Alternative erneuerbare Energieprojekte - Strukturelle Entwicklungen in der Energiewende in Deutschland
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Philipps-Universität Marburg
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Climate change and the finite nature of fossil fuels are increasingly driving efforts to alter current energy systems. In Germany energy transition has become a major challenge. The new paradigm is to create sustainable energy systems based on renewable energy technologies. To accomplish the objectives concerning the reduction of greenhouse gas emissions, and the expansion of renewable energies, governance and policies are fundamentally important aspects.
However, the implementation of energy transition in Germany is multifaceted. Energy transition is not only changing the technology used to produce energy, but also the socio-economic configuration of the German energy system. The multi-level perspective (MLP) has become an important theoretical framework to explain energy transitions of this nature (GEELS 2002). It conceptualises transition as the outcome of co-evolutionary developments on the analytical levels landscape, regime and niche. Niches, in particular, are important for transition because they “provide the seeds for change” (GEELS 2002: 1261). Furthermore the MLP stresses that technological transitions are accompanied with developments on further socio-economic dimensions, which is why the term socio-technological transitions is used. However, the MLP framework has been criticised for several shortcomings, such as neglect of space and scale (BRIDGES et al. 2013) and a predominant focus on technological niches (SEYFANG & SMITH 2007). This thesis addresses these criticisms by looking at energy transition and it’s governance in Germany not from a national level, but from a regional and local perspective and with a focus on social niches instead of technological.
To do so we have identified the county Marburg-Biedenkopf as an appropriate study region, because of its specific, regional energy transition objectives. The county’s goal is to reduce greenhouses gas emissions by 95% by 2050, reduce the energy consumption by 50% and to meet its remaining energy demand solely by regional renewable energy sources (LANDKREIS MARBURG-BIEDENKOPF 2014). In this policy context several alternative renewable energy projects have emerged that not only apply renewable energy technologies, but are also changing the ways in which these technologies are used. They constitute niches that are not innovative in relation to the technology, but concerning its organisational and social approaches. In four articles the implementation process of three different case studies of alternative renewable energy projects is explained and the role of regional and local political and administrative actors to support the developments are analysed.
The overall results of this thesis are the following: (1) Structuring of different application possibilities of the MLP in functional, spatial and object-related perspectives. (2) Differentiating the possibilities for regional and local political-administrative actors to govern a regional/local energy transition – becoming energy producers, supporting project activities, provision of knowledge and information, networking, symbolic support, direct participation, financial support, coordination, strategic action and institutionalisation. (3) Analysing the impact of alternative renewable energy projects in social niches on the regional energy transition (such as the entrance of new actors in the production of energy and socio-economic, organisational and structural change) and the development of rural areas in the county of Marburg-Biedenkopf concerning value, cooperation, empowerment, social cohesion, ecology and agriculture.
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Created: 2016Issued: 2017-01-17Updated: 2017-01-17
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Fachbereich Geographie
Publisher
Philipps-Universität Marburg
Language
ger
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DoctoralThesis
Keywords
wind energymulti-level perspectiveHeckenmanagementbioenergy villageshedgerow managementBioenergiedörferMulti-Level Perspektivesoziotechnische Transitionsoziale Nischeenergy transition
DFG-subjects
BioenergieLandkreis Marburg-BiedenkopfDeutschlandErneuerbare EnergienEnergiepolikEnergiewendeBürgerbeteiligungWindenergie
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525
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Roesler, Tim: Alternative erneuerbare Energieprojekte - Strukturelle Entwicklungen in der Energiewende in Deutschland. : Philipps-Universität Marburg 2017-01-17. DOI: https://doi.org/10.17192/z2017.0053.
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This item has been published with the following license: In Copyright