Abstract
In the past years, Dutch citizens have experimented with various kinds of innovations to organize the collective production of renewable energy, including shared wind power and solar PV installations. Most of these attempts failed mainly due to legal issues and tax rules. Yet, one model for solar PV on collective roofs was implemented more widely, namely the postcode rose (PCR, postcoderoos): a form of cooperative solar PV production within a set of adjacent postcode areas. Set within a broader transition perspective, this article studies the emergence and evolution of the PCR as an example of a successful social innovation in the energy transition, through an innovation biography and mapping of the evolution of the social and institutional network around the innovation. The various attempts for collective solar PV, with different degrees of success and uptake into the regime, present a key aspect of niche development, namely associational work (circulation and mobilization) focused on regime change. In conclusion, the innovation path of the PCR emphasizes the importance of the political and associational in the energy transition and in transition thinking.
Highlights
To contribute towards the implementation of new Renewable Energy (RE) technologies, scholars have introduced the multi-level perspective (MLP) to understand the birth of new technologies and their struggle for competitiveness within established systems [1]
This paper introduces a novel understanding of sustainability innovations from relational geography and adopts the methodology of the innovation biography [4]: a mapping of the evolution of the network around the innovation in its time-space dimension
Collective RE production in the form of wind power was first enabled through the 1989 Electricity Act, which allowed for grid access and competitive rates [8]
Summary
To contribute towards the implementation of new Renewable Energy (RE) technologies, scholars have introduced the multi-level perspective (MLP) to understand the birth of new technologies and their struggle for competitiveness within established systems [1]. The aim of this paper is to gain further insight into niche–regime interactions with particular attention towards the process of capacity building of niches enabling such rolling out. It does so through an analysis of 20 years of attempts by Dutch niches to make collective RE production possible. This longitudinal focus enables to draw conclusions beyond single case studies, and to see niche–regime interactions in a political rather than technological-managerial perspective [2]. This paper introduces a novel understanding of sustainability innovations from relational geography and adopts the methodology of the innovation biography [4]: a mapping of the evolution of the (social) network around the innovation in its time-space dimension
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