Review of Energy Communities in Agriculture

Abstract

Local energy production is a hot topic worldwide, and methods to enhance energy self-sufficiency are being im-plemented. These methods include energy communities where people mutually own energy production and share the produced energy. Agriculture is a major consumer of energy, and efforts are also made in farms to reduce the reliance on purchased energy. This paper presents a systematic literature review to investigate the state of the art of energy communities in agricultural environments. The review query resulted in 28 records, which show that the topic is rather new and that only eight communities are implemented in practice. Only three records feature energy communities especially for energy sharing among farms and not between a farm and rural residential locations. Biogas is the most common energy form to be communalized, whereas electrical energy sharing in agricultural environments is almost nonexistent, suggesting that research into its viability could be made.