The energy transition in Latin America and the Caribbean is at a decisive moment amid climate urgency and persistent energy access gaps. Energy communities are emerging as an organizational form that links distributed renewable energy generation with principles of social justice, citizen participation and local governance. Far from being merely a technical solution, energy communities represent a reconfiguration of relationships among territory, society and institutions, in which access to energy is conceived as a right rather than a commodity.<\/p>\n
This symposium proposes a space for interdisciplinary dialogue on the role that energy communities play and could play in building a just and regenerative transition in the Americas. Regenerative transition is understood as one that not only reduces emissions and diversifies the energy matrix, but also restores territorial capacities, strengthens community fabric, and generates equitable conditions of well-being for present and future generations. This perspective recognizes that present-day transitions are built upon long-standing community memories and practices.<\/p>\n
The symposium calls for theoretical, methodological and empirical contributions organized around five axes: i) conceptual and normative frameworks for energy communities in Latin American and Caribbean contexts; ii) concrete experiences of energy communities in urban, peri-urban and rural settings, with attention to their conditions of viability and their limits; iii) dimensions of energy poverty, gender equity and territorial justice in the design and implementation of community models; iv) regulatory and institutional instruments, including self-regulation schemes, local energy markets and net-metering frameworks, that enable or constrain the development of these initiatives; and v) the role of technology, digital platforms, artificial intelligence and real-time monitoring as enablers of community energy management.<\/p>\n
Contributions from different countries of the Americas that combine technical analysis with approaches from the social sciences, law, territorial planning and environmental studies are prioritized. The symposium seeks to make visible both successful experiences and the failures and tensions that run through these processes, in the conviction that a just transition requires learning from the region’s territorial and cultural diversity.<\/p>\n
The symposium is proposed by the Smart Energy Center (SEC), School of Engineering of the Pontifical Bolivarian University (UPB), a transdisciplinary center that integrates technical, social and institutional research around a just energy transition, smart territories, and overcoming energy poverty through clean energy and decarbonization.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"template":"","simposio_area":[60],"class_list":["post-10652","simposio","type-simposio","status-publish","hentry","simposio_area-futuro-regenerativo-sostenibilidad-cambio-climatico-y-bienestar"],"yoast_head":"\n