Who wants to join a renewable energy community in Flanders? Applying an extended model of Theory of Planned Behaviour to understand intent to participate

Abstract

Renewable energy communities (RECs) are citizens, SMEs or local governments who collectively invest, produce and use local renewable energy, with private citizens controlling a majority stake. As part of efforts to increase the share of sustainable energy production, RECs could play an important role. However, barriers to participation remain. Given their importance within RECs, it is of interest to understand what determines citizen's intent to participate in a REC. Using an extended model of Ajzen's Theory of Planned Behaviour, we examined the impact of attitude, subjective norms and perceived behavioural control on people's intent to participate in a REC in Flanders, Belgium. We include several antecedents of both perceived behavioural control, attitude and intent, including economic, social, behavioural and attitudinal variables. Using structural equation modelling, data of 727 participants are analysed. Our results indicate that attitude and subjective norms are both strong predictors of intent, while perceived behaviour has a significant, but modest impact. We additionally find significant relationships between attitudes towards renewable energy, environmental concern, financial gain and willingness to change behaviour and attitude towards renewable energy communities. We discuss our results in light of previous work in this domain and formulate recommendations for increasing REC participation.