Facilitating the Energy Transition—The Governance Role of Local Renewable Energy Cooperatives

Donné Wagemans, Christian Scholl and Véronique Vasseur
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Donné Wagemans: International Centre for Integrated assessment and Sustainable development (ICIS), P.O. Box 616, 6200 MD Maastricht, The Netherlands
Christian Scholl: International Centre for Integrated assessment and Sustainable development (ICIS), P.O. Box 616, 6200 MD Maastricht, The Netherlands
Véronique Vasseur: International Centre for Integrated assessment and Sustainable development (ICIS), P.O. Box 616, 6200 MD Maastricht, The Netherlands

Energies, 2019, vol. 12, issue 21, 1-20

Abstract: The governance role of local renewable energy cooperatives (LRECs) in facilitating the energy transition remains under-scrutinized in the scholarly literature. Such a gap is puzzling, since LRECs are a manifestation of the current decentralization movement and yield a promising governance contribution to a ‘just energy transition.’ This paper presents a study of the governance roles of LRECs in the province of Limburg, the Netherlands. Building on existing work on the cooperative movement and energy governance, we, first, develop a conceptual framework for our analysis. The framework is built around three key interactions shaping these governance roles, between (1) LRECs and their (potential) members, (2) LRECs and the government and (3) LRECs with other LRECs. The results of an online survey and qualitative interviews with selected cooperatives led to the identification of five key governance roles that these cooperatives take up in the facilitation of the energy transition: (1) mobilizing the public, (2) brokering between government and citizens, (3) providing context specific knowledge and expertise, (4) initiating accepted change and (5) proffering the integration of sustainability. The paper concludes by reflecting on the relevance of our findings in this Dutch case for the broader ‘just transition’ movement.

Keywords: energy transition; local renewable energy cooperatives; governance roles; citizen participation; mixed methods (search for similar items in EconPapers)
JEL-codes: Q Q0 Q4 Q40 Q41 Q42 Q43 Q47 Q48 Q49 (search for similar items in EconPapers)
Date: 2019
References: View references in EconPapers View complete reference list from CitEc
Citations: View citations in EconPapers (8)

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