Community Renewable Energy - Research Perspectives -

A growing body of literature is addressing the emergence and impact of community renewable energy (CRE) schemes in Europe through focusing analysis on typology distinctions, governance models, financial characteristics and membership structures. The existing research has almost exclusively studied the emergence of CRE through a country specific prism and using economic and sociological theoretical models, with very few case studies, also of limited scope. The aim of this paper is to provide an overview of literature studying CRE schemes, in particular renewable energy cooperatives, to identify research gaps and to derive a research agenda for further examining the developing sub-sector.