Energy cooperatives in Europe have become more prominent due to the growing interest in and development of renewable energy sources. Cooperatives are often seen as an instrument in the transition to a low-carbon future. The cooperative prosumer is gaining importance, taking on the role of both consumer and producer by setting up and joining electricity cooperatives as investors, shareholders and clients. As is the case with other cooperatives and social enterprises, there are tensions and trade-offs to be made between social, ecological and financial goals. To navigate these tensions and to work towards becoming a resilient institution, it is important that cooperatives preserve their support base made up of their members, who are both clients and shareholders. This study investigates the preference heterogeneity and motivations of members of a large energy cooperative in Belgium, by using stated-choice data from a Discrete Choice Experiment in combination with self-reported membership motives. Despite the significant presence of member preferences for participation and democratic voting rights, the financial and above all the ecological motives seem to be most important for being a member of the energy cooperative. Based on the stated-choice data, we classify three member types: the financial, the ecological and the social–societal member type. We find a small discrepancy in motives between members who joined early and members who joined later. Where early members care most about ecological aspects, members who joined later have more societal and financial considerations. In terms of effect size and willingness to pay per kilowatt hour, ecological motives prove to be by far the most important factor for cooperative energy prosumers in our sample. In addition, the latent-class analysis shows that over half of the member sample belongs to the ecological motives class. Preference heterogeneity is present to an extent, but there is an overarching preference for sustainability. Though, cooperatives should be aware that their legal form may not be the only factor that drives membership. Rather, keeping high levels of renewable energy, competitive pricing and being an interesting investment opportunity may be key to cooperatives’ resilience and further development on the energy market.

中文翻译：

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合作能源产消主义的生态、金融、社会和社会动机：衡量比利时能源合作社的偏好异质性

由于人们对可再生能源的兴趣和开发日益增长，欧洲的能源合作社变得更加重要。合作社通常被视为向低碳未来过渡的工具。合作产消者越来越重要，通过作为投资者、股东和客户建立和加入电力合作社，扮演消费者和生产者的角色。与其他合作社和社会企业的情况一样，社会、生态和财务目标之间存在紧张关系和权衡。为了应对这些紧张局势并努力成为一个有弹性的机构，合作社必须保留由其成员组成的支持基础，这些成员既是客户又是股东。本研究通过使用离散选择实验的陈述选择数据并结合自我报告的成员动机，调查了比利时一家大型能源合作社成员的偏好异质性和动机。尽管成员对参与和民主投票权的偏好明显存在，但财务动机，尤其是生态动机似乎对于成为能源合作社的成员来说是最重要的。根据既定选择数据，我们将成员类型分为三种：金融成员类型、生态成员类型和社会成员类型。我们发现早加入的会员和晚加入的会员之间的动机存在细微差异。早期成员最关心生态方面，而后来加入的成员则有更多的社会和财务考虑。就效应大小和每千瓦时支付意愿而言，生态动机被证明是我们样本中合作能源产消者迄今为止最重要的因素。此外，潜在阶层分析表明，超过一半的成员样本属于生态动机阶层。在一定程度上存在偏好异质性，但对可持续性存在总体偏好。不过，合作社应该意识到，其法律形式可能并不是推动成员资格的唯一因素。相反，保持高水平的可再生能源、有竞争力的价格以及成为有趣的投资机会可能是合作社的弹性和能源市场进一步发展的关键。