‘Luctor et emergo’, how a community energy initiative survived the changing policy and technology landscape of the Dutch energy system?

Abstract

As the Dutch policy of public participation in renewable energy projects takes momentum, lessons from Zeeuwind -a successful energy cooperative-can help improve resilience of the emerging energy cooperatives. Our results are based on thirty-five-year data from newspapers, resulting in a database of 584 news articles. We conclude that the Dutch policies for small-scale energy initiatives have not been consistent and alignment of policies between different levels of governance was missing. Despite these challenges, Zeeuwind achieved economic resilience, which was made possible through multiple factors, unique among them are: 1) Zeeuwind’s origin in the environmental NGO at the provincial level, which provided it with the necessary knowledge and network for a strong start. 2) The memberships of municipalities. 3) The focus on the level of the province to site new projects. 4) A contract of ten years with the energy incumbent. 5) The strategic decision to expand the technological portfolio. 6) Expansion of business through new partnerships and joint ventures. For scaling of Dutch energy cooperatives and improving their resilience, we recommend strengthening institutional structures that facilitate local cooperatives to participate in large renewable energy projects by building their organisational capacity via trainings and network building, legitimacy creation from political incumbents, and increased collaboration with energy incumbents.