2023

Apajalahti, Eeva-Lotta; Ruggiero, Salvatore; Lukkarinen, Jani; Laakso, Senja;

Energy community initiatives (ECIs), which refer to place-specific communities investing in energy efficiency, storage, smart energy solutions, or distributed energy production, have gained increasing attention in the European Union (EU) energy and climate governance as a solution to accelerate urban energy transitions. In this chapter, the authors uses the term energy community, popularised by recent EU legislation, to indicate citizen-driven energy initiatives that help attract private investments for the clean energy transition. While ECIs continue to attract considerable attention, we need more research on the contextual aspects that not only enable but also create tensions in the implementation of ECs. The chapter focuses on the tensions emerging in the development of urban ECIs. “Smart cities” are expected to boost the implementation of novel technologies and, thus, urban energy transitions. The renovation project was carried out to reduce energy consumption and improve indoor climate conditions.