When energy policy meets community: Rethinking risk perceptions of renewable energy in Germany and the Netherlands

Dóci, Gabriella; Gotchev, Boris

doi:10.1016/j.erss.2016.08.019

Cited by 47 publications

(35 citation statements)

References 39 publications

Supporting

Mentioning

Contrasting

Unclassified

Order By: Relevance

“…They are thus conducive to the emergence and development of small energy producers such as energy cooperatives [6,7,15,16,44]. However, Dóci and Gotchev [13] as well as Nolden [7] show that the effectiveness of feed-in tariffs strongly depends on their specific design (e.g., regarding price setting) as well as the broader energy and planning policies (e.g., existence of soft incentives such as energy labels).…”

Section: National Context Conditions For Renewable Energy and Energy mentioning

confidence: 99%

“…In several studies, researchers tried to explain the diverging developments of community energy by focusing on factors at the national level [13][14][15][16][17]. They have shown that the development of community energy has been substantially shaped by the national regulatory frameworks and depends particularly on whether and how feed-in tariffs for renewable energies have been implemented [7,13]. Other authors have emphasized the need for local acceptance and support for the development of renewable energy projects and thus the importance of local actors for community energy [18][19][20].…”

Section: Introductionmentioning

confidence: 99%

See 1 more Smart Citation

How municipalities support energy cooperatives: survey results from Germany and Switzerland

et al. 2020

View full text Add to dashboard Cite

Background: Energy cooperatives are a prominent and common form of community energy. Community energy has the potential to increase actor diversity and local acceptance of renewable energies and has therefore been highlighted to be conducive to energy transitions. While research has recognized the importance of both the national and the local governance levels for community energy, it remains unclear how these two levels are related. Against this backdrop, this paper investigates how municipalities support energy cooperatives at the local level and how this support is related to national context conditions. Methods: The study takes a quantitative approach using own survey data from Germany and Switzerland. Based on a typology of municipal support, we compare limiting factors and municipal support for energy cooperatives between the two countries as well as between energy cooperatives with and without municipal membership. By means of this two-tiered comparison, we analyze how municipal support is related to national contexts, specifically regarding national energy policies, and to municipal involvement in the cooperatives. Results: Our analysis shows that municipal support can benefit energy cooperatives as it addresses some of the major limiting factors for energy cooperatives in Germany and Switzerland. However, our data suggest that municipalities only specifically address cooperatives' limitations with support measures if they are a member in the cooperative. This indicates that organizational involvement of a municipality in energy cooperatives leads to a more targeted support compared to non-members and thus is beneficial to meet the specific cooperatives' challenges due to national energy policy. Conclusions: Cooperatives can benefit from municipal support, especially if the municipality is a cooperative member. Municipal support is likely to become even more important for energy cooperatives in the future, due to reduced national support for renewable energies in Germany and Switzerland. On their part, municipalities can benefit from collaborating with energy cooperatives, as they gain an additional instrument to implement municipal energy policy. Hence, supporting and seeking membership in energy cooperatives appear to be adequate strategies for municipalities to foster a decentralized energy transition.

show abstract

Section: National Context Conditions For Renewable Energy and Energy mentioning

confidence: 99%

Section: Introductionmentioning

confidence: 99%

How municipalities support energy cooperatives: survey results from Germany and Switzerland

et al. 2020

View full text Add to dashboard Cite

show abstract

“…Yildiz et al, 2015), the Netherlands (cf. Dóci and Gotchev, 2016), the United Kingdom (cf. Walker et al, 2010), and to a lesser extent in France and Sweden (cf.…”

Section: Introductionmentioning

confidence: 99%

Community financing of renewable energy projects in Austria and Switzerland: Profiles of potential investors

Ebers

Hampl

2018

Energy Policy

View full text Add to dashboard Cite

Small-scale investors are gaining recognition as a valuable source of private funding necessary for a successful energy transition. Still, there is limited knowledge about the characteristics of potential investors, especially in community renewable energy projects. This study intends to address this gap and investigates the impact of socio-demographic and socio-psychological characteristics on individuals' willingness to invest in community renewable energy projects. Our investigation is based on two large-scale representative surveys of 2,260 respondents in Austria and Switzerland. The majority of respondents would be willing to invest 1,000 to 10,000 CHF/EUR in such a project, with higher amounts in the Swiss sample. Potential investors in Austria tend to be male homeowners with higher incomes, while Swiss investors are more educated. Generally, positive attitudes and beliefs related to renewable energy have a significant impact on investment intention. The largest group of potential investors in both countries can be described as 'urban energy enthusiasts', who show high acceptance of wind energy installations near their communities. Surprisingly, a significant segment of potential investors is skeptical of a nearby wind installation. Study results can be used by decision-makers to tailor appropriate policy measures and by project developers for communication of the project aims and benefits.

show abstract

“…This means that there is a necessity to rethink the governance of large scale infrastructure systems [4,5] as the upscaling of new technologies creates new challenges [6]. The introduction of new innovations has led to a shift of the relation between consumers, producers, providers, and public organisations [7][8][9].…”

Section: Introductionmentioning

confidence: 99%

Shifting Infrastructure Landscapes in a Circular Economy: An Institutional Work Analysis of the Water and Energy Sector

Giezen

2018

Sustainability

View full text Add to dashboard Cite

Under pressure by the transition towards a circular economy, the infrastructure landscape is changing. Using Institutional Work as an analytical lens, this article analyses the work actors do to change and adapt institutional structures. In this process of restructuring, the research shows that there are four dominant types of institutional work: Enabling, Constructing Identities, Constructing Normative Networks, and Changing Normative Associations. The increasing fragmentation of infrastructure as well as the increasing connections made between different flows forces organisations to readjust their internal institutions as well as those that guide their interactions with their surroundings such as other organisational actors as well as citizens. Circularity requires a restructuring of infrastructure governance in order to adapt to the increasing flux caused by decentralised technologies and the need for integration of different systems. Additionally, the actors associated with energy and water infrastructure are responding accordingly.

show abstract

When energy policy meets community: Rethinking risk perceptions of renewable energy in Germany and the Netherlands

Cited by 47 publications

References 39 publications

How municipalities support energy cooperatives: survey results from Germany and Switzerland

How municipalities support energy cooperatives: survey results from Germany and Switzerland

Community financing of renewable energy projects in Austria and Switzerland: Profiles of potential investors

Shifting Infrastructure Landscapes in a Circular Economy: An Institutional Work Analysis of the Water and Energy Sector

Contact Info

Product

Resources

About