Come Together : The Development of Swedish Energy Communities

Community energy (CE) and grassroots innovations have been widely studied in recentyears, especially in the UK, Germany, and the Netherlands, but very little focus has been placedon Sweden. This paper describes and analyses the development and present state of several typesof community energy initiatives in Sweden. The methodology uses interviews, document studies,analysis of previous studies, and website analysis. The results show that fewer initiatives have beentaken in Sweden than in other countries, but that even with a rather ‘hostile’ institutional setting CEhas emerged as a phenomenon. Wind cooperatives are the most common form of initiative, with solarphotovoltaics cooperatives and eco-villages also prominent. The various types of initiatives differconsiderably, from well-organized wind cooperatives that have grown into professional organizationsto small-scale hydroelectric power plants owned by a rural community. The initiatives may havemodest impact on the energy transition in quantitative terms, but they are crucial in knowledgesharing and as inspirations for future initiatives.Funding agencies: Swedish Research Council Formas (Svenska Forskningsradet Formas) as part of the JPI Climate Joint Call for Transnational Collaborative Research Projects, Societal Transformation in the Face of Climate Change [2014-1715]“Mobilizing grassroots capacities for sustainable energy transitions: path improvement or pathchange?” - funded by The Swedish Research Council Formas through JPI – Climate Joint Call for Transnational Collaborative Research Projects, Societal Transformation in the Face of Climate Chang