“…The role of three different political levels (national, cantonal, and local) is highly relevant for RET implementation, which eventually takes place at the local level but is also heavily influenced by political regulations at higher administrative levels (see Lachapelle, Borick, & Rabe, 2012)—particularly in federal countries such as Austria, Belgium, Canada, Germany, Switzerland, and the United States. These aspects of multilevel governance and the importance of local processes and stakeholders have been overlooked in previous research on renewable energy policies and implementation (Valentine, 2010, p. 1918). Focusing on Switzerland, where the national level has set comparatively ambitious goals concerning the promotion of renewable energy production (see Balthasar, Schreurs & Varone, this issue), our study aims to identify the factors that are conducive to the successful local implementation of national targets in a context of ample subnational autonomy.…”