resources Article Renewable Energy as an Underutilised Resource in Cities: Germany’s ‘Energiewende’ and Lessons for Post-Brexit Cities in the United Kingdom Mohammed Adil Sait 1,* , Uchendu Eugene Chigbu 2 , Iqbal Hamiduddin 3 and Walter Timo de Vries 2 1 Department of Geography and Environment, London School of Economics, London WC2A 2AE, UK 2 Chair of Land Management, Technical University of Munich, Arcisstrasse 21, 80333 München, Germany;
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[email protected] (W.T.d.V.) 3 Bartlett School of Planning, University College London, London WC1E 6BT, UK;
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[email protected]; Tel.: +44-7438959553 Received: 4 December 2018; Accepted: 25 December 2018; Published: 31 December 2018 Abstract: Renewable energy remains an underutilised resource within urban environments. This study examines the ongoing German Energiewende (energy transition) as an example of renewable energy being treated as a necessary resource for urban development. It departs from existing literature by operationalising the Advocacy Coalition Framework (ACF), taking a policy systems approach to analyse (and explain) the cases of three German cities—Munich, Berlin, and Freiburg. This approach helps draw lessons for future UK energy scenarios by placing more abstract conceptions of Sustainable Energy Transitions (SETs) within the context of UK cities, post-Brexit. By discussing five main themes: the shift from government to governance; the need to break ‘carbon lock-in’; renewable energy innovation as an underutilised resource; developing governance strategies for renewable energy resources; the shift from policy to practice, the study yields a detailed reconceptualisation of approaches to renewable energy resource-use policy.