The Energy Commons – A Private Lawyer’s Reflections on a Multidisciplinary Challenge

Seminar summary

Citizens that join hands to produce renewable energy can make a crucial contribution to the energy transition; they are the Energy Commons. Two EU Directives recognise these Energy Commons as energy communities if their internal organisation meets certain conditions. As a reward for adapting to the Directives, the Energy Commons gain privileged access to the energy market and the right to share their energy. Drawing on empirical research on Energy Commons in Germany and Italy, this paper shows in what respects the conditions under the Directives conflict with established practices among the Energy Commons and gives possible explanations for these conflicts. It argues that normative narratives of the ideal Energy Commons, proposed in scholarly work on the Commons and Energy Democracy, and entrenched by the Directives, can, if unbridled, threaten the flourishing of the Energy Commons. National transpositions of the Directives and Commons theory should leave space for established practices. Positing that the Energy Commons are a multidisciplinary challenge, this paper concludes with reflections on a research agenda for understanding the Energy Commons and the role of legal science in taking up this challenge.

How to attend this seminar

This seminar is free to attend with no need to register in advance.

We welcome you to join us in room EBS.2.66 at the Colchester campus on Monday 11 December at 2pm.

If you are unable to make it in person, this seminar will be available to watch live online.

Speaker bio

Björn Hoops

Björn Hoops holds the Chair of Private Law and Sustainability at the University of Groningen. He read German and Dutch law as well as economics at the universities of Bremen, Groningen, Hagen, and Oldenburg, and obtained a PhD with distinction from the University of Groningen in 2017. His research focuses on land law and governance in the energy transition. From April 2022 to March 2024 Björn is an EU-funded Marie Curie Fellow at the University of Turin.