ENERGY COMMUNITIES: BARRIERS TO AND BENEFITS FROM THEIR IMPLEMENTATION WITH THE VIABLE BUSINESS MODEL: AN ENERGY COOPERATIVE CASE STUDY FROM TURKEY

Abstract Energy communities are gaining increasing attention along with their bottom-up, decentralized energy generation characteristics to reduce carbon emissions and foster energy transition in response to climate change mitigation. This study aims to investigate the barriers surrounding energy communities, the benefits they create, and the implemented business model in the development of energy communities. This study examined an energy cooperative case study based in Turkey using semi-structured interviews with the thematic analysis method. Analysis of the respondents demonstrated that while the institutional barriers were the most critical barriers hindering, the community building and self-realizations were the most significant benefits deriving from energy communities' dissemination. The business model's value proposition contained social, environmental, and economic elements, and the costs were covered by own equity capital. This research responds to the question concerning the barriers to and benefits from energy communities by exploring the implemented business model, particularly investigating an energy cooperative in Turkey. On this basis, it is recommended that policymakers should consider creating a consistent, long-term enabling legal framework for the development of energy communities. Further studies are needed to comprehend better these results' essence with mixed research methods. Keywords: Energy communities, barriers, benefits, energy cooperative business model, decentralized energy, energy transition.