Insights from a Strategic Dialogue of Renewable Energy Cooperatives

Could the cooperative energy movement in the Netherlands lead the transition to a just and sustainable energy future? This publication discusses the dialogue DRIFT co-organised with ODE-Decentraal for the development of a strategy for the cooperative energy movement in the Netherlands. To understand and support the transformative potential of the movement, the strategic dialogue applied transition management.

Renewable energy cooperatives envision and manifest an alternative way of organizing within the energy system (and beyond). Yet, despite their growth, it is uncertain whether such initiatives are able to increase and deepen their impact, leading the transition to an environmentally sustainable and socially just energy system.

This paper presents insights from a strategic dialogue co-organised with the Dutch national interest group of renewable energy cooperatives “ODE Decentraal”. We used transition management as action research methodology to organize the dialogue to understand and support the transformative potential of the cooperative energy movement.

The dialogue helped to clarify the challenges and possibilities for scaling energy cooperatives beyond the niche, supporting at the same time the participants to reflect, strategize and develop a shared transition agenda. This contribution presents and analyses our intervention and its impact, also specifically evaluating the potential of transition management to facilitate social learning processes, reflexivity and the development of strategic actions. Our intervention confirmed the hypothesis that actors in the niche often focus too much on the competition with the regime for individual goals, thereby failing to collectively strategize and engage with incumbent regimes in a systematic way.

Citation
Proka A., Loorbach D. & Hisschemöller M. (2018) Leading from the Niche: Insights from a Strategic Dialogue of Renewable Energy Cooperatives in the Netherlands. Sustainability. https://doi.org/10.3390/su10114106

Read more
Read the open acces article here.

Date
november 23, 2018