Implementation Of Renewable Energy Policies Research Articles

An Interactive Planning Support Tool for Addressing Social Acceptance of Renewable Energy Projects in The Netherlands

The implementation of renewable energy policies is lagging behind in The Netherlands. While several Dutch cities have ambitious goals for reducing greenhouse gas (GHG) emissions, the implementation of renewable energy projects has been rather slow. The main reasons for this are the limited institutional capacities of local decision-makers, low levels of social acceptance of renewable-energy technologies, and limited opportunities for engagement of communities in decision-making processes. In order to address these issues we have developed an interactive planning support tool named COLLAGE for stakeholder participation in local renewable-energy planning. The goal of this paper is to analyze whether the COLLAGE tool helps to increase community engagement in renewable-energy projects and planning by increasing awareness and addressing social learning issues related to renewable-energy options. We tested the tool in a series of workshops with stakeholders and citizens from the city of Enschede, The Netherlands. The workshop results show that the tool helped involve stakeholders and communities in deciding where to locate renewable-energy facilities. It increased community members’ awareness of the benefits of and requirements for renewable energy by disclosing the spatial consequences of overall municipal goals. We conclude that the COLLAGE tool can be an important building block towards new local energy governance.

Central‐local Relations and Renewable Energy Policy Implementation in a Developing Country

AbstractImplementing renewable energy policies is a complex governance challenge that involves numerous jurisdictional levels. Transforming an energy system towards renewables requires not only top‐down activities from the central government, but also bottom‐up developments at subnational jurisdictions. This article investigates how complex multi‐level governance arrangements affect renewable energy policy implementation in a developing country. Speaking to current conceptual debates in multi‐level governance research, insights from pluralist power theories are incorporated into a multi‐level governance framework to investigate the role of governance structures, resources and capacities. The approach is applied exemplarily to discuss the implementation of the Philippine Renewable Energy Act. The national government struggles to implement this law due to powerful local authorities. Political factors such as unclear responsibilities, conflicting regulations, weak local capacity, a lack of awareness for national intentions and missing consultation are identified as major obstacles for renewable energy policy implementation. Results are primarily derived from documents and qualitative expert interviews. Copyright © 2017 John Wiley & Sons, Ltd and ERP Environment

Wind Power Potentials in Cameroon and Nigeria: Lessons from South Africa

Wind energy has seen a tremendous growth for electricity generation worldwide and reached 456 GW by the end of June 2016. According to the World Wind Energy Association, global wind power will reach 500 GW by the end of 2016. Africa is a continent that possesses huge under-utilized wind potentials. Some African countries, e.g., Morocco, Egypt, Tunisia and South Africa, have already adopted wind as an alternative power generation source in their energy mix. Among these countries, South Africa has invested heavily in wind energy with operational wind farms supplying up to 26,000 GWh annually to the national grid. However, two African countries, i.e., Cameroon and Nigeria, have vast potentials, but currently are lagging behind in wind energy development. For Nigeria, there is slow implementation of renewable energy policy, with no visible operational wind farms; while Cameroon does not have any policy plan for wind power. These issues are severely hindering both direct foreign and local investments into the electricity sector. Cameroon and Nigeria have huge wind energy potentials with similar climatic conditions and can benefit greatly from the huge success recorded in South Africa in terms of policy implementation, research, development and technical considerations. Therefore, this paper reviews the wind energy potentials, policies and future renewable energy road-maps in Cameroon and Nigeria and identifies their strength and weakness, as well as providing necessary actions for future improvement that South Africa has already adopted.

Green economy/growth policies and their implementation in the context of the renewable energy sector: The case of Mozambique, South Africa and Zimbabwe

In response to the adverse effects of climate change, a growing number of countries in Africa are developing and implementing Renewable Energy (RE) policies as an alternative to conventional energy sources which are known to be the main cause of high carbon emissions.This article focuses on RE policies, their implementation and effectiveness in three countries in Southern Africa, namely, Mozambique, South Africa and Zimbabwe. These were selected, because they have introduced such policies and, in some instances, have begun to implement them. The problem that was the subject of the investigation was the apparent lack of progress with respect to implementation of RE policies. An adaptation of the energy transition management theoretical framework guided the analysis. The article is based on a desktop study. Key findings are that all three countries now have RE policies in place though with variations in terms of scope. However, despite the progress made in terms of policy formulation, the pace of implementation has been mixed. The impact on the growth and development of the RE energy sector is still limited albeit with varying degrees across these countries. Of particular concern is what appears to be the limited socio-economic impact in terms of empowerment of local communities and local, small-scale business. Policy gaps also exist with respect to the biofuels sector. The article recommends development of a comprehensive biofuels policy framework in order to address the social and economic challenges emerging out of the production of biofuels. It also argues that the adoption of strategies to ensure RE growth benefits local communities and small businesses. Finally, strategies for the popularisation of RE are necessary in order to promote their uptake by the larger population.

Spatial misfits in a multi-level renewable energy policy implementation process on the Small Island State of Malta

One of the priorities of energy policies of the European Union (EU) is to generate 20% of EU's total energy consumption from renewable energy (RE) sources by 2020. The EU policy framework mainly emphasizes economical and technical aspects of RE sources, and promotes large scale projects. However the local implementation of RE EU policies can lead to spatial misfits if the policy implementation neglects the peculiarities of the place. It is important to understand the misfits and relationship between the EU RE policies and the local implementation process, as misfits can affect the policy implementation process and subsequently policy outcomes can be different from those intended, leading to inapt or inapplicable measures. This article presents findings of a qualitative in-depth study of Malta’s RE policy implementation. The paper shows that planning of central large-scale RE projects in Malta provokes land and marine use conflicts and can cause difficulties in implementation. The concerned key actors implement the policies according to their motivation, perception, and capacity, and the context in which they are embedded. Hence, both the EU RE policy framework and the national interaction process influence the implementation process, which can lead to spatial mismatches.

The Role of Discourse Coalitions in Planning for Renewable Energy: A Case Study of Wind-Energy Deployment

This paper explores the role of coalition building in the implementation of renewable-energy policy. Applying a discourse analysis framework to wind-energy development in the North West of England, two strong coalitions operating within the wind-energy development arena were identified. By combining this framework with a multicriteria assessment, it is revealed that each coalition had very different priorities during the evaluation of wind-energy schemes. Overall, only when offshore wind is evaluated are there elements of common ground. This technology therefore appears to offer a solution to sharp contrasts in discourse. Based on this assessment, it is concluded that the implementation of national energy-policy objectives is contingent upon the regional government developing coherent storylines to attract the support of as broad a coalition of stakeholders as possible.