Every energy transition has had its winners and its losers, both economically and in terms of social justice and community cohesion. The current transition is no different given the complex, intersecting matrices of power and experience that influence the key stakeholders and actors involved. Local oppositions to the deployment of renewable energy technologies have been significantly higher than expected. In numerous instances, these oppositions have been in reaction to the disempowerment of local rights and entitlements associated with specific developments. Consequently, there is a clear need for governance structures and organisational formats that are participatory, inclusive and mindful of the lived experiences of local people. Despite the knowledge gaps and financial constraints that continue to persist, how can local communities become empowered to drive project development and meaningfully engage in the low-carbon energy transition? This paper presents a methodology for investigating citizen perceptions of the energy transition and the kinds of roles they see themselves having in its implementation. Working with six communities across five European countries (France, Ireland, Italy, Spain, and the UK), we conducted a series of iterative cross-sectional community engagements using a mixed methods approach. In addition, a number of innovative participatory action research tools were incorporated to engage citizens in co-designing their own energy transition pathways. Participants expressed having restricted agency as citizens participating in the energy system. They also felt locked in to a limiting set of false choices as ‘energy consumers’ that do not translate into real or meaningful power, despite popular narratives to the contrary. The research also resulted in a co-designed characterisation tool to help local communities assess the energy democracy and citizen participation potential of a number of participatory business models. Citizens remain locked out of the decision-making processes of the energy transition. We outline a more integrated approach, using co-design and participatory action research, to incorporate citizen perspectives into the planning and implementation of more appropriate business configurations. This paper presents demonstrable examples of how extended stakeholder perspectives can improve procedural justice outcomes and ensure the rollout of more equitable energy configurations into the future.

中文翻译：

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社区的可接受性和能源转型：公民的观点

从经济上以及在社会正义和社区凝聚力方面，每一个能源转型都有其赢家和输家。考虑到影响关键利益相关者和参与者的复杂，交叉的权力和经验矩阵，当前的转变没有什么不同。当地反对使用可再生能源技术的反对派大大高于预期。在许多情况下，这些反对意见是对丧失与特定发展有关的地方权利和应享权利的反应。因此，显然需要具有参与性，包容性和铭记当地人民生活经验的治理结构和组织形式。尽管知识缺口和财务限制仍然持续存在，如何使当地社区有能力推动项目发展并有意义地参与低碳能源转型？本文提出了一种方法，用于研究公民对能源过渡的看法以及他们在实施过程中看到的自己所扮演的各种角色。我们与五个欧洲国家（法国，爱尔兰，意大利，西班牙和英国）的六个社区合作，使用混合方法进行了一系列迭代的横截面社区参与。此外，还纳入了许多创新的参与式行动研究工具，以促使公民共同设计自己的能源过渡途径。与会者表示，作为能源系统的公民，其代理机构受到限制。他们也觉得自己陷入了有限的错误选择中，作为“能源消费者”，尽管流行的说法相反，这些选择并没有转化为真正的或有意义的力量。该研究还产生了一个共同设计的表征工具，可以帮助当地社区评估许多参与式商业模式的能源民主和公民参与的潜力。公民仍然处于能源转型的决策过程之外。我们使用协同设计和参与式行动研究，概述了一种更综合的方法，以将公民的观点纳入规划和实施更合适的业务配置中。