Investigating the impacts of community energy projects on local stakeholders

Recent years have witnessed a growing interest in the transformation on how energy is generated and used to the benefit of man and the environment. Amongst many Green House Gas (GHG) emissions reduction strategies, community based Renewable Energy activities seem to have risen higher up in the UK public agenda. This paper therefore accentuates the importance of an appropriate research design for the investigation of the impacts of Community Renewable Energy Projects (CREPs) on local stakeholders in the UK. The role played by CREPs in contributing to building resilient and stronger community in the UK cannot be denied. In spite of these successes, there is an increasing debate on perceived CREPs outcomes and its impacts which are yet to be properly communicated. This research integrates the pragmatic paradigm (as the philosophical footing), inductive and deductive approaches and combination of both survey and case study data collection strategies in its design. Although the case study is still ongoing, data collected from questionnaire distributed to Community Energy Groups across the UK were analysed using appropriate statistical techniques. Among the main outcome of the analysed data, there is a lack of adequate communication on the gains and successes of CREPs to non-participants; and most UK community energy initiatives are located either in rural areas or in small towns away from large urban centres. The main conclusion of this paper was to communicate CREPs positive impacts on stakeholders on a UK wide scale. However, a number of important limitations need to be considered, first the findings are limited by the use of only survey data to highlight the effects of CREPs on stakeholders when the research design prescribed combination of both Survey and Case Study strategies, this is because the case study phase is still ongoing. It is believed that the outcome of this phase will provide sufficient clarification on CREPs impact on a UK wide scale. Again, with a small sample size, caution must be applied, as the findings might not be representative of the entire UK Community Energy Sector