A powerless alternative? Citizen participation, private actors, and corporate dominance in the contested rollout of renewable energy communities in Portugal

Abstract

Recent European Union policy developments, particularly the Renewable Energy Directive II (2018), have promoted the decentralization of renewable energy (RE) and introduced legal frameworks for collective organization, such as Renewable Energy Communities (RECs). In Portugal, where community-led initiatives were virtually absent before RED II's partial transposition, the concept of “(renewable) energy community” has recently gained prominence. This article presents the first systematic mapping and preliminary characterization of 160 collective and decentralized RE initiatives reported in Portuguese online media between March 2020 and March 2025. The initiatives are analyzed along four dimensions: implementation site, actors, legal status, and stated goals. The findings highlight the predominance of collective self-consumption projects, largely promoted by private energy and technology companies, and the very limited number of legally recognized RECs. The study shows that the term “renewable energy community” has been widely applied across diverse legal and organizational formats, often by incumbent market actors. This discursive appropriation risks diluting the concept's normative foundations and legitimizing market-led approaches through “community-washing”. While collective self-consumption can provide environmental and social benefits, including lower energy costs and potential contributions to alleviating energy poverty, it often falls short of enabling meaningful democratic participation in RE governance. By documenting these dynamics in Portugal, this article advances international debates on community renewable energy and energy democracy, particularly in under-researched Southern European contexts. It underscores the need to investigate the barriers constraining RECs and to assess whether current trajectories foster a more democratic energy transition or reproduce existing power asymmetries.