A Study of Personal Narratives in Community Energy

The community renewable energy movement is an active local response to the concerns posed by climate change, fossil fuel dependency and resource scarcity. Since 2011, there have been several policy changes disruptive to the progress of the movement, including: significant cuts to the Feed-in Tariff Scheme; a block to registration of new energy co-operatives, and the removal of investment eligibility under the Enterprise Investment Tax Relief Scheme. While previous research has explored community energy as a means of collective local action and the role it might play in the low-carbon transition, much of this work was undertaken during a time of emerging policy support. Accordingly, there is now a need to understand the effect of national policy changes at a local level and how community energy groups consequently adapt. The changing policy context has provided an opportunity to reconsider the dynamics of local renewable energy engagement during times of uncertainty.This thesis presents contemporary stories from the community energy movement at a pivotal moment of change. Twenty-four in-depth narrative interviews were conducted with individuals involved at the centre of the movement, a method that elicited different forms of storytelling in the interviews. These stories build new knowledge of low carbon transformation, and how the actions and narratives of individuals are intertwined with the evolution of wider societal themes and structures. The stories of community energy activists evidence creativity and resilience in response to uncertainty and have brought a new consideration of community energy project development and the connections of energy history, personal life, and group agency. The research argues the value of stories to illuminate meaningful perspectives of local transformation and the need for storytelling to connect these ideas to a wider audience. Such understandings can support the community energy movement as it continues to evolve through a changing context