Energy communities and citizen power plants are important drivers of a democratic energy transition. Their success, however, depends on whether they can be integrated into existing development concepts of municipalities and regions. Johannes Suitner and colleagues report on this in their new publication in the Journal of Environmental Policy & Planning.

The sustainable transformation of our energy systems is a global necessity. At the local level, its success is influenced by factors that go beyond technological aspects. In their new paper, Johannes Suitner from SRF and his co-authors show that the problem perceptions and development ideas of a municipality or region have major influence on participatory energy transition initiatives.

The study analyzes six participatory initiatives in Austria and identifies idealistic, pragmatic and reproductive participation strategies. While idealistic approaches use participation to transform motions of energy transition and energy democracy, reproductive strategies use participation to consolidate existing energy systems and power structures. The authors thus emphasize that participation in energy transition is per se neither “good” nor "bad" and that local framings and future expectations are strong influencing factors of local transformations.

The paper is available open access at the following link:

https://www.tandfonline.com/doi/full/10.1080/1523908X.2025.2476055, opens an external URL in a new window