Our aim is to put local and community energy in the public spotlight, to get community organisations talking, and to inspire citizen engagement in the renewable energy transition.
What is Community Energy?
Community energy refers to energy activities that directly benefit or are controlled by citizens and energy users.The term citizen, rather than consumer is intentional: community energy about more than individual consumers and it centers focus on the power of collective and citizen-based initiatives.
Activities can include building new power generation, reducing energy usage, lowering retail costs for citizens, distributing power, building energy storage and peer to peer sharing systems. Internationally there is growing interest in the area of community and citizen energy because it can address challenges crucial for the low carbon energy transition. These include spreading financial gains more broadly, developing energy literacy, helping to address project opposition and engaging a wide range of community members who have traditionally not been involved in driving change in the sector.
The New Zealand Aotearoa Community Energy Dataset
This dataset has been developed by Dr Julie McArthur from Auckland University and Dr Anna Berka from Massey University. CEN is delighted to be able to host this dataset.
Case Studies
We will be adding case studies that provide insight into how community energy projects are being developed and implemented. These are mostly based on the research conducted by Dr MacArthur and Dr Berka over the last 5 years. Please check back soon.
