Key Actors in Emerging Regional Transitions to Renewable Energy
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Working Paper 08 - 2015 Key Actors in Emerging Regional Transitions to Renewable Energy Self-Sufficiency A Qualitative Analysis of the District Breisgau- Hochschwarzwald in Germany Lena Lungstrass Published by: Centre for Renewable Energy Zentrum für Erneuerbare Energien University of Freiburg Tennenbacher Str. 4 79106 Freiburg Germany Tel.: +49 (0) 761-203-3689 Fax: +49 (0) 761-203-3690 E-Mail: [email protected] Web: www.zee-uni-freiburg.de ISSN online: 2191-0685 ISSN print: 2191-0677 In 2010, the Centre for Renewable Energy initiated its work on a series of working papers. The primary objective of these papers is to stimulate discussion in the field of sustainable energy in Europe as well as on a global scale. An accurate citation of the findings, interpretations and opinions included in these papers must be ensured. They reflect the work of their authors and do not reflect the opinions of the Centre for Renewable Energy or the University of Freiburg. We welcome feedback from readers and request that they convey their comments and criticisms directly to the authors. Author: Lena Lungstrass Centre for Renewable Energies Tennenbacherstr. 4 79104 Freiburg [email protected] Lena Lungstrass completed her Bachelor’s degree in “Sustainable Environmental Management” at the University of Edinburgh. Since 2013 she worked at Fraunhofer Institute for Solar Energy Systems. She studied “M.Sc. Renewable Energy Management” at the University of Freiburg from which she graduated in 2015. For her master thesis, which serves as base for this working paper, she analyzed the role of key actors in emerging renewable energy transitions. Table of Contents Overview about Tables .................................................................................................................................. 2 Overview about Figures................................................................................................................................. 2 Abstract ......................................................................................................................................................... 3 1. Introduction ........................................................................................................................................... 4 1.1. Problem statement ........................................................................................................................ 4 1.2. Research Objective and Research Questions ................................................................................ 4 2. Literature Review and Theoretical Framework ..................................................................................... 5 2.1. RESS in the literature and success factors derived from ‘best-practice’ ....................................... 5 2.2. Theoretical considerations .......................................................................................................... 11 2.3. The theoretical framework: Relation of success factors and the theoretical considerations .... 15 3. Research Design and Methods ............................................................................................................ 16 3.1. Research Design .......................................................................................................................... 16 3.2. Data collection ............................................................................................................................. 16 3.3. Data analysis ................................................................................................................................ 18 4. Results ................................................................................................................................................. 21 4.1. The transition to RESS in the district Breisgau-Hochschwarzwald .............................................. 21 4.1.1. Historical overview about pioneers and RESS activities in Breisgau-Hochschwarzwald..... 21 4.1.2. The 2050 target ................................................................................................................... 24 4.1.3. Comparison of district Breisgau-Hochschwarzwald with district Emmendingen and City of Freiburg 26 4.2. Key actors in the administrative district Breisgau-Hochschwarzwald ........................................ 28 4.2.1. The key actors and their activities ....................................................................................... 28 4.2.2. Interactions of the key actors .............................................................................................. 35 4.3. What obstacles do the actors face? ............................................................................................ 37 4.4. Success factors ............................................................................................................................ 41 4.4.1. Appraisal of success factors in Breisgau-Hochschwarzwald ............................................... 41 4.4.2. Recommendations made by interview partners ................................................................. 45 5. Discussion ............................................................................................................................................ 46 5.1. Discussion of Results ................................................................................................................... 46 5.2. Discussion of applied research design and methods .................................................................. 51 6. Conclusions and Recommendations ................................................................................................... 52 1 Publication bibliography .............................................................................................................................. 54 Overview about Tables Table 1: Overview of 'best-practice' definitions in the literature (own design) .................................. 8 Table 2: Success factors from scientific literature of 'best-practice' examples (own design) ....... 11 Table 3: Key elements of the theoretical framework in relation to the research objective (own design) ........................................................................................................................................................ 15 Table 4: Interview partners, corresponding actor group and position in organisation (own design) ..................................................................................................................................................................... 17 Table 5: Coding guidelines of the category system (own design)..................................................... 19 Table 6: Pioneers of Breisgau-Hochschwarzwald (own design) ....................................................... 22 Table 7: Interview partners' knowledge of RESS goal at time of interview (own design) ............. 26 Table 8: Key actors in Breisgau-Hochschwarzwald by actor group (own design).......................... 28 Table 9: Predominant topics of interaction as stated by interview partners (own design) ............ 35 Table 10: Areas of problems faced by actors in Breisgau-Hochschwarzwald (own design) ........ 38 Table 11: Communities in Breisgau-Hochschwarzwald with community participation (own design) ........................................................................................................................................................ 42 Table 12: Success factors in Breisgau-Hochschwarzwald (own design) ......................................... 45 Overview about Figures Figure 1: Timeline of RESS activities in Breisgau-Hochschwarzwald (own design) ................... 24 Figure 2: Key actors in Breisgau-Hochschwarzwald and their geographical position (own design) .................................................................................................................................................. 29 Figure 3: Network of key actors in Breisgau-Hochschwarzwald (own design) ............................ 34 2 Abstract Increasing global energy demand and the simultaneous shortening of fossil resources are driving the development of alternative energy systems based on renewable resources. In regional transitions to renewable energy self-sufficiency various actors have been identified to be crucial for the successful implementation of self-sufficiency. This research is set out to find out about the role of key actors in ‘starter’-regions and what factors should be fulfilled for regions to become energy self-sufficient themselves. To facilitate this investigation the case study of the administrative district Breisgau-Hochschwarzwald was chosen because it is still at the beginning of its transition. A number of research questions are posed to lead the investigation: Why was the renewable energy self-sufficiency target set by the district administration? Who are the key actors in Breisgau-Hochschwarzwald and what problems do they face? In comparison to ‘best- practice’ cases, what success factors should be fulfilled? The questions are addressed based on a theoretical framework which constitutes several theoretical considerations of actors’ networks. ‘Regional governance’ is used to analyse influence cooperation between actors in network-like structures. The ‘phase-model’ is applied to examine the actor make-up at the initial stage of the regional energy transition. Furthermore, success factors were derived