The need for a gender-based approach in the assessment of local energy projects

Local renewable energy initiatives, that involve the local population, can help empower the communities, economically culturally, and socially. In many cases, the ambitions of energy projects go beyond mere electricity production and involve issues of energy justice, environmental awareness, sustainable consumption, and environmental citizenship. However, these aspirations are often forgotten during project assessments or they fail to include local voices, especially those of women and other marginalized groups. Gender has been given little attention in the energy scholarship and especially during the post-implementation assessment of energy projects due to the belief that energy technologies are gender-neutral and beneficial for the whole community. Our study, with a focus on two local energy projects with mixed ownership, challenges this notion. The two case studies are the islands of Hierro in Spain and Tilos in Greece. In order to evaluate people’s perceptions of the project and the impact it has on their life, we designed a detailed survey based on a series of indicators. For the present study, the statistical analysis focuses on gender differences in binary terms due to the methodological limitations. Our results indicate that not all people perceive societal benefits and burdens equally and that although women tend to strongly feel some of the indirect benefits, they also feel more excluded from the process and alienated from the technological advances. By following a feminist approach, we aim to draw attention to the different experiences of women and how these are often not acknowledged during the assessment of renewable energy projects. Local renewable energy does not automatically imply energy democracy justice and pluralism. More effort is needed from policymakers to include women in the decision-making and to ensure a fair distribution of the benefits of the projects.