Editorial: critical perspectives on community energy

The pressures caused by a need to radically reduce carbon emissions and ensure a secure energy supply have prompted moves to re-scale the production and distribution of energy while also opening up the energy system to new actors and institutions. Growth in renewable energy systems means that, at the supra-national scale, new interconnections are being made to even out energy surpluses and deficits that will result from a more intermittent energy supply system. And the move towards more distributed energy sources in the form of wind, solar, geothermal and water power has re-opened debate around the role of sub-national organisations and less formal groupings of people in the supply and distribution of energy. The inherent efficiency of monopolistic or oligarchic national energy systems is being challenged, exacerbated by increasing fuel costs and high levels of mistrust about the operations of energy suppliers among energy consumers.