Dr Breffní Lennon

Personal statement:

As an energy geographer, my research engages the theme of society, sustainability, and energy. I am particularly interested in the social, environmental, and economic challenges of energy transitions; contested ideas of citizenship relating to energy; the geographies of energy, climate justice and the polycrisis; and issues of agency & identity.

I am a principal investigator and co-investigator on numerous high impact national and internationally funded research projects, working on topics ranging from energy poverty to climate justice, and citizen participation to issues of power.

Key topic areas of research or interest:

Energy Geographies, Transitions Research, Citizenship, Engagement

Collaboration opportunities:

Open to collaboration opportunities, including commission, consultancy, and media work.

Publications:

Book:
Dunphy, N.P., Lennon, B., Revez, A., & Pearce, B. (2025). Energy Citizenship: Envisioning Citizens’ Participation in the Energy System. London, Palgrave Macmillan.

Edited Book:
Velasco-Herrejón, P., Lennon, B., & Dunphy, N.P. (2023). Living with Energy Poverty Perspectives from the Global North and South. London & New York, Routledge. https://routledge.pub/Living-with-Energy-Poverty

Articles in Peer-Reviewed Journals:
Lennon, B., Hajdu, T., Dunphy, N.P., Tobin, P., Barrachina, P., & Ördög, D. (2025) Participation in Energy Communities: the COM-B Model as a framework for exploring human motivations through living labs. Environmental Research: Energy, 2(4), 045009. https://doi.org/10.1088/2753-3751/ae18dc

Tobin, P., & Lennon, B. (2025). All together now: building resilient citizen energy communities through collaborative learning. Environmental Research: Energy, 2(2), 025015. https://doi.org/10.1088/2753-3751/ade3e0

Lennon, B. & Dunphy, N.P. (2024). Sustaining energetic communities: energy citizenship and participation in an age of upheaval and transition. Scientific Reports, 14, 3267. https://doi.org/10.1038/s41598-024-53367-8

Lennon, B., Velasco-Herrejón, P., & Dunphy, N.P. (2023). Operationalizing participation: Key obstacles and drivers to citizen energy community formation in Europe’s energy transition. Science Talks, 5, 100104. https://doi.org/10.1016/j.sctalk.2022.100104

Lennon, B., Dunphy, N.P., Gaffney, C., Revez, A., Mullally, G., & O’Connor, P. (2020). Citizen or Consumer? Reconsidering Energy Citizenship. Journal of Environmental Policy and Planning, 22 (2): 184-197. https://doi.org/10.1080/1523908X.2019.1680277

Revez, A., Dunphy, N.P., Harris, C., Mullally, G., Lennon, B., & Gaffney, C. (2020). Beyond Forecasting: Using a Modified Delphi Method to Build Upon Participatory Action Research in Developing Principles for a Just and Inclusive Energy Transition. International Journal of Qualitative Methods, 19: 1-12. https://doi.org/10.1177/160940692090321

Lennon, B., Dunphy, N.P., & Sanvicente, E. (2019). Community Acceptability and the Energy Transition: a citizens’ perspective. Energy, Sustainability and Society, 9 (35): 1–18. https://doi.org/10.1186/s13705-
019-0218-z

Axon, S., Morrissey, J., Aiesha, R., Hillman, J., Revez, A., Lennon, B., Salel, M., Dunphy, N.P., & Boo, E. (2018). The human factor: Classification of European community-based behaviour change initiatives. Journal of Cleaner Production, 182: 567-586. https://doi.org/10.1016/j.jclepro.2018.01.232

Book Chapters:
Lennon, B. (2026) Establishing acceptability: wind energy and community in the energy transition. In Sébastien Bourdin (ed.) The Social Acceptance of Renewable Energy Projects. Edward Elgar. https://doi.org/10.4337/9781035348756.00016

Dunphy, N.P., Lennon, B., & Velasco-Herrejón, P. (2024) Identifying Energy-Poor Households, Experiences from the Global North. In Living with Energy Poverty Perspectives from the Global North and South. London & New York, Routledge.

Dunphy, N.P. Lennon, B., & Velasco-Herrejón, P. (2024) Towards a Better Understanding of Energy Poverty. In Living with Energy Poverty Perspectives from the Global North and South. London & New York, Routledge.

Lennon, B. & Dunphy, N.P. (2023). Mind the gap: citizens, consumers and unequal participation in global energy transitions. In Energy Democracies for Sustainable Futures, (eds.) Majia H. Nadesan, Martin J. Pasqualetti, and Jennifer Keahey. London & San Diego CA, Elsevier.

Lennon, B. & Dunphy, N.P. (2023). Energy and citizenship in a time of transition and socio-technical change. In The Palgrave Handbook of Global Social Change, (eds.) Rajendra Baikady, Sajid SM, Varoshini Nadesan, Jaroslaw Przeperski, M. Rezaul Islam and Gao Jianguo. Palgrave Macmillan.

Dunphy, N.P. & Lennon, B. (2022). Whose transition? A Review of Citizen Participation in the Energy System. In The Handbook of Energy Transitions, (ed.) Kathy Araujo. London & New York, Routledge.

Boateng, D., Lennon,  B., Bloomer, J., Morrissey, J., & Dunphy, N.P.  (2026) Leapfrogging inequality? Navigating a pathway to SDG7 in rural Ghana. Journal of Cleaner Production. 557,148231. https://doi.org/10.1016/j.jclepro.2026.148231