The identity trap of community renewable energy in France

Anne-Lorène Vernay, Mark Olsthoorn, Carine Sebi and Caroline Gauthier

Energy Policy, 2023, vol. 177, issue C

Abstract: Although growing in number, the contribution of Community Renewable Energy (CRE) organizations to the Grand Challenge of energy transition remains small in volume. Scholars have attempted to explain and understand why CRE organization may not want or be able to scale up and highlighted the role of both exogenous and endogenous factors. This paper contributes to this work by analysing how organizational identity (OI) influences CRE organizations’ scaling strategy. Building on both OI literature and institutional logic literature, we formulate hypotheses about the relationships between OI and scaling strategies. To test these hypotheses, we conducted a survey among members of French CRE organizations. Results provide evidence that there is a high consensus among CRE members about what CRE OI is and that few members aspire their organization to change. We also show that a limited membership base would prioritize scaling strategies that are likely to increase institutional complexity. We summarize these results by arguing that French CRE organizations are facing an identity trap that limits their scaling potential. We discuss how CRE organization could escape this identity trap. Above its contribution to current scholarly debates on CRE organizations scaling potential, this research has implications for policy makers and CRE organizations.

Keywords: Energy transition; Energy communities; Organizational identity; Community logic (search for similar items in EconPapers)
Date: 2023
References: View references in EconPapers View complete reference list from CitEc
Citations:

Downloads: (external link)
http://www.sciencedirect.com/science/article/pii/S0301421523001477
Full text for ScienceDirect subscribers only

Related works:
This item may be available elsewhere in EconPapers: Search for items with the same title.

Export reference: BibTeX RIS (EndNote, ProCite, RefMan) HTML/Text

Persistent link: https://EconPapers.repec.org/RePEc:eee:enepol:v:177:y:2023:i:c:s0301421523001477

DOI: 10.1016/j.enpol.2023.113562

Access Statistics for this article

Energy Policy is currently edited by N. France

More articles in Energy Policy from Elsevier
Bibliographic data for series maintained by Catherine Liu ().