Development of energy communities in Spain
Generally, in the development of new economic-business models the first projects are driven by those actors who concentrate a sufficient number of elements that give them a certain advantage over the rest. These advantageous elements are usually grouped into economic capital, technical knowledge and public infrastructures.In territorial terms, this phenomenon gives some areas more possibilities for development than others to the extent that some have easier access to a sufficient combination of these advantageous elements. Social capital is the sum of actual and potential resources, material or immaterial, of a given community, which can be mobilised among the different actors that make it up, whether they are individual or collective, public or private. The development of energy communities will largely depend on the combination of social capital intensity and accessibility to renewable energy resources in each case. Categories of territories according to social capital intensity The result of the characterisation of the territory according to the intensity of social capital offers the possibility of classifying energy communities in a more complex way. Types of energy communities Download report
Towards the institutionalisation of public-community partnerships in the energy sector
The complex contemporary economic processes that enable the material and symbolic sustenance of people depend on energy. It is a resource of primary necessity and this makes it strongly linked to power and conflict. Access to and control over energy has historically been a fundamental political issue. The development of our fossil economies has led to the preponderance of energy ownership schemes (public and private) consistent with the liberal vision of ownership (exclusive and exclusionary) and with the dynamics of dispossession inherent to capitalism. But the energy transition towards renewables contributes to experimenting with alternative forms to the traditional ones: public (state) and private ownership of energy. This is due to the fact that in this impasse, renewable electricity becomes relevant, allowing the involvement of a wide diversity of actors: from large financial groups to SMEs of different legal natures (including social and solidarity economy enterprises), public bodies at local or regional level, and the citizenry as a whole. However, the fact that energy is such an absolutely strategic element for a country means that it is highly intervened by States and by supra-state bodies such as the European Union, fundamentally to guarantee security of supply in a framework of international economic competitiveness and a global energy and climate crisis. Intervention mainly involves a very high degree of regulation and ownership in the global energy sector, either through the acquisition of assets or through state-owned enterprises, especially in the electricity sector. According to the report State-Owned Enterprises and the Low-Carbon Transition published by the OECD (2018), 31 of the 51 largest electricity utilities in the world have a majority public shareholding, most of them Chinese and Russian. In Europe, the so-called ‘neoliberal consensus’ of the last quarter of the 20th century led to a reduction in the weight of the state in the electricity business and, as a result, only the Swedish Vattenfall, which is fully public, the French EDF (85% owned by the French state) and, in second place, the French ENGIE and the Italian ENEL, with a minority shareholding by their states (33% and 24%, respectively), stand out. On the other hand, it is also true that the very nature of energy makes public intervention indispensable. If we focus on electricity, it should be stressed that, unlike fossil fuels, once it has been generated, it circulates through the networks with little or no possibility of being stored. This key detail conditions its management because it requires precise coordination to match supply and demand at all times. To do so, it is also necessary to take into account the constraints imposed by the different generation technologies or processes: from their capacity to regulate production (for example, a nuclear power plant cannot be shut down suddenly or the production of a wind turbine varies depending on the wind blowing) to their geographical location (the distance between the point of generation and the point of use). Nor should we forget the management of international grid connectivity with neighbouring countries. In short, these issues cannot be ignored when discussing possible – and desirable – models of energy ownership. Energy is a resource that is difficult to compare to any other, and public non-intervention is inexcusable in order to adapt to its peculiarities. Energy ownership in Spain Before continuing, it should be noted that, depending on how one looks at it, linking ownership and energy does not only mean addressing the question of the possession of legally sealed titles in the energy sector. From a republican perspective, to speak of property is to speak of access to the set of material and immaterial resources considered relevant – of a nature and quantity contingent on each spatio-temporal context – to guarantee people a dignified livelihood. The social function of property has to do with enabling people to live a life of socio-economic independence. It is also assumed that the only interdependencies with others are those that are free from arbitrary interference. Thus, ownership is also defined by the right to control these basic resources. No one doubts that energy – and more so electricity in the current transition – falls into this category of basic resources and that public authorities are needed to guarantee the right to access them. However, citizens must have the mechanisms to control these public authorities. On the one hand, so that they do not allow certain private actors to interfere arbitrarily over others, giving rise to relations of dependency; and on the other, so that they do not feed clientelistic practices that lead to oligarchic and despotic logics. Looking at the Spanish case, we can conclude that the energy ownership model is far from fulfilling its social function: on the one hand, the regulation does not define electricity as an essential good in terms of universal accessibility, and on the other hand, the structure of property rights over energy infrastructures is controlled by a small and powerful block of private companies. As accessibility to electricity is not guaranteed ex-ante, what we do find in Spain are ex-post corrective measures whose level of effectiveness in universalising reasonable access is debatable: the bono social, Law 24/2015 against supply cuts, emergency aid, advisory services on rights, generation and optimisation of consumption, tax incentives or subsidies for renewables, or municipal supply companies. These measures do not tackle a problem that is structural and related to the legal system. Beyond ex-post public intervention, it is fair to point out that there are private initiatives whose actions are not profit-oriented and which offer a supply service with certain public service overtones, as they put the coverage of their members‘ or clients’ energy needs before obtaining profitability. This is the case of the energy cooperatives, among which Som Energia stands out. In its case, it is also an actor that promotes and facilitates popular participation in renewable generation projects, as well as an energy culture based on the values of sustainability, social justice and democracy. Energy communities and public sector participation Energy access schemes are