Abstract
The social dimension of the transition to a low carbon economy is a key challenge to cities. The establishment of local energy initiatives (LEIs) has recently been attracting attention. It is of great importance to draw lessons from best practices when LEIs have been facilitated by local governments and made a substantial contribution to greening local energy systems. The main research questions in this paper are: What lessons can be drawn from successful local low carbon energy transition cases, and which strategies proved successful to support LEIs? We have used analytical notions from the Strategic Niche Management (SNM) and grassroots innovation literature to analyze two best-practice cases: Saerbeck (Germany) and Lochem (The Netherlands). Data collection involved a set of fourteen in-depth interviews and secondary data. The results show that three key factors from SNM (building networks, managing expectations, and facilitation of learning) are of great importance. However, to a great degree it is also strategic, community serving, responsive, reflexive leadership and proper process management by public officials that spurred success, which would not have been possible without close interaction and mutual trust between local government and representatives of the local communities.
Highlights
The shift to local, renewable or low-carbon energy systems poses a challenge to the mainstream, growth-based conceptions of a highly globalized and industrialized world, where the consumption of great quantities of oil and gas have been associated with wealth and progress [1]
The main research questions in this paper are: What lessons can be drawn from successful local low carbon energy transition cases, and which strategies proved successful to support local energy initiatives (LEIs)? Two best practice cases—Saerbeck (Germany) and Lochem (The Netherlands)—have been analyzed to answer these questions
Before the cases of Saerbeck and Lochem are presented, general information on LEIs in Germany and the Netherlands is displayed in Section 4.1 (4.1.1 Germany; 4.1.2 The Netherlands)
Summary
The shift to local, renewable or low-carbon energy systems poses a challenge to the mainstream, growth-based conceptions of a highly globalized and industrialized world, where the consumption of great quantities of oil and gas have been associated with wealth and progress [1]. In the field of energy this has led to the establishment of local energy initiatives (LEIs) in Western-European countries. The establishment of local energy initiatives is not entirely new, as the 1970s Oil Crisis set the stage for LEIs to get off the ground (e.g., with citizen-led “thermal insulation clubs” [9])
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