Transforming the energy system? Technology and organisational legitimacy and the institutionalisation of community renewable energy
Introduction
Significant state reductions in support for small scale renewable energy in the UK have been justified partly by the growth of community renewable energy (CRE) and reductions in the costs associated with technologies such as solar photovoltaics and onshore wind. Some researchers, e.g. Smith et al. [1], question the assumptions and limitations of a policy approach in which initial support for CRE is withdrawn gradually as it ‘mainstreams’. Critics are wary of the technocracy of this kind of strategic niche management [2,3] which, in their view, neuters the transformational potential of grassroots activism, as it co-opts CRE in ‘incumbent-driven’ strategies of ‘niche advocacy’ [1]. Rather, it is necessary to promote community energy activism which is capable of challenging the energy system ‘mainstream’ [1].
Recent research recognises the importance of legitimacy to the emergence of new innovation systems [4] and to the ability of niches to challenge incumbent energy systems and institutions [5,6]. This paper asserts the centrality of legitimacy and practices of legitimation to institutionalisation of technologies and organisational forms relevant to diversification and decentralisation of energy generation. It argues that an analysis of both organisational legitimacy and technology legitimacy are required for understanding institutionalisation of CRE and its transformative potential [6].
The paper contends that organisations, individually and collectively, employ legitimacy-building strategies as they challenge, work with or around the energy mainstream [7,8]. Thus, the paper identifies and categorises problems of legitimacy faced by grassroots community organisations in the CRE ‘sub-field’. Such a designation recognises the structuring effect of the institutionalised energy ‘field’ on challenger organisations but allows for contestation therein from members of the sub-population of CRE [9]. The paper considers how CRE protagonists build, maintain but also lose legitimacy with key stakeholders (e.g. regulatory agencies or local residents). It considers how the case for CRE initiatives and particular technology choices is advanced discursively and how CRE actors justify their position within strategies of legitimacy- and coalition-building [10]. Further, the study generates insights into the capacity of CRE to challenge prevailing orthodoxies which characterise policies, activities and inter-organisational struggles affecting the sub-field (c.f [11,12]).
Legitimacy refers to congruence with institutional pillars, which are the ‘rules’ which govern apparently – or deceptively – stable social relations [13]. Failure to adhere to such rules may incur denial of resources, formal sanction or disapproval of audiences whose support is necessary to the success of the organisation(s) in question [13]. For CRE, such audiences may be state and local authorities, providers of finance and technical expertise, or local residents.
The political, techno-economic and social structures and agendas are relevant to the legitimacy of CRE [[4], [5], [6],14]. The UK Community Energy Strategy states that transformative community-led action could stimulate investment, address local needs and involve local people, and ‘tackle challenges more effectively than government alone’ [15,16]. Yet in late-2015 the main state subsidies for community-scale renewable energy projects were drastically reduced [17] and in July 2016 DECC was dissolved. Meanwhile, the electricity generation capacity of CRE in England in 2017 was estimated at less than 150 MW and investment and project activity have stalled [18].1
It is essential to probe the strategies which might minimise legitimacy gaps (c.f [6]). Such foregrounding is required to develop a richer appreciation of why, how and what changes in legitimacy occur and the implications of legitimacy for institutionalisation of CRE and the transformation of the energy system. Thus one needs to identify and analyse the legitimacy-building strategies deployed by community renewable energy organisations (CREOs) and attendant discursive ‘legitimation strategies’ manifest in their arguments for CRE.
The paper is structured as follows. Section 2 reviews relevant literature on the legitimacy and legitimisation of CRE, taking in the topics of organisational legitimacy, technology legitimacy, and political coalition-building. Section 3 outlines the methods employed to collect and analyse the data gathered for the study, whilst section 4 presents its findings. Section 5 is a discussion of these findings, in the context of existing knowledge regarding the importance of technology and organisational legitimacy to institutionalisation in and transformation of the energy system. Section 6 is a conclusion, which summarises the contribution to knowledge and future research agenda.
Section snippets
Literature review
Community is not an unproblematic category; ‘energy communities’ [20,21] or ‘communities active in relation to climate change’ [22] are recognised as internally complex and as sites of contestation, tension, and distinction [22]. Taxonomies of CRE emphasise the need to recognise differences between place-based and non-place-based initiatives and various motives of ‘single purpose’ initiatives and those motivated by other concerns as well as energy provision [20,23]. They also note the extent to
Method
Data was collected from personal interviews with 29 respondents, from community renewable energy organisations and related actors, including local authorities, a distribution network operator, representative and support bodies and voluntary organisations, between May 2014–January 2016 (see Table 1 for details). Interviews were typically between 45 and 90 min long. Respondents were at the time of their interview active in or pursuing activities relevant to CRE and included project leaders,
Findings
This section presents findings from the study, in relation to the nature of the technology and organisational legitimacy gaps faced by CRE/CREOs in England, and legitimacy-building and legitimation strategies employed.
Discussion
The paper supports the argument made by Suchman (1995) that key audiences may withhold support from focal organisations, causing the latter to fail to acquire or lose legitimacy with those in influential positions who could ease access to resources [7]. Here, findings were presented in the context of CRE, an empirical domain which has barely featured in research on legitimacy and the transformation of entrenched institutions. The support needed from audiences which could help to realise the
Conclusion
The paper aimed to answer research questions pertaining to the technology and organisational legitimacy and institutionalisation of potentially system transforming community renewable energy (CRE), CRE technologies and organisations (CREOs) in the case of England. It sought to identify and analyse: legitimacy gaps facing CRE, CREOs and CRE technologies; and the legitimacy-building and discursive strategies employed.
A core issue concerns how ‘niche’ CRE can challenge orthodoxies [1] to transform
Declaration of competing interest
The authors declare no conflict of interest; the study did not receive any external funding and was fully carried out by the two authors; the paper hasn't been reproduced or published anywhere else.
Funding statement
This research did not receive any specific grant from funding agencies in the public, commercial, or not-for-profit sectors.
CRediT authorship contribution statement
A. Genus: Conceptualization, Supervision, Methodology, Investigation, Visualization, Writing - original draft, Writing - review & editing. M. Iskandarova: Conceptualization, Project administration, Methodology, Investigation, Data curation, Formal analysis, Visualization, Writing - original draft, Writing - review & editing.
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