Learning and Diffusion of Knowledge in Clean Energy Communities

Clean energy communities (CEC) represent emerging socio-technical systems that offer a suitable alternative to non-sustainable energy production and consumption. Thus, CECs cultivate new knowledge of clean energy use and diffuse it among their members as well as interested publics outside the CECs. This paper aims to contribute to the rather limited literature on the role of learning and knowledge in energy transitions in general and CECs’ knowledge circulation and learning processes in particular. The paper presents findings about the knowledge development and learning processes within CECs, ways of cultivating knowledge within CECs and ways of disseminating this knowledge outside the CECs for potentially influencing wider social change. This research contributes to the energy transition literature by focusing on the overlooked perspective of learning and knowledge dissemination as an important part of a niche-innovation setting