Apples and oranges? A multi-level approach explaining social acceptance of renewable energy in Germany and Australia

Existing research in renewable energy transitions largely seeks to identify success factors needed to improve planning, formulate policy transfer options and enhance the social acceptance of renewable energy, yet lacks in context specificity and assumes static institutional settings. In this paper, we explore institutional factors that promote or hinder energy transitions, employing an institutionalist approach to connect changes in formal and informal institutions at state, regional and local levels. In doing so we intend to create an understanding of the impact of specific institutional constellations that set the framework for defining social acceptance. The analysis of the diffusion of photovoltaic systems in two municipalities in Germany and Australia points to the different energy paths taken by the two countries. By contrasting two differing energy systems, we are able to deduce the evolution of institutional settings (market-based or government-funded mechanisms) that help explain social acceptance. Furthermore, the findings of the multi-level approach offer insight into how changes can have an impact locally but also how the local setting is affected by national policies and market dynamics

Applying institutional theory to the analysis of energy transitions: From local agency to multi-scale configurations in Australia and Germany

While new institutionalism has received considerable attention in recent years to conceptualise socio-technical dynamics in energy transitions, challenges remain in its application to context-specific inter-country comparisons. In this paper, we propose for purpose of such a comparison the application of an institutional framework to the analysis of actors’ agency in renewable energy development occurring within the institutional configuration of two countries’ respective energy systems. For the analysis, institutional configurations are seen as being structured through institutional modes and through multiple regulatory scales from the local to the national. The approach is applied to wind and photovoltaic projects in two local case studies considered to be at the vanguard of climate protection policy in Germany and (Western) Australia. While in the German case, institutional configurations bring about a consistency across institutions at local, state and national scales, enabling the realisation of most RE projects, the Australian case exhibits in-consistencies between the scales, serving to both explicitly and implicitly constrain local actors. The analysis offers insights into how institutions combine to shape local contexts, influence local actor agency and thus affect energy transition. The approach presented here enables the comparison of system-specific configurations and dynamics and sheds light on how actors can gain agency within these. The results indicate that the inclusion of modes and scales in institutional frameworks helps to nuance and refine comparative research on energy transitions