Opening up to a critical review of ambitious energy goals: Perspectives of academics and practitioners in a rural Swiss community

Abstract

Many researchers and policy makers argue for a radical change in the current energy system. This paper presents a transdisciplinary case study of a rural, developing Swiss community in which a number of alternative, ambitious goals for the energy system were developed and critically reviewed by both academics and practitioners, such as energy consumers, energy industry representatives, and experts. The study shows that in the beginning the community was not ready to discuss energy issues on a detailed and ambitious level; a focus on local community development was more promising a beginning than global goals, such as climate change mitigation. Moreover, there is a need to open up to many different visions and be more explicit about the concrete energy measures needed and their potential consequences. Some visions need stricter planning and are, thus, less robust with respect to implementation and consensus. Finally, we argue that moderate, flexible energy goals will likely meet less resistance in implementation. We claim that similar results can be expected elsewhere and, thus, more general lessons can be learned from this case study.