategic niche management and sustainable innovation journeys: theory, findings, research agenda, and policy, Tech. Anal. Strat. Manag., 20, 537, 10.1080/09537320802292651 · DOI
  11. Kivimaa, 2020, Intermediaries in accelerating transitions: introduction to the special issue, Environ. Innov. Soc. Trans., 36, 372, 10.1016/j.eist.2020.03.004 · DOI
  12. Hufen, 2015, Local renewable energy cooperatives: revolution in disguise?, Energy Sustain. Soc., 5, 1
  13. Yildiz, 2015, Renewable energy cooperatives as gatekeepers or facilitators? Recent developments in Germany and a multidisciplinary research agenda, Energy Res. Soc. Sci., 6, 59, 10.1016/j.erss.2014.12.001 · DOI · Paper page
  14. Yildiz, 2014, Financing renewable energy infrastructures via financial citizen participation – the case of Germany, Renew. Energy, 68, 677, 10.1016/j.renene.2014.02.038 · DOI
  15. Brummer, 2018, Community energy – benefits and barriers: a comparative literature review of community energy in the UK, Germany and the USA, the benefits it provides for society and the barriers it faces, Renew. Sustain. Energy Rev., 94, 187, 10.1016/j.rser.2018.06.013 · DOI
  16. Giganti, 2022, Strategic niche Management for Sustainability: a systematic literature review, Sustain. Sci. Pract. Policy, 14, 1680
  17. Witkamp, 2011, Strategic niche management of social innovations: the case of social entrepreneurship, Technology Analysis & Strategic Management, 23, 667, 10.1080/09537325.2011.585035 · DOI
  18. Lovell, 2007, The governance of innovation in socio-technical systems: the difficulties of strategic niche management in practice, Sci. Public Policy, 34, 35, 10.3152/030234207X190540 · DOI
  19. Seyfang, 2012, Growing grassroots innovations: exploring the role of community-based initiatives in governing sustainable energy transitions, Environ. Plann. C Gov. Policy, 30, 381, 10.1068/c10222 · DOI
  20. Mirzania, 2019, The impact of policy changes: the opportunities of community renewable energy projects in the UK and the barriers they face, Energy Policy, 129, 1282, 10.1016/j.enpol.2019.02.066 · DOI
  21. Leonhardt, 2022, Advancing local energy transitions: a global review of government instruments supporting community energy, Energy Res. Soc. Sci., 83, 10.1016/j.erss.2021.102350 · DOI
  22. International Co-operative Alliance, 2023, Facts and figures [internet], ICA
  23. Schneiberg, 2010, Toward an organizationally diverse American capitalism-cooperative, mutual, and local, state-owned enterprise, Seattle UL Rev., 34, 1409
  24. Schneiberg, 2006, What’s on the path? Path dependence, organizational diversity and the problem of institutional change in the US economy, 1900–1950, Socioecon Rev., 5, 47, 10.1093/ser/mwl006 · DOI
  25. Bauwens, 2020, Understanding the diverse scaling strategies of social enterprises as hybrid organizations: the case of renewable energy cooperatives, Organ. Environ., 33, 195, 10.1177/1086026619837126 · DOI · Paper page
  26. Cook, 2018, A life cycle explanation of cooperative longevity, Sustain Sci Pract Policy, 10, 1586
  27. Goddard, 2002, Cooperatives and the commodity political agenda: a political economy approach, Can. J. Agric. Econ., 50, 511, 10.1111/j.1744-7976.2002.tb00352.x · DOI
  28. Stock, 2014, Neoliberal natures on the farm: farmer autonomy and cooperation in comparative perspective, J. Rural. Stud., 36, 411, 10.1016/j.jrurstud.2014.06.001 · DOI
  29. Budney, 2021, Beyond target-setting: cultivating diversity of co-operative boards, Canadian Centre for the Study of Cooperatives
  30. Walker, 2008, What are the barriers and incentives for community-owned means of energy production and use?, Energy Policy, 36, 4401, 10.1016/j.enpol.2008.09.032 · DOI
  31. Hoicka, 2018, From tip to toes: mapping community energy models in Canada and New Zealand, Energy Policy, 121, 162, 10.1016/j.enpol.2018.06.002 · DOI
  32. Kemp, 1998, Regime shifts to sustainability through processes of niche formation: the approach of strategic niche management, Technology Analysis & Strategic Management, 10, 175, 10.1080/09537329808524310 · DOI
  33. Susur, 2019, A strategic niche management perspective on transitions to eco-industrial park development: a systematic review of case studies, Resour. Conserv. Recycl., 140, 338, 10.1016/j.resconrec.2018.06.002 · DOI
  34. Lowitzsch, 2019, Consumer (Co-) ownership in renewables, energy efficiency and the fight against energy poverty--a dilemma of energy transitions, Renewable Energy Law and Policy Review., 9, 5, 10.4337/relp.2019.03.01 · DOI
  35. Couture, 2010, An analysis of feed-in tariff remuneration models: implications for renewable energy investment, Energy Policy, 38, 955, 10.1016/j.enpol.2009.10.047 · DOI
  36. Poruschi, 2018, Revisiting feed-in tariffs in Australia: a review, Renew. Sustain. Energy Rev., 82, 260, 10.1016/j.rser.2017.09.027 · DOI
  37. Boucher, 2020, Governance and decentralized energy transitions: a comparative case study of three medium sized cities in Sweden, Canada, and the United States, Central European Review of Economics and Management, 4, 10.29015/cerem.846 · DOI
  38. Tarhan, 2015, Renewable energy cooperatives: a review of demonstrated impacts and limitations, J. Entrep. Organ. Divers. [Internet], 4
  39. Wagemans, 2019, Facilitating the energy transition—the governance role of local renewable energy cooperatives, Energies [Internet], 12
  40. Berka, 2018, Taking stock of the local impacts of community owned renewable energy: a review and research agenda, Renew. Sustain. Energy Rev., 82, 3400, 10.1016/j.rser.2017.10.050 · DOI
  41. Bhola, 2023, Business model selection for community energy storage: a multi criteria decision making approach, Energies, 16, 6753, 10.3390/en16186753 · DOI
  42. Martins Rodrigues, 2021, Scaling co-operatives through a multi-stakeholder network: a case study in the Colorado solar energy industry, J. Entrep. Organ. Divers. [Internet], 10
  43. Ferster, 2020, Catalyzing community-led solar development by enabling cooperative behavior: insights from an experimental game in the United States, Energy Res. Soc. Sci., 63, 10.1016/j.erss.2019.101408 · DOI
  44. Gjorgievski, 2022, Virtual net-billing: a fair energy sharing method for collective self-consumption, Energy, 254, 10.1016/j.energy.2022.124246 · DOI
  45. Augustine, 2016, The next big thing in renewable energy: shared solar, Electr. J., 29, 36, 10.1016/j.tej.2016.04.006 · DOI
  46. Steelman, 1997, Public involvement methods in natural resource policy making: advantages, disadvantages and trade-offs, Policy Sci., 30, 71, 10.1023/A:1004246421974 · DOI
  47. Costa-Campi, 2017, Trade-offs in energy and environmental policy, Energy Policy [Internet], 104
  48. Peng, 2021, Climate policy models need to get real about people - here’s how, Nature, 594, 174, 10.1038/d41586-021-01500-2 · DOI
  49. Armeni, 2016, Participation in environmental decision-making: reflecting on planning and community benefits for major wind farms, J. Environ. Law, 28, 415

Cited by

Sorted by citations

See all 43

Metadata

Authors
Boucher, M., & Pigeon, M.-A.
Venue
Energy Research & Social Science
Publisher
Elsevier BV
Published
2024-09
Volume
115
Pages
103618
ISSN
2214-6296
DOI
10.1016/j.erss.2024.103618
Cited by
43
References
0
Language
en
Licence
Funders
Social Sciences and Humanities Research Council of Canada

About these checks

Registry, retraction, Cites and statistics results are computed, not judged, with one exception: a printed reference that no index lists is read once by a model before it counts as a citation error. Claims are extracted by a model and kept only when their quote appears verbatim in the text; each cited source is then checked, with a model’s help, for whether it says what the claim relies on. Those verdicts can be wrong — read the claim’s quote and the cited source before relying on one.

Statistics and arithmetic are recomputed, not judged.

Confidence bands are shown only for fields calibrated on our annotated test set. None is calibrated yet, so no band is shown.

What counts as a claim ›How we measure confidence ›How we check this ›

Are you an author, or do you see a problem with this page? Request a review