Towards failed renewable energy communities? Activist attempts to change market conditions in the Danish wind energy market

Abstract

Denmark is known for its bottom-up, participatory approach to developing renewable energy communities, and yet wind power has become ‘big business’ in Denmark and other countries, a market affair for large, private renewable energy companies. Drawing on the performative perspective on markets, this paper examines a non-governmental organization's (NGO's) attempts to innovate the market for wind power deployment in Denmark, to include renewable energy communities. Based on document analysis as well as qualitative analysis of interviews and observations, conducted from 2015 to 2020, we highlight what has shaped a paradigm shift in wind power development – from a cooperative and community-based approach to one based on market competition. With this as a backdrop, we analyse two ‘episodes’ – the first one took place before the introduction of competition-based tenders, and the second one occurred after it – where the NGO proposes two alternative market devices to reframe the market for wind power production, i.e., an alternative ownership model, and alternative evaluation criteria for winning bids in the tendering scheme. Both attempts failed and are illustrative of how agency is stymied in, and through, the dynamic interactions taking place within the market assemblage. Our findings show how market devices matter, i.e., how opportunities for successful collective action expand or contract depending on how the market is framed. By directing attention to market devices, we emphasize the ways in which politics and political action are made possible, augmenting research on the power and politics of energy transitions.