Energy communities - scaling opportunities for development and growth: Case Finland
Parikka, Milla (2024)
Parikka, Milla
2024
Tuotantotalouden DI-ohjelma - Master's Programme in Industrial Engineering and Management
Johtamisen ja talouden tiedekunta - Faculty of Management and Business
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Hyväksymispäivämäärä
2024-10-17
Julkaisun pysyvä osoite on
https://urn.fi/URN:NBN:fi:tuni-202409248871
https://urn.fi/URN:NBN:fi:tuni-202409248871
Tiivistelmä
In response to increasing environmental pressures and sustainability concerns, a significant transition has taken place in the energy sector. Thus, the transition has promoted decentralized energy production and the use of renewable energy sources to replace the common methods for energy production from centralized fossil fuel units. This has led to the development of new solutions, such as energy communities, which act as sustainable and decentralized designs for the generation, distribution and consumption of energy. Even though the importance of energy communities has been acknowledged, their impact on the energy transition has not been entirely understood and the number of energy communities has remained small. Evidently, there is still a considerable amount of untapped potential energy communities hold in terms of the energy transition. Additionally, knowledge on how these new designs can scale and increase their impact is limited and a standardized set of factors for scaling is missing. The objective of this thesis is to investigate the scaling and development opportunities of energy communities, identify the needs for achieving scalability and explore the potential models through which scaling could be realized.
To meet the research objective, an explorative case study was carried out in Finnish context. The focus was on creating knowledge and finding solutions to facilitate energy communities’ future growth in general and especially, in practice. As a qualitative study, the data was gathered through a series of 15 interviews from three different actor groups, including members of energy communities, representatives of companies and individuals driving new ideas. In addition, a thorough literature review of existing research on energy communities and their scaling was conducted. Furthermore, all the collected data was analyzed using abductive thematic analysis with the support of qualitative data analysis software Atlas.ti.
The findings of this study show that scaling of energy communities is dependent on both the conditions and the context. Conditions related to information sharing, experimentation and learning, and cooperation are in the core for increasing transparency, finding new and more effective ways of doing things and extending impact. These general conditions should be at least in place for scaling and thus, accompanied with other relevant conditions dependent on the context. Indeed, a consumer-centric approach should be adopted to find the best combination of conditions for scaling in each context. The findings also reveal four new models through which energy communities could be implemented in addition to the model of energy community within a housing cooperative to which the Finnish energy sector is currently limited. Consequently, these new models extend the opportunities for scaling by presenting alternative solutions available for consumers in different settings.
The study contributes to the existing literature by adding insights into the understudied topic on how energy communities, as a rather new design, can scale and drive the transition of the energy sector. As for practical implications, the findings of this study give guidance for different actors involved in energy communities to form an environment which best facilitates scaling. For future research, it is recommended to study at least the general conditions proposed in more detail to create knowledge of their significance. Additionally, future research could analyze the identified new models to discover the opportunities and challenges of each model as well as their potential in assisting the energy transition.
To meet the research objective, an explorative case study was carried out in Finnish context. The focus was on creating knowledge and finding solutions to facilitate energy communities’ future growth in general and especially, in practice. As a qualitative study, the data was gathered through a series of 15 interviews from three different actor groups, including members of energy communities, representatives of companies and individuals driving new ideas. In addition, a thorough literature review of existing research on energy communities and their scaling was conducted. Furthermore, all the collected data was analyzed using abductive thematic analysis with the support of qualitative data analysis software Atlas.ti.
The findings of this study show that scaling of energy communities is dependent on both the conditions and the context. Conditions related to information sharing, experimentation and learning, and cooperation are in the core for increasing transparency, finding new and more effective ways of doing things and extending impact. These general conditions should be at least in place for scaling and thus, accompanied with other relevant conditions dependent on the context. Indeed, a consumer-centric approach should be adopted to find the best combination of conditions for scaling in each context. The findings also reveal four new models through which energy communities could be implemented in addition to the model of energy community within a housing cooperative to which the Finnish energy sector is currently limited. Consequently, these new models extend the opportunities for scaling by presenting alternative solutions available for consumers in different settings.
The study contributes to the existing literature by adding insights into the understudied topic on how energy communities, as a rather new design, can scale and drive the transition of the energy sector. As for practical implications, the findings of this study give guidance for different actors involved in energy communities to form an environment which best facilitates scaling. For future research, it is recommended to study at least the general conditions proposed in more detail to create knowledge of their significance. Additionally, future research could analyze the identified new models to discover the opportunities and challenges of each model as well as their potential in assisting the energy transition.