Panel 2.5. Restoring Energy Commons: Adapting Established and Creating New Forms of Collective Action for the Green Energy Transition

Nearly one million people in the Brazilian Amazon live off-grid with limited or no access to electricity, particularly Indigenous and traditional communities. Brazilian government is expanding electricity access via photovoltaic systems through a top-down policy titled Light for All Program. In parallel, NGOs, universities, and local communities have been experimenting with an energy commons framework, wherein communities govern and own their own energy systems. This comparative, qualitative study explores the experiences of two traditional communities in Santarém, Brazil: one served by the Light for All Program and the other by a university-supported, community-engaged project. The study: (i) examines and compares the impacts of top-down versus bottom-up approaches towards off-grid electrification; (ii) assesses how these models support or limit an energy commons framework. Preliminary findings, based on participant observation and interviews, indicate that both approaches improve quality of life, particularly through enabling food preservation via freezers. Government-led projects are better funded and supply more electricity to households, which enables the purchase of other electrical appliances. However, the top-down approach creates a “customer-provider” model with monthly bills, which can clash with local values of sovereignty and self-governance. In contrast, costs associated with projects implemented under an energy commons framing aim to solely cover maintenance efforts, thus disregarding profits. Moreover, this approach offers more flexible options to raise funds for maintaining the energy system, such as community labor or fundraising. Energy commons projects also invest in training to ensure communities are autonomous in repairing their own systems, which can lead to future self-funded expansions of the energy system. Finally, community sovereignty is strengthened through the creation of deliberation arenas in which communities create and negotiate rules to self-govern their own systems. By elevating local voices, this study offers insights on impacts of off-grid electrification within a top-down and an energy commons framework.

The concept of ocean as Common is well established in Eastern Indonesia, such as Sasi (from Maluku to West Papua), Muro (East Nusa Tenggara), and Lilifuk (Kupang). These concepts shared basic ideas that encompass the regulation of fishing seasons, the techniques and technologies employed, the targeted species, and the location of the ocean by the Indigenous Community (Bayley & Zerner 1991). Despite ongoing discussions regarding definitions, practices, and possible injustices (Pannel, 1997), the long-standing connection Indigenous communities have with the ocean demonstrates that it is certainly not viewed as an empty space. This is particularly important when faced with new discourses such as marine renewable energy, where the socio-cultural relations of indigenous peoples and their environment are often considered empty - or ignored by more powerful actors (Tsing, 2003).
The MRE development discourse is one of the government’s priorities. To provide some background, the Indonesian government aims for net-zero emissions by 2060, which includes a focus on renewable energy. By 2025, renewable sources are anticipated to make up 23% of the nation's energy mix. Consequently, various MRE projects are generating public discussions, including proposals for constructing a tidal bridge/tidal power plant in Nusa Tenggara. Such debates over tidal energy have sparked discussions among Indigenous/coastal communities who are conscious of the significance of land, sea, rituals, and other related aspects. Drawing from preliminary observations and interviews from a short ethnography conducted in October – and the forthcoming research next year, this presentation paper will explore Indigenous peoples' views and imaginations regarding these matters.

Struggles for public power are a key terrain of struggle in energy transitions, and can be regarded as campaigns for energy commoning. This talk examines three urban social movements for public and democratic control of energy — in Berlin, Minneapolis, and Rochester, NY — that the panelist has direct experience with, and argues that they are attempts to bring movement-based conceptions of energy democracy into urban political institutions that can be seen as attempts for both commoning and moments of politics.

The movements have demanded public utilities advance just urban energy transitions, but more than that, they demanded grassroots participation in and benefit from those transitions. This instituted a demand for self-determination and social control over publicly owned goods (energy utilities). The movements therefore tried to transform state institutions and change what is thought necessary for sustainable energy transitions. This approach to urban energy transitions is unique in combining democratic demands that attempt to re-make the how of local politics and institutions. This remaking is explained as an attempt to institute practices of commoning.

I develop this argument by showing how these movements undertook unique strategies that attempted to shift the boundaries of the politically possible and advance specific visions of commoning energy that could extend towards broader socio-ecological and democratic transformation. By conceiving of the state as an open terrain of struggle, it is possible to see practices of commoning in, against, and beyond the state (Cumbers 2015, Angel 2017 and 2019). However, to do so, I advance that movements must also achieve moments of politics in a Rancierian sense, or rupture in the idea of what is possible and what the state must respond to.

In these efforts, movements have had mixed success, showing the entrenched market power of investor owned utilities, especially in the US. Through in-depth participatory case studies including roles as a movement practitioner, this contribution can examine how these movements succeeded in creating politics around energy issues and forcing the hand of local governments. If movements aim to win the right to govern and to common energy, there must be a broader discussion of and support for these movements to overcome immense obstacles of consolidated financial and political power.

The transition to renewable energy has meant incremental growth in solar, wind, and energy transmission infrastructure in rural communities across the United States. As the interests of large-scale energy companies conflict with that of rural land users, politicians, and landowners, new energy infrastructure has often led to protests, lawsuits, and legislation. Despite the national influence of partisan politics and the current state of political polarization, opposition to energy infrastructure often combines left-and right-wing anti-establishment politics. Bipartisan alignments are influenced by common frustrations with perceived unfair decision making, threats to land, attachments to place, and lack of compensation or cost savings. The Inflation Reduction Act incentives are accelerating the energy transition and led to calls for regulatory reform, in part to limit the power of NIMBY obstructionists. Yet silencing opposition to new projects also means ignoring critiques of a top-down profit-driven energy transition. This paper thus draws attention to the hidden calls for an energy commons in public opposition to renewable energy infrastructure. I draw from 2019 and 2020 ethnographic research conducted in with opponents to New England Clean Energy Connect (NECEC), an energy transmission project connecting Quebec hydropower to southern New England. In this case, the belief that the project was driven by the financial interests of government and corporate actors fueled years-long opposition. The anti-establishment politics of NECEC opponents, distrust of energy companies, and high electric bills in turn fueled support for a 2023 referendum calling for the formation of a consumer-owned organization that would buy the existing electrical utility companies. Though neither of these efforts were successful, I will demonstrate that understanding potential for energy commons in the US depends on listening to renewable energy opponents.

In this paper, I examine the interrelations between private, common, and public ownership of water resources. To do so, I draw on 18 months of ethnographic research conducted in Norway between 2018-2020, as well as preliminary research that builds the foundation to a new research project on water ownership in Switzerland. In particular, I will be exploring the tensions between water as a common good and its commodification. This is against an energy transition and climate change context, where water, on the one hand, becomes increasingly valuable as a source for renewable energy generation, and on the other hand, constitutes a scarce and precarious resource against the backdrop of global water crises. In this paper I will ask: Who owns water? What are the ethical, ecological and socio-economic responsibilities associate with water ownership and production rights? And how do leaders of industry and policy envision our common water futures?

The provision of household heating is a sector long overlooked by social science research on energy. Recent political aspirations towards the decarbonisation of household heating in Germany generate renewed interest in collective and neighbourhood-based forms of heat provision, involving technologies such as ground storage and block-type thermal plants, small-scale networks, and often engendering decentralised forms of ownership. These solutions stand aside established forms of utility district-heating and individual household solutions based on gas or electricity. But until now, community and neighbourhood heat solutions are mostly discussed regarding their technical potential for replacing carbon emissions, while little is known about their organisational features and their conditions for success.

Based on fieldwork in Western and Southern Germany, this paper provides an interpretation of typical cases for collective approaches to household heating. It, first, presents an overview on common technological and organisational features. The paper, second, analyses the emergence of these initiatives against the context of specific local market structures and actor constellations. Third, it provides an interpretation of the commons features of these projects, namely how they are set between approaches towards coproduction, community provision and critical urban commons. The paper will conclude with an outlook on future research into local heating systems as a commons between energy markets, decarbonisation strategies and bottom-up activities.

The concept of the ocean as common shared by all humans has been controversial for a long history. Many existing research tends to center around the capital relationships, legal statuses, and issues of accessibility around the ocean, which presume ocean commons as static and bounded properties. This study, however, wants to mobilize the notion of common as a verb, namely, “commoning” (Gibson-Graham et al., 2016), to explore the dynamic relationships between coastal communities and the ocean. During the energy transformation of Taiwan in recent years, the large-scale MRE development created friction among coastal residents, fishermen, and local governments, yet it also created a new space for debating, negating, and collaboration where both human and non-human actants are involved. Based on the forthcoming ethnographic fieldwork in Taiwan, this study asks: How do old coastal communities develop, reconstruct, and evolve into new ocean commoning-communities, or how do they disintegrate during the development of Marine Renewable Energy (MRE)? What are the new goals and responsibilities to drive them together? How do non-human actants shape the commoning process, and how do they challenge the traditional paradigm of energy that is based on mathematical and scientific understanding? By exploring the commoning process around large-scale and state-leading MRE development, this study aims to understand the political potential of more-than-human commoning-communities and opens up the space for re-imagine the more socially inclusive and environmentally just energy future, where the state and large cooperation inevitably involved.

Energy has always been a central part of the 1600 commoners’ organizations in Switzerland. The access to timber but also forests for multiple reasons had been a central part of rights and duties of Swiss Commoners systems since the 13th century before the energy turn to fossil energy sources. Commoners’ organizations own 1/3 of all forests in Switzerland in common property and are the main force to maintain biodiverse cultural landscape ecosystems. But since the devaluation of timber as an energy source after the energy turn to fossil sources, the economic value of forests has been massively reduced. Therefore, the use value has been transformed to a burden, as the maintenance costs financially are rising and cannot be covered by subsidies. But as many commoner’s organizations hold the value of identity and relation to the collective forests high, they still manage them outside the capitalist value system. They maintain them via internal cross subsidies by income from real estate land, housing and gastronomy and some of them also using income from water rights for hydropower. But since the green energy turn, increasingly also timber as a regrowing natural source of energy becomes important. The paper shows two cases from commoner’s organization in the German speaking (Sarnen, Canton Obwalden) and the French speaking part (Val D’Annivier, Canton Valais) illustrating how innovative initiatives of commoners’ organizations led to decentralized heating systems for otherwise undervalued timber not being used for construction work. This is an important decentralized contribution to the energy transition, while at the same time maintaining the ecosystem services of the protection forests so important to mitigate climate change. However, in the ongoing debate on the green energy turn, this additional source of diversifying green energy adding to wind, water and solar tends to ignore this important option.

Reframing energy as a commons necessitates a radically different techno-institutional foundation for a just and sustainable energy transformation. This paper presentation reports on research on the energy commons, identifying known and potential tensions and contradictions for their realization. A review of literature reveals what is common (or not) in energy commons research and practice across material, institutional, and cultural dimensions. These patterns in turn point toward contradictions related to inclusion and exclusion, Western-centric and pluriversal perspectives, decentralized and coordinated governance, local and extended technological systems, and oppositional and complementary relations to capitalist markets and states. We then propose responses and potential pathways toward resolution of these contradictions, suggesting more integrated and inclusive approaches while recognizing the reality of ongoing conflict in practices of energy commoning. While the energy commons may overlap with frameworks such as energy justice, energy citizenship, and energy democracy, they provide a distinct lens through which to critique and expand existing energy arrangements and achieve alternative energy futures.

This paper critically examines how existing renewable energy policies in the United States enable or hinder the development of commoning practices in energy systems, with a focus on the rapidly expanding sector of large-scale solar (LSS) energy deployment. As the transition to renewable energy accelerates, there is a growing tension between top-down, large-scale energy infrastructure projects and bottom-up, community-driven initiatives. This research explores the policy landscape that shapes these dynamics and its implications for energy commons.

Drawing on an analysis of federal and state-level renewable energy policies, as well as case studies of LSS siting processes, we investigate how current policy frameworks impact community engagement, local control, and collective ownership in energy systems. We argue that while many policies aim to accelerate renewable energy deployment, they often prioritize large-scale, corporate-led projects over community-based initiatives, potentially undermining the development of energy commons.

Our findings reveal a complex interplay between policy incentives, market forces, and community interests. We identify key policy barriers to energy commoning, such as limited support for community-owned projects, complex permitting processes, challenges with grid connection, and insufficient mechanisms for meaningful public participation in energy planning. Conversely, we also highlight innovative policy approaches that have successfully fostered energy commons, including community benefit agreements, virtual net metering, and participatory siting processes.

By examining these policy dynamics in the context of LSS deployment, we contribute to broader discussions on the role of institutional frameworks in shaping common pool resource management. We conclude by proposing policy recommendations that could better support energy communing practices while still meeting broader renewable energy goals, emphasizing the need for more flexible, inclusive, and locally-responsive policy approaches in the ongoing energy transition.

Agrivoltaics is the co-location of agricultural production and solar energy generation, and it comes in many configurations including livestock grazing, crop cultivation, controlled environment agriculture and pollinator habitat. While feasible at utility scale, agrivoltaics holds the most promise for ground- or greenhouse-mounted community solar projects. The dual-use arrangement of agrivoltaics allows for increased land productivity, greater environmental resilience and more local control of both energy and food system benefits. In this paper, we share opportunities for agrivoltaics on Tribal lands and how Tribal agricultural professionals see parallels with existing food and energy sovereignty movements. We will also reflect on the connections between Indigenous frameworks of food and energy sovereignty and contemporary understandings of food and energy commons. Agrivoltaics is one way for Tribes to manage the earth’s collective resources of land and solar power while increasing access and equity in food and energy systems.

As global challenges related to climate change intensify, societies are exploring innovative approaches to mitigate its impacts. A key strategy is the transition to renewable energy, which has the potential to enable more localized and democratic production, fostering polycentric governance and transforming energy resources into commons. Local energy communities are emerging as a transformative model, comprised of individuals, small enterprises, and local authorities that collaboratively produce, consume, store, and sell renewable energy, along with many other community actions. Unlike large energy companies, communities prioritize social, economic, and environmental benefits for local areas over financial gain, potentially catalyzing broader social transformations. This study examines the transformative potential of energy communities in rural Spain, where climate change interacts with depopulation and market integration pressures. Methodologically, the study combines qualitative data obtained through a participatory workshop and interviews. According to preliminary results, energy communities provide many common and public goods other than just energy, including increased environmental awareness, citizen participation, social cohesion, and an enhanced sense of belonging. Barriers to their emergence and endurance include limited time and knowledge among citizens, corporate capture and legal uncertainty, while facilitators include funding opportunities, a culture of rural community engagement, established energy community networks and support from local governments and cooperative energy marketers within the social and solidarity economy. These and other evidence suggest that energy communities have a great potential to combine rural revitalization and climate resilience.

New tidal and wave power infrastructures are part of increasingly busy, multi-purpose oceanic spaces, in which many analysts also see great risks and the need for new communing institutions and norms towards marine justice. Like other nascent industries, marine renewables are shaped by sedimented economic and political patterns and visions, that affect how these technologies are taken up- or not.
The Canadian province of Nova Scotia claims the most powerful tides in the world, and has invested heavily for a decade in developing tidal turbine stations. Though many agree that the idea is good, the decision-making process around investment, benefit-sharing and environmental impact have been very fraught. This paper examines the effect on the tidal power dream of local fishery struggles, evolving relations with First Nations land and sea stewards, and the push-and pull around decarbonizing Canada. It uses early results from stakeholder interviews and participant-observation to analyse the experience of tidal energy production, and what a tidal energy commons might look like. Lastly, the paper asks how this particular form of making and sharing energy is similar or different from locally established common-pool resources such as coastal tourist sites or education.