The human factor: bridging gaps in energy communities through performing arts

Energy communities can be a tool to improve social cohesion and ensure a fair energy transition, but several social challenges still lie ahead. As part of the RESCHOOL project, researchers are studying whether theatre could be an effective tool to tackle them.

When the lights go out in Font de la Pólvora, the only option neighbours have is to wait. In this marginalised area on the outskirts of Girona, a Catalan city in northern Spain, power outages lasting 10 to 12 hours are a regular part of life. And most of the time, residents find no response from the power company nor the local government.

There are many reasons behind complex cases of extreme energy poverty and exclusion such as this, and the way citizens are used to relating to energy production and consumption is no minor factor. In the transition to a clean energy system, energy communities could play a crucial role in ensuring justice and reducing energy exclusion.

Cracking the challenge won’t be easy — but researchers at the University of Girona have a bold idea: bring theatre into the mix to spark intergenerational learning and shift how people see energy communities.

The green revolution is also collective

Traditional, centralised energy systems, mostly based on fossil-fuel power plants, still dominate Europe’s electricity generation. Despite the efforts to increase the share of renewable sources in the energy mix, they represented 24.5% of the European Union’s final energy use in 2023, according to the European Environment Agency.

In this scenario, collective energy production and consumption is gaining ground as a way not only to empower citizens, companies, or public institutions to produce, manage and consume their own electricity, but also to cut costs, boost efficiency, and speed up the deployment of renewable energy.

There are an estimated 9,000 energy communities currently in operation across the EU,  according to the European Commission — a figure that has increased markedly since the adoption of the Clean energy for all Europeans  package in 2019, which provided a legal framework for energy communities. 

Research institutions and innovative energy companies are also partnering to boost, promote and help energy community projects grow. As part of the RESCHOOL project, several pilot communities have been launched throughout Europe with the main goal of enhancing the technology and behaviour of their users. But there is more to it.

“Within all the mechanisms available for promoting energy communities, we study intergenerational learning,” says Anaïs Varo, Assistant Professor in Political Science at the University of Girona, one of the 16 partners of the RESCHOOL project.

“Intergenerational learning refers to the information sharing processes between people of different generations. We focus on how this knowledge could transform practices and attitudes towards energy, and especially energy communities,” she adds. “After some research, we decided the best place to start testing this hypothesis was schools. And theatre.”

Bringing the discussion home through school theatre

As part of the RESCHOOL Spanish pilot, four energy communities have been established in the rural area surrounding Girona. A total of 90 families and two local businesses from the villages of Amer, Rupià, Cellera de Ter, and Cornellà de Terri have deployed community-managed photovoltaic plants, and are working together with researchers to improve storage systems and evaluate the impact of designing local grids.

However, boosting energy communities is not just a matter of installing solar panels on rooftops. It requires a cultural shift and sustained effort to inform and organise neighbourhoods.

“We discovered that the community interventions that work best in order to improve intergenerational learning and change the way we relate to the energy system are interventions with students. They connect kids with their local context and then pass this knowledge on to the older generations within their families,” points out Anaïs Varo.

And they decided to start testing an innovative pedagogical tool: theatre. Researchers designed a modular, flexible proposal so schools can choose activities and length. The main goal is to bring energy communities into the classroom and help the students take the information home.

The two-session proposal, for instance, starts with a set of introductory activities, covering basic concepts about energy communities and clean energies through several group games. Then, the second session brings up dilemmas related to energy communities that the students have to dramatise, choosing among the available solutions and creating a short dialogue to justify their decision.

These dilemmas cover many of the conflicts that can arise when anybody decides to get involved in an energy community, from space issues to changing consumption habits or energy poverty.

“It is an innovative way of talking about these problems and collectivising them at the school level,” explains Varo. "For the intergenerational learning to happen, it is essential that the activities relate to the students' personal and contextual experiences, and that the kids have to do something at home. In our case, we designed a short activity they have to complete together with their parents, their grandparents, or any other adult at home."

Research is still ongoing, but the schools and the students have shown positive attitudes towards this kind of intervention. Many institutions are eager to repeat and even expand the project, even though teachers are usually overwhelmed and under pressure to meet curriculum requirements.

"We think schools are a key element for intergenerational learning, and we believe our results will demonstrate it. But we are also seeing that more investment is needed to support teachers' work," adds the Catalan researcher.

Energy communities are growing throughout Europe. Legal and technological challenges have been largely overcome, and now the largest barriers are social. 

For years, households and businesses have had a very distant relationship with their energy production and use. Convincing them of the many benefits of changing this relationship is essential to boosting energy communities and redefining Europe’s energy system. 

Improved social cohesion, better energy efficiency, lower bills, reduced energy poverty and more local green job opportunities await. Intergenerational learning and theatre can open a new way to achieve this.

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