Paper short abstract:

Taking the example of a collective energy experience in southern Chilean Patagonia, we propose to enrich the typology of renewable energy communities to include the geographical and diverse traits of their conformation.

Paper long abstract:

This work proposes to examine the power dynamics articulated by individuals and groups from the places where energy is alive and projected in a remote place of the Chilean Patagonia. An ethnographic and qualitative work of resistance against the hydroelectric dam is conducted in a group emerged from its collective and private experiences, with autonomy self-determination of their territory. In addition to enhancing criticism of the "energy transition" at a planetary level, the preliminary consideration of these forms open the enquiry on the experiences of isolated or remote, particular cases.

From the well-known typology of Devine-Wright and Walker (2008) of renewable energy communities that positions them in terms of processes and results, we propose to re-write them in terms of the questions on how to deliberate, who to incorporate and from where it is located. The Patagonia energy community experience will be a reference for this theoretical and methodological discussion.

The purpose of this proposal is to incorporate the changing processes of energy communities over time, for example, in terms of the project scale, trust and geography. Caring for the collective, we acknowledge, implies constant negotiation and transformation, which may be risky to be taken for granted.