How municipalities support energy cooperatives: survey results from Germany and Switzerland.

ABSTRACT:

Background

Energy cooperatives are a prominent and common form of community energy. Community energy has the potential to increase actor diversity and local acceptance of renewable energies and has therefore been highlighted to be conducive to energy transitions. While research has recognized the importance of both the national and the local governance levels for community energy, it remains unclear how these two levels are related. Against this backdrop, this paper investigates how municipalities support energy cooperatives at the local level and how this support is related to national context conditions.

Methods

The study takes a quantitative approach using own survey data from Germany and Switzerland. Based on a typology of municipal support, we compare limiting factors a

SUBMITTER: Meister T 

PROVIDER: S-EPMC7081670 | biostudies-literature | 2020

REPOSITORIES: biostudies-literature