Co-Evolution Between Technology and User Engagement in the Niche of Energy Communities in Portugal

In sociotechnical transitions, landscape disruptions, such as climate change, exert pressure on incumbent regimes and can trigger the emergence of niche innovations. Renewable energy communities represent one such innovation, increasingly central to European energy policy. This paper applies a critical realist method to examine the energy community niche in Portugal, drawing on a content analysis of the scientific literature and recent Horizon Europe research projects involving Portuguese actors. The analysis reveals three distinct research pathways structuring knowledge production in this niche—technology-driven, socio-governance-oriented, and infrastructure-focused. It also reveals a systemic R&D bias: incumbent actors occupy dual positions—simultaneously at the regime level and within the niche—playing central roles in learning and network formation while exhibiting limited capacity to translate innovation into institutional change and large-scale diffusion. Building on these critical realist findings, we then apply the Strategic Niche Management framework as an evaluative lens, revealing structural misalignments between components of the sociotechnical system. Together, these two analytical steps offer a novel reading of the Portuguese energy community niche, contributing to the theoretical debate on incumbent roles in transition dynamics and identifying concrete shortcomings for future R&D agenda-setting.