Oleksandr Husiev , Olatz Ukar Arrien , Marta Enciso-Santocildes
{"title":"Spatial analysis of energy communities and energy vulnerabilities in Spain","authors":"Oleksandr Husiev , Olatz Ukar Arrien , Marta Enciso-Santocildes","doi":"10.1016/j.jup.2025.101954","DOIUrl":null,"url":null,"abstract":"<div><div>Energy communities are increasingly recognized for promoting citizen-led transitions toward a just energy system. This paper provides an empirical study examining the distribution of collective action initiatives (CAIs) within Spain's energy transition, focusing on their alignment with local energy generation configurations and energy vulnerability, reflected in socio-economic conditions at the municipal level. This study uses spatial and statistical analyses to assess CAI distribution with a minimal set of socio-economic indicators characterizing basic dimensions of energy vulnerability and its standardized index, as well as energy assets across Spanish municipalities. Results show modest correlations between CAIs and indicators such as income levels and measures of income distribution. However, no significant link is found with income inequality, as measured by the Gini index, when considering high and low-population municipalities separately. Spatial clustering analysis with Local Moran's I reveals a low yet significant association between mean household income and low-capacity PV installations in neighboring areas, suggesting localized economic factors may influence renewable adoption patterns. The study also investigates CAIs' limited impact on addressing gender disparities within the energy sector, finding weak correlations with gender-balanced participation. These findings underscore the strengths and limitations of CAIs in supporting community resilience while highlighting their current insufficiency in addressing broader socio-economic inequalities. Furthermore, this paper discusses the results within a framework for preliminary CAI mapping within energy vulnerability contexts, offering insights for analytically-guided municipalities selection for in-depth, mixed-method exploration of community-led energy initiatives.</div></div>","PeriodicalId":23554,"journal":{"name":"Utilities Policy","volume":"95 ","pages":"Article 101954"},"PeriodicalIF":4.4000,"publicationDate":"2025-05-11","publicationTypes":"Journal Article","fieldsOfStudy":null,"isOpenAccess":false,"openAccessPdf":"","citationCount":"0","resultStr":null,"platform":"Semanticscholar","paperid":null,"PeriodicalName":"Utilities Policy","FirstCategoryId":"96","ListUrlMain":"https://www.sciencedirect.com/science/article/pii/S0957178725000694","RegionNum":3,"RegionCategory":"经济学","ArticlePicture":[],"TitleCN":null,"AbstractTextCN":null,"PMCID":null,"EPubDate":"","PubModel":"","JCR":"Q3","JCRName":"ENERGY & FUELS","Score":null,"Total":0}
引用次数: 0
Abstract
Energy communities are increasingly recognized for promoting citizen-led transitions toward a just energy system. This paper provides an empirical study examining the distribution of collective action initiatives (CAIs) within Spain's energy transition, focusing on their alignment with local energy generation configurations and energy vulnerability, reflected in socio-economic conditions at the municipal level. This study uses spatial and statistical analyses to assess CAI distribution with a minimal set of socio-economic indicators characterizing basic dimensions of energy vulnerability and its standardized index, as well as energy assets across Spanish municipalities. Results show modest correlations between CAIs and indicators such as income levels and measures of income distribution. However, no significant link is found with income inequality, as measured by the Gini index, when considering high and low-population municipalities separately. Spatial clustering analysis with Local Moran's I reveals a low yet significant association between mean household income and low-capacity PV installations in neighboring areas, suggesting localized economic factors may influence renewable adoption patterns. The study also investigates CAIs' limited impact on addressing gender disparities within the energy sector, finding weak correlations with gender-balanced participation. These findings underscore the strengths and limitations of CAIs in supporting community resilience while highlighting their current insufficiency in addressing broader socio-economic inequalities. Furthermore, this paper discusses the results within a framework for preliminary CAI mapping within energy vulnerability contexts, offering insights for analytically-guided municipalities selection for in-depth, mixed-method exploration of community-led energy initiatives.
期刊介绍:
Utilities Policy is deliberately international, interdisciplinary, and intersectoral. Articles address utility trends and issues in both developed and developing economies. Authors and reviewers come from various disciplines, including economics, political science, sociology, law, finance, accounting, management, and engineering. Areas of focus include the utility and network industries providing essential electricity, natural gas, water and wastewater, solid waste, communications, broadband, postal, and public transportation services.
Utilities Policy invites submissions that apply various quantitative and qualitative methods. Contributions are welcome from both established and emerging scholars as well as accomplished practitioners. Interdisciplinary, comparative, and applied works are encouraged. Submissions to the journal should have a clear focus on governance, performance, and/or analysis of public utilities with an aim toward informing the policymaking process and providing recommendations as appropriate. Relevant topics and issues include but are not limited to industry structures and ownership, market design and dynamics, economic development, resource planning, system modeling, accounting and finance, infrastructure investment, supply and demand efficiency, strategic management and productivity, network operations and integration, supply chains, adaptation and flexibility, service-quality standards, benchmarking and metrics, benefit-cost analysis, behavior and incentives, pricing and demand response, economic and environmental regulation, regulatory performance and impact, restructuring and deregulation, and policy institutions.