The expression “community energy” refers to initiatives where communities show a high level of ownership or control and enjoy significant collective benefits related to the generation, management, conservation, acquisition and consumption of energy; benefits that often include a strengthening of social cohesion and local economy and that extend to the whole society thanks to the reduction of consumption and the development of renewables. Studies on community energy have expanded quickly. The essay addresses, through an exploratory inquiry, the level of maturity reached by the literature. Indicators of maturity of a research field can be considered a robust and shared theoretical and methodological basis and an incremental knowledge inscribed in a coherent empirical framework. To search for an answer the study has selected about forty articles in English published between 2007 and 2017, taking the Web of Science as a database. Results show a rather “compact” literature – cross-references abound, and a small number of journals host the bulk of the works – which has developed to a significant extent autonomously from neighbouring research topics. Community energy appears a dynamic and complex field, yet seldom considered capable of engendering profound changes in the existing arrangements. Positive evaluations prevail over critical ones, often building on the classic trope of community “warm” relations as opposed to society’s “cold” ones. The theoretical framework does not seem yet well-established and the prevailing methodological approaches are those typical of exploratory investigations. In the time span analysed, therefore, more than an actual theoretical and analytical development one finds a constant enrichment of empirical evidences.
