Community energy and social entrepreneurship: Addressing purpose, organisation and embeddedness of renewable energy projects

In many European countries, renewable energy has evolved through decentralised and small-scale forms of organisation. These different initiatives are often denominated as community energy in both research and practice. By examining community energy initiatives through a social entrepreneurship lens, we develop an integrated approach for the analysis of small-scale and bottom up energy initiatives. Our approach relies on three specific analytical dimensions: the purpose of the initiative, its form of organisation and ownership, and its embeddedness into local community or wider social movements. We apply this analytical framework to four case studies selected from a larger empirical study on newly emerged forms of organisation in the field of renewable energy across the European Union. Drawing on our findings, we characterise social enterprises in the energy sector as collectively owned Organisations that combine renewable energy production with more overarching goals of environmental and social transformation, and a specific quest for civic participation. These initiatives show strong relationships with different social movements and even a potential to transcend the local scale. We conclude that given similarities in the two areas of research provide fertile ground for mutual advancement, both conceptually and empirically. (C) 2017 Elsevier Ltd. All rights reserved.