Farm power: How a new business model impacts the energy transition in Finland

Abstract

This study focuses on how a hybrid actor challenges dominant expectations about markets and rules by creating a novel business model, Farm Power, that links locally produced small-scale renewable energy directly with energy end-users. We explore the potential of Farm Power to influence the energy transition by studying how the business model is interpreted and given meaning by different actors. Drawing on the conceptual framework of institutional anchoring, this paper identifies emerging storylines that reflect expectations related to the institutionalized beliefs, values and rules governing the energy market in Finland. The implications of our results are that while the business model challenges dominant expectations of cheap and anonymous electricity, it also legitimates the notion of market-based energy transitions and that the role of hybrid actors in initiating change in the energy sector deserves more attention.