Degrowth activists and scholars have questioned society's current levels of material throughput and energy use. The energy sector is at the core of any modern economy, and Germany serves as an international showcase for the transition of a large industrialized economy to a low-carbon energy system. Diverse actors, organizational models, and technologies have contributed to the initiation of Germany's energy transition through a wide range of community renewable energy projects.

The article by Jens Rommel (Leibniz-Zentrum für Agrarlandschaftsforschung – ZALF), Jörg Radtke (Universität Siegen), Gerrit von Jorck (TU Berlin), Franziska Mey (University of New South Wales) und Özgür Yildiz (inter 3) draws on the authors' multi-disciplinary experiences with community energy research, focused on the German case, and contrasts the realities of the German energy transition and the associated citizen initiatives with the (normative) claims of the Degrowth movement. It is organized around six hypotheses derived from the Degrowth literature that capture central claims of the movement, namely, the need for (1) localization of production, (2) changes in business models, (3) equity and fairness, (4) strong sustainable consumption, (5) the convivial use of technology, and (6) a sense of community.

You can find the article Rommel, J. / Radtke, J. / von Jorck, G. / Mey, F. / Yildiz, Ö. (2016). Community renewable energy at a crossroads: A think piece on degrowth, technology, and the democratization of the German energy system. Journal of Cleaner Production (online first article) here (external link).