Between efficiency and democracy: Explaining support and resistance towards energy transition and prosumer solutions in Polish and Czech housing cooperatives

The paper examines attitudes and perceptions of collective energy investments in multi-family buildings, applying an institutional framework and based on 60 interviews with key policy stakeholders and housing cooperative representatives in Poland and the Czechia. Housing cooperatives are well-positioned to implement renewable energy technologies as top-down, techno-economic investments focused on reducing energy costs. However, such initiatives rarely evolve into participatory or resident-driven models. Energy democratisation is limited by institutional barriers, regulatory and financial instability, and the erosion of local community structures due to ongoing socio-demographic shifts. Where energy transition occurs, it tends to follow a centralised, efficiency-oriented logic, with limited resident engagement. Attempts at prosumer models highlight major legal, policy, and cultural challenges to developing energy communities in this context.