Business Models for Energy Communities : A Case Study on the Swedish Market

Abstract: Global warming is one of our time’s most pressing issues and the energy industry is the leading cause. In the current Swedish electricity systems, individual consumers hold little to no power as the system is inherently centralized, with large incumbent actors. The Swedish electricity grid is prognosticated to encounter a troublesome situation with grid capacity as society enjoys and evergrowing electrification. The climate issueshave however given renewable energy a more predominant role in the Swedish energy sector. Through the directives of the European Union’s Clean Energy Package, each member state now has to enact laws enabling for individuals to cooperatively engage in selfproduction of energy as a joint entity, which in turn enables for new niche technologies to become market actors. Energy communities is such an entity with a promising outlook to become both a considerable market actor, and an actor that can help alleviate grid tensions. The purpose of this study is to: 1) investigate how the internal business model for energy communities could be constructed in order to maximize societal outreach and promote the creation of new energy communities, and 2) to investigate how the business models could be constructed in order to coexist with the incumbent structures, while contributing to the developments in the sociotechnical regime. The study utilizes an abductive approach through the form of a single case study and qualitative data collection methods. The results are presented and analyzed using the business model canvas framework and its potential is analyzed through the MultiLevel Perspective. The prospects of energy communities in Sweden using photovoltaic (PV) production units are overall positive. The value propositions that lie at the core of the proposed business model are constituted of environmental benefits, autarky, social values and economic costs savings. The most prosperous developmental path for energy communities in order to in the future be recognized in the sociotechnical regime is through a relationship characterized by cooperation with the incumbent structures.