Women in Energy Communities: An Intersectional Analysis of Their Participation

The recent development of energy communities as key actors in a new energy market has been strongly attached to the perspective of energy democracy and justice since in theory, each citizen could become a member of renewable energy installations, managed collectively as a new common. This is why energy communities have been seen as a way to include all citizens in energetic transition, especially those who are generally excluded, such as women. Women represent the largest group of the 42 million of people suffering from energy poverty in the European Union, i.e., dying because of unhealthy combustibles. However, if an intuitive link has been made between energy communities and the fairness of energetic transition, few strategies have been implemented by energy communities to help underrepresented groups like women to join these initiatives. As a consequence, this lack of emphasis on the recognitional aspect of energy justice could lead to the production and reproduction of new gender inequalities in the energy world. For the moment, the presence of women and more generally underrepresented groups in energy communities are beginning to be the subject of academic research. One of the main problems remains the few data available to address this issue. This work aims to fill this gap by adopting an intersectional perspective on the cooperative Ecopower in Belgium (N=5114). The objective is to highlight the need to consider the multidimensionality and complexity of gender inequalities and be able to drive concrete actions to foster women’s participation in the energy world.