Cooperatives, incumbency, or market hybridity: New alliances in the Dutch energy provision

Abstract

This century has witnessed a substantial growth of local, cooperative energy provision, fuelled by public and political ambitions towards energy transition. Such ‘grassroots’ energy provision now presents a serious route to energy production, distribution and consumption alongside conventional, centralised provision. However, worldwide, scaling of cooperative activities poses a challenge. In the Netherlands, cooperatives meet this challenge by forging alliances with mainstream energy companies (162 alliances in 2016). Employing a mixed institutionalist perspective, this study probes the drivers and motives for the rise of alliances, and the way it modifies the energy value chain. The principal results show that, while cooperatives are keen to hold on to their ‘grassroots’ values, they find their development thwarted by internal deficits (lack of finance, marketing, and professionalisation) and external conditions (legal constraints) driving them in the hands of commercial partners. The latter, in turn, use alliances to include more societal and environmental values and connect to bottom-up energy transition initiatives. Interestingly, we observe the rise of a new hybrid form of energy company combing commercial and cooperative drivers and mechanisms. While, accordingly, the current dynamic energy landscape gives rise to a variety of hybrid forms, with key players moving towards each other, the question remains open how energy provision will change.