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Outliers or Frontrunners? Exploring the (Self-) Governance of Community- Owned Sustainable Energy in Scotland and the Netherlands

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Book cover Renewable Energy Governance

Part of the book series: Lecture Notes in Energy ((LNEN,volume 23))

Abstract

Community owned renewable energy initiatives are the emergent and self-organized arrangements where communities become both producers and suppliers of energy. Cases of community energy developments form Texel (Netherlands), and Undy and Urgha (UK) are the empirical grounds that demonstrate this capacity. As highly desirable community owned renewable initiatives may seem, they face many enablers. However, they are also confronted with various tensions, as identified in this chapter. A closer look of the governance space in which these community initiatives operate, reveals that tensions and opportunities span from socio-cultural, political, and technological axes. These initiatives are both outliers and frontrunners of a sustainable energy transition: they create new forms of institutions, challenge even benefiting to them instruments, dare to uptake risks and seize opportunities, and operate outside demarcated institutional space. Community owned energy initiatives constitute a new form of local renewable energy governance that deserves to be explored.

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Notes

  1. 1.

    Historical story is taken from Texelse Courant, 7th of August 2007 + interviews.

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Acknowledgments

This research has been funded by the ARVODI research contract with the Dutch Ministry of Infrastructures entitled “Governance of sustainable infrastructures” and by the Research Programme Next-Generation Infrastructures.

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Authors and Affiliations

  1. Dutch Research Institute For Transitions, Erasmus University, Rotterdam, The Netherlands

    Niki Frantzeskaki, Flor Avelino & Derk Loorbach

Authors
  1. Niki Frantzeskaki
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  2. Flor Avelino
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  3. Derk Loorbach
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Corresponding author

Correspondence to Niki Frantzeskaki .

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Editors and Affiliations

  1. ENeC Laboratory, UMR8185, Paris Sorbonne and Paris 8 Universities, Paris, France

    Evanthie Michalena

  2. CTL Consult, Newcastle upon Tyne, United Kingdom

    Jeremy Maxwell Hills

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Frantzeskaki, N., Avelino, F., Loorbach, D. (2013). Outliers or Frontrunners? Exploring the (Self-) Governance of Community- Owned Sustainable Energy in Scotland and the Netherlands. In: Michalena, E., Hills, J. (eds) Renewable Energy Governance. Lecture Notes in Energy, vol 23. Springer, London. https://doi.org/10.1007/978-1-4471-5595-9_6

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  • DOI: https://doi.org/10.1007/978-1-4471-5595-9_6

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  • Publisher Name: Springer, London

  • Print ISBN: 978-1-4471-5594-2

  • Online ISBN: 978-1-4471-5595-9

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