Community energy is associated with a wide range of benefits, for example, providing new social mechanisms for learning, facilitating economic development, and in engaging local populations in energy policy implementation. However, empirical research continues to uncover many differences in the specific forms, functions and policy settings that relate to community initiatives across jurisdictions. This paper examines community energy projects in Canada and New Zealand, two understudied countries with high per-capita greenhouse gas emissions, distinct practices of community energy, and Indigenous community participation. This comparison reveals a range of striking differences in what communities do and how community energy projects are structured. We use institutional theories to highlight the role of incumbent resources, actors, and political context to explain the variations of forms and functions of community energy. We provide a re-conceptualization of community energy practice as a much broader in both energy activity and ownership structure than presented in much of the current literature. The distinct national practices of community energy found are explained predominantly by the policy settings: less privatization and more new renewable energy support in some Canadian provinces, with more uniform liberalization and legal support for trusts in New Zealand.