Citizen participation gaps and challenges in the heating transition:Learning from Dutch community initiatives

The European Union has recognized the significance of community energy initiatives in the energy transition and introduced legislation to promote active consumer participation and renewable energy communities. The Netherlands, with its transition away from natural gas, serves as a valuable case study for understanding the challenges and processes of local ownership and participation in community energy initiatives. The research aims to address the dual challenge of defining local ownership and participation and exploring case-specific applications of these concepts. To achieve this, the study employs the Socio-Ecological Systems Framework and literature on participation, providing a theoretical foundation for analyzing citizen engagement. A mixed-methods approach, including interviews and data collection, is used to examine five Dutch community heating initiatives. The analysis highlights the importance of an enabling participatory environment, inclusive participation, information sharing, and the presence of energy cooperatives for successful citizen engagement. The findings have practical implications for EU energy policy, emphasizing the need for clear definitions, inclusive decision-making processes, and tailored engagement strategies.</p

A new framework for analysing local participation in community energy initiatives

The Dutch Climate Agreement includes a 50 percent local ownership of energy production target. However, what is meant by “local,” “ownership” and “participation” is not strictly defined in the Agreement. Nevertheless, community energy initiatives are expected to be an integral part of the ‘local ownership’ goals listed in the Agreement. Consequently, there is a need for a robust framework which can capture local nuances, explain the role and degree of citizen participation in different contexts and areas of participation, and that will allow community energy initiatives to benchmark their participation levels in relation to ‘others’ and their own change over time. This paper proposes a new diagnostic framework which conceptualizes participation in the technical, political, and economic dimensions of local energy transitions and that can identify gaps and challenges in community energy initiatives in relation to local participation. We use the Socio-ecological Systems Framework (SESF) as a starting point and enrich the framework’s third and fourth tier variables using Arnstein’s ladder of participation along with other participatory literature. Our framework outlines the key variables for understanding the participatory environment in which participation occurs and links the environment to the levels of participation. The framework provides granularity and flexibility given its multi-tier and decomposable structure. Therefore, supporting gap analysis of local participation and comparison across diverse case

Citizen participation gaps and challenges in the heating transition:Learning from Dutch community initiatives

The European Union has recognized the significance of community energy initiatives in the energy transition and introduced legislation to promote active consumer participation and renewable energy communities. The Netherlands, with its transition away from natural gas, serves as a valuable case study for understanding the challenges and processes of local ownership and participation in community energy initiatives. The research aims to address the dual challenge of defining local ownership and participation and exploring case-specific applications of these concepts. To achieve this, the study employs the Socio-Ecological Systems Framework and literature on participation, providing a theoretical foundation for analyzing citizen engagement. A mixed-methods approach, including interviews and data collection, is used to examine five Dutch community heating initiatives. The analysis highlights the importance of an enabling participatory environment, inclusive participation, information sharing, and the presence of energy cooperatives for successful citizen engagement. The findings have practical implications for EU energy policy, emphasizing the need for clear definitions, inclusive decision-making processes, and tailored engagement strategies.</p

Solar Power Technologies Growth in the United States, an Integrated Four Pillars Perspective

This paper examines solar power technologies growth in the United States (U.S.) considering the four pillars ofthe energy system: socio-cultural, policy, science &amp; technology, and markets &amp; companies. The study analyzed the growinguse of Photovoltaic panels (PV) technology. The First Solar company was analyzed as a case study to understand the impact ofthe different energy pillars and challenges on PV technology in the U.S. As a general observation, it was found that solarpower in the U.S. is an incredibly fast-growing technology. Solar power does however still only make up a relatively smallfraction of the total power consumption in the U.S. - in 2020 of approximately 1.32%. Considering these two observations,solar power in the U.S. is currently in the middle of being a niche-technology and forming its own energy regime. Thepossibilities for solar power to grow further into a solid regime in the U.S. are supported by developments concerning the fourpillars of the energy system. For the science and technology pillar we will focus on main technological developments andR&amp;D. The markets-companies pillar will be discussed by considering the characteristics of main company First Solar andmarket developments. The social and cultural pillar will be explored by looking at the role of citizens, NGOs, and relevantcultural perspectives. For the policy pillar, we will focus on federal policy, some main policy instruments and implementationproblems. Eventually this study explores two different scenarios of solar energy in the U.S: a business-as-usual scenario and amaximally optimistic scenario. In the first scenario solar power production will increase to about 5% by 2031 of the totalpower demand in the U.S. In the optimistic scenario it will be around 17% of the total power production in the U.S, an increaseby a factor 3.4, depending on developments in the four pillars

Geldersch Landschap &amp; Kasteelen, passages from the history of a striking organization within Dutch nature and landscape protection

In this article we examine the development of one of the largest provincial Dutch nature organisations, Het Geldersch Landschap, compared to other Dutch nature and landscape organisations. We address two issues, the vision on nature and the style of governance.For the first question we explored whether the focus was more on ’Arcadian’ (focusing on human-nature harmony, and the aesthetic value of old landscapes and buildings), on ‘Wilderness’ (focusing on wild and pristine landscapes) or more on ‘Functional’ (focusing on sustainable and rational use of natural resources) types of nature management. It turned out that Het Geldersch Landschap followed a stable course, adopting a mixed Arcadian-Functional approach, inspired by the oldest and largest Dutch nature organisation, Natuurmonumenten, and by insights of ecologists such as Victor Westhoff. Westhoff was the main conservationist-ecologist between 1940 and 1970 in the Netherlands and introduced the notion of semi-natural landscapes. Compared to Natuurmonumenten, the focus of Het Geldersch Landschap was more on estates, including castles, and less on wilderness. It worked closely together with another organization in the province of Gelderland, Vrienden der Geldersche Kasteelen. Both organisations focused on what they called ‘ensembles’, combination of buildings, mostly castles, parks, forests and agricultural grounds, all within the estates. In contrast to other nature and landscape organisations, it did not pay much attention to biodiversity and ecological aspects of the rural areas outside their own reserves. It is noteworthy that Het Geldersch Landchap was not really interested in wilderness, while comparable organisations in others provinces changed their nature management aims and programs after the discussions on nature and wilderness in the 1970's and 1980's, in order to get more pristine-like natural areas. We suggest that this special position of Het Geldersch Landschap results from the characteristic aristocratic culture in the province of Gelderland, resulting in a high density of estates and castles. This encouraged a typical approach towards nature conservation. Het Geldersch Landschap can be seen as a modern variant of the enlightened aristocratic land owners of 17th and 18th century. The organisation will probably continue this position, because its castles-estate- semi-nature approach is pivotal for its identity. The rise of various new nature organisations with often contrasting demands, ranging from agricultural nature management and hunting, to wilderness or sustainability, did hardly affect the approach of Het Geldersch Landschap.For the second question we investigated the organization and the partnerships of Het Geldersch Landschap. During the first decades of the 20th century most nature organizations chose for a democratic organisation model. After a few decades, many nature organisation started to work together with the government and received financial support from the government to carry out Dutch nature policy together. Other organizations, founded in the 1970s or later, functioned as radical pressure groups or network organisations or choose for a company-like style. Het Geldersch Landschap remained a reformist foundation, working together with the nobility and the province, and financially supported by the national government. Because of the decreasing governmental support for nature, after 2000, Het Geldersch Landschap started to look for more income from their castles and forests, leading to a more company like approach, and tried to attract more private donors and partners. Also at that time, however, the organization continued most of its practices, regardless of the emergence of new conservation groups, which asked for more citizens’ involvement, and the growing pressure to work on a more commercial basis.<br/