Energy justice for members only? A study of German energy cooperatives’ contributions to energy justice

Abstract: Energy cooperatives are seen as a way to achieve energy democracy in both academic and activist circles, with often an implicit expectation that they also contribute to energy justice. These assumptions are increasingly being questioned, often on the grounds of the limited diversity of energy cooperative membership. I conducted semi-structured interviews with four German energy cooperatives in order to investigate the extent and conditions under which energy cooperatives can contribute to energy justice. Applying the principles of energy justice outlined by Sovacool et al.(2017) as a framework, my findings indicate that while energy cooperatives make a variety of contributions to energy justice that benefit people beyond their immediate membership, it is especially in the field of distributional and procedural justice that mainly their members benefit. Furthermore, the ability to contribute to energy justice can at times be constrained by a lack of capacities and well as inadequate policy measures.