Understanding the problems of biogas production deployment in different regions: territorial governance matters too

Abstract

Despite the climate emergency, there is still no consensus on renewable energies, which have to confront forms of social opposition that may well affect the success of any project (especially wind energy and biogas). We propose an original analytical framework to go beyond the nimbyist approach, combining the proximity theory and the exit-voice model. This enables us to examine the thinking adopted by biogas production stakeholders and the ensuing associations in order to identify and understand the obstacles to the development of joint biogas production projects. Taking further other theories that highlight the importance of place attachment and place identity, we show that the challenges linked to a project’s territorial governance can explain conflicts that may lead the project initiators to abandon a biogas plant’s construction. We show that considering the local residents’ interests and including them in the participative procedures are not the only factors that count, but also, more generally, coordination between all of the stakeholders. Our paper also highlights the need for an intermediary actor to play the role of facilitator in organising different types of proximity.

Keywords:

• consultation
• anaerobic digestion
• stakeholders
• proximity
• region

Disclosure statement

No potential conflict of interest was reported by the authors.

Notes

1 These three regions make up the area of operation of the PSDR IV GO (western France regional development) research programme.

2 Even if these farmers often collect other types of waste with high anaerobic digestion capacity elsewhere to power their biogas plant.

3 Seventy seven people were contacted in total, and 49 of them gave a positive response to our request for an interview. The main reason for refusal was linked to the fact that we wanted to interview actors involved in projects that had succeeded as well as those that had failed. However, it is more complicated to question individuals whose projects have failed (it is easier to speak about your successes than your failures). Other actors did not want to reply for reasons of confidentiality, discretion or fear of losing their anonymity.

4 A very satisfactory intercoder agreement rate of 86.5% was obtained, ensuring the validity of the initial coding.

Additional information

Funding

This work was supported by the National Program Research PSDR (Institut National de la Recherche Agronomique (INRA), France; Regions Normandy, Brittany, Pays de la Loire).