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How is the UK market for domestic heat pumps developing? Recent events relating to geopolitics, politics, energy markets and wider society, widely regarded as unprecedented and disruptive, have the potential to create new challenges, opportunities, and drivers for heat pumps deployment in the UK. However, to date, there has been little attention to the consequences of such events. This report tackles this research gap. Using a systemic, co-evolutionary approach, it presents evidence of how the market for heat pumps has developed across four thematic areas of relevance to residential heat pump deployment – policy and regulation, business environment, wider society, and users – as well as on the focal technology itself. It ends by summarising the results of the review within a series of key messages and concludes that recent events have created a distinct opportunities to accelerate deployment whilst generating new challenges.

Energy communities (ECs) are widely recognised for their potential to generate renewable energy. By contrast, the capacity of ECs to reduce energy demand and foster flexibility has attracted little attention to date, despite their theoretical potential to do so. To address this gap, we apply three perspectives – social representations theory, actor-network theory, and business models – to the analysis of nine case studies based in six European countries (Germany, Italy, Slovenia, Sweden, Netherlands, and United Kingdom). The core of the article comprises analysis of the nine cases from each perspective. Our results highlight the (un)intended effects of ECs on the energy representations of members; the configurational work required by focal actors to assemble new socio-technical configurations; and the value creation and capture opportunities open to ECs in the creation of novel business models; These factors in turn impact whether and how ECs achieve demand reduction and flexibility. We summarise and discuss these results in a process of meta-theoretical triangulation to produce a multifaceted and relational account of the potential of ECs to develop demand-side solutions. This leads us to conclude that ECs have a distinct capacity to develop demand-side solutions, rooted in the creation of innovative socio-technical configurations; and that this distinct capacity of ECs has the potential to complement and extend the contemporary focus on the use of market mechanisms to achieve demand reduction and increase flexibility. Nasl. z nasl. zaslona. Opis vira z dne 26. 10. 2022. Article no. 102848. Bibliografija: str. 12-14. Abstract.

This report examines the emergence, operation and prospects of energy communities (ECs) based on a set of European case studies. It analyses ECs as organisational innovations within energy systems that are themselves in transition. There is a particular focus on the business models (BMs) of ECs, as these offer concise summaries of how communities aim to create, deliver and capture value for their members and for others. Two questions drive the investigation: What makes energy community business models viable? What are energy communities’ prospects for growth? In order to answer these, WP4 of the NEWCOMERS project examined 10 emerging ECs in Germany, Italy, the Netherlands, Slovenia, Sweden and the United Kingdom, over a period of two and a half years. Nine were locally based while one was a ‘virtual community’ of scattered electricity customers, coordinated by an energy company. Each EC operated in differing regulatory and social contexts and relied to varying degrees on specific technologies, skills and external support. The report is based on a mixed-method study of the 10 communities, with data from stakeholder dialogues, surveys, interviews, an international stakeholder workshop, documents and quantitative assessment. The empirical material is framed and interpreted with assistance from the research and grey literature on community and local energy. We have used a 'business model lens' to explore how ECs create and deliver value for stakeholders in energy systems. This approach emphasises the actors and technologies involved in ECs and the value created through their interactions. It has led to an analysis of business model activity systems in which the lens is applied beyond a single focal organisation to consider its relationships with other system actors. Our findings can be summarised in terms of emergence and operation of ECs. Based on these, we conclude with some comments on value propositions, the study of EC business models and prospects for ECs in European energy transitions to renewables-based systems.

This report examines the emergence, operation and prospects of energy communities (ECs) based on a set of European case studies. It analyses ECs as organisational innovations within energy systems that are themselves in transition. There is a particular focus on the business models (BMs) of ECs, as these offer concise summaries of how communities aim to create, deliver and capture value for their members and for others. Two questions drive the investigation: What makes energy community business models viable? What are energy communities’ prospects for growth? In order to answer these, WP4 of the NEWCOMERS project examined 10 emerging ECs in Germany, Italy, the Netherlands, Slovenia, Sweden and the United Kingdom, over a period of two and a half years. Nine were locally based while one was a ‘virtual community’ of scattered electricity customers, coordinated by an energy company. Each EC operated in differing regulatory and social contexts and relied to varying degrees on specific technologies, skills and external support. The report is based on a mixed-method study of the 10 communities, with data from stakeholder dialogues, surveys, interviews, an international stakeholder workshop, documents and quantitative assessment. The empirical material is framed and interpreted with assistance from the research and grey literature on community and local energy. We have used a 'business model lens' to explore how ECs create and deliver value for stakeholders in energy systems. This approach emphasises the actors and technologies involved in ECs and the value created through their interactions. It has led to an analysis of business model activity systems in which the lens is applied beyond a single focal organisation to consider its relationships with other system actors. Our findings are summarised in terms of emergence and operation of ECs. Based on these, we conclude with some comments on value propositions, the study of EC business models and prospects for ECs in European energy transitions to renewables-based systems.

This case study report provides a short summary of a full case study report on Dalby Solby, a cooperative housing association located 20km northeast of Malmo, Sweden.