Institutional relatedness and the emergence of renewable energy cooperatives in German districts

Figures & data

Figure 1. Renewable energy cooperatives population in Germany, 2006–16.

Figure 2. Spatial distribution of renewable energy cooperatives in Germany, 2006–16.

Table 1. Distribution of the foundings of renewable energy (RE) cooperatives over our observations.

Number of foundings	Frequency	Percentage of spells	Percentage of spells with foundings
0	16758	94.98%	–
1	801	4.54%	90.41%
2	69	0.391%	7.79%
3	12	0.068%	1.35%
4	2	0.0113%	0.226%
5	2	0.0113%	0.226%
Total spells	17,644
Total spells with foundings	886

Table 2. Descriptive statistics and correlations.

	Variable	Mean	SD	Correlation
				(1)	(2)	(3)	(4)	(5)	(6)	(7)	(8)	(9)	(10)	(11)	(12)	(13)	(14)	(15)	(16)	(17)	(18)	(19)
(1)	RE cooperative founding	0.05	0.22	1.00
(2)	Local density	1.26	2.17	0.14	1.00
(3)	(Local density^2)/100	0.06	0.25	0.12	0.85	1.00
(4)	National density	517.20	377.94	0.03	0.41	0.22	1.00
(5)	(National density^2)/100	4103.70	4296.77	0.00	0.40	0.22	0.98	1.00
(6)	Neighbouring density	4.39	5.76	0.04	0.30	0.14	0.53	0.51	1.00
(7)	(Neighbouring density^2)/100	0.52	1.42	0.02	0.22	0.10	0.34	0.34	0.88	1.00
(8)	Local cooperatives foundations	0.73	1.45	0.28	0.45	0.42	0.14	0.11	0.10	0.05	1.00
(9)	Local cooperative banks density	2.82	2.39	0.09	0.21	0.14	−0.07	−0.07	0.07	0.07	0.19	1.00
(10)	Population density (in thousands/km^2)	0.52	0.68	−0.03	−0.07	0.00	0.00	0.00	0.00	−0.03	0.23	−0.15	1.00
(11)	GDP per capita (in 10,000 euros)	3.14	1.39	−0.01	0.03	0.02	0.19	0.19	0.08	0.03	0.10	0.02	0.52	1.00
(12)	Region area (km^2)	886.20	725.36	0.07	0.18	0.11	0.00	0.00	0.04	0.05	0.08	0.20	−0.53	−0.41	1.00
(13)	National energy price (cents/kWh)	18.73	0.39	0.02	0.03	0.01	0.08	0.07	0.06	0.03	0.02	−0.04	−0.03	−0.01	0.02	1.00
(14)	Solar irradiance (MW)	1.12	0.07	−0.01	−0.06	−0.02	−0.09	−0.10	−0.08	−0.06	−0.01	0.01	0.14	0.15	−0.27	0.02	1.00
(15)	Windspeed (BFT)	2.12	0.57	0.00	−0.02	−0.03	0.00	0.00	−0.03	−0.05	0.01	−0.14	0.05	−0.13	0.15	0.06	−0.14	1.00
(16)	Former East Germany region (dummy)	0.17		−0.01	−0.06	−0.02	0.00	0.00	−0.06	−0.04	0.04	−0.22	−0.08	−0.22	0.43	−0.02	−0.11	0.30	1.00
(17)	Votes for Green Party (percentage points)	9.95	5.82	0.05	0.20	0.11	0.19	0.17	0.21	0.12	0.20	0.19	0.36	0.38	−0.27	−0.03	0.15	−0.12	−0.21	1.00
(18)	Policy period 2006–12	0.55		−0.03	−0.39	−0.21	−0.93	−0.91	−0.48	−0.31	−0.14	0.07	−0.00	−0.17	−0.00	0.12	−0.00	−0.07	0.00	−0.18	1.00
(19)	Policy period 2012–14	0.23		0.10	0.16	0.07	0.37	0.27	0.20	0.10	0.15	−0.03	0.00	0.06	0.00	−0.14	0.00	0.036	0.00	0.11	−0.59	1.00
(20)	Policy period post-2014	0.23		−0.06	0.30	0.18	0.73	0.81	0.37	0.27	0.01	−0.04	0.01	0.15	0.00	0.01	0.01	0.04	0.00	0.10	−0.59	−0.29

Table 3: Logistic regression models of renewable energy cooperative founding.

Variable	Model 1		Model 2		Model 3		Model 4		Model 5
Population density	0.022	(0.091)	0.040	(0.082)	−0.719***	(0.112)	−0.719***	(0.113)	−0.573***	(0.164)
GDP per capita	−0.029	(0.039)	−0.022	(0.040)	0.045	(0.040)	0.044	(0.040)	0.104	(0.071)
Region area	0.001***	(0.0001)	0.0004***	(0.0001)	0.0002*	(0.0001)	0.0002*	(0.0001)
National energy price	0.136**	(0.047)	0.123*	(0.062)	0.101	(0.064)	0.102	(0.064)	3.065***	(0.443)
Solar irradiance	−0.021	(0.529)	−0.949*	(0.486)	−0.894	(0.527)	−1.042	(0.542)	−1.201	(0.807)
Windspeed	0.048	(0.070)	0.053	(0.072)	0.154*	(0.075)	0.152*	(0.075)	0.184	(0.101)
Former East Germany region	−0.644***	(0.134)	−0.441***	(0.130)	−0.454**	(0.142)	−0.454**	(0.142)
Votes for Green Party	0.046***	(0.006)	0.023***	(0.007)	0.015*	(0.007)	0.015*	(0.007)	0.011	(0.012)
Local density			0.187***	(0.031)	−0.033	(0.040)	−0.031	(0.040)	−0.613***	(0.059)
(Local density^2)/100			−0.141	(0.204)	0.121	(0.284)	0.113	(0.283)	0.243	(0.333)
National density			0.010***	(0.001)	0.008***	(0.001)	0.009***	(0.001)	0.011***	(0.001)
(National density^2)/100			−0.001***	(0.0004)	−0.001***	(0.0004)	−0.001***	(0.0001)	−0.0001***	(0.0001)
Neighbouring density			0.004	(0.015)	0.024	(0.015)	0.023	(0.015)	0.029	(0.021)
(Neighbouring density^2)/100			−0.028	(0.060)	−0.054	(0.054)	−0.051	(0.053)	−0.072	(0.073)
Local cooperatives foundations					0.439***	(0.032)	0.439***	(0.033)	0.575***	(0.042)
Local cooperative banks density					0.044**	(0.017)	0.044**	(0.017)	0.150***	(0.028)
Policy period 2012–14							−0.239	(0.160)	−0.153	(0.155)
Policy period post-2014							−0.207	(0.294)	−0.109	(0.283)
District dummy	No		No		No		No		Yes
Intercept	−6.456***	(1.023)	−6.828***	(−1.235)	−6.431***	(−1.290)	−6.377***	(1.286)	−62.863***	(8.375)
Log-likelihood	−3418.15***		−3104.26***		−2903.362***		−2902.032		−2556.099***

Notes: N = 17,644; ***p ≤ 0.001, **p ≤ 0.01, *p ≤ 0.05 (all two-tailed).

Standard errors shown in parentheses are robust standard errors clustered by quarter and NUTS-3 region.

Table 4. Logistic regression models of renewable energy cooperative founding separated by renewable energy type.

	Model 6			Model 7
Variable	Solar	Wind	Bio	Solar	Wind	Bio
Population density	0.071	0.312	0.073	−0.555***	−0.257	−1.020***
	(0.106)	(0.288)	(0.197)	(0.142)	(0.286)	(0.286)
GDP per capita	−0.022	−0.258*	−0.094	0.007	−0.205	0.057
	(0.054)	(0.125)	(0.098)	(0.058)	(0.121)	(0.083)
Region area	0.0004***	0.001**	0.0004***	0.0001	0.001**	0.000*
	(0.0001)	(0.0002)	(0.0001)	(0.0001)	(0.0003)	(0.0001)
National energy price	0.154*	−0.117	−0.059	0.155*	−0.185	−0.095
	(0.073)	(0.060)	(0.051)	(0.072)	(0.064)	(0.053)
Solar irradiance	−1.758**			−2.200**
	(0.616)			(0.675)
Windspeed		−0.701**			−0.640**
		(0.245)			(0.239)
Former East Germany region	−0.896***	−1.119*	−0.256	−0.855***	−1.240*	−0.475
	(0.194)	(0.556)	(0.271)	(0.211)	(0.557)	(0.321)
Votes for Green Party	0.034***	0.016	0.004	0.029**	0.008	0.012
	(0.008)	(0.019)	(0.004)	(0.009)	(0.021)	(0.017)
Focal RE local density	0.255***	0.631	0.646**	−0.108	0.327	0.334
	(0.071)	(0.374)	(0.228)	(0.084)	(0.428)	(0.249)
(Focal RE local density^2)/100	−1.827	−3.605	−5.591	0.207	0.684	−4.629
	(0.937)	(4.483)	(5.588)	(1.220)	(5.167)	(6.65)
Other RE local density	0.052	0.272*	0.429***	−0.112	0.129	0.146
	(0.056)	(0.123)	(0.115)	(0.076)	(0.144)	(0.127)
(Other RE local density^2)/100	0.181	−2.671	−2.889*	−0.280	−3.356*	−1.847
	(0.527)	(1.385)	(1.308)	(0.891)	(1.329)	(1.465)
Focal RE national density	0.016***	0.208***	0.056***	0.015***	0.195***	0.043***
	(0.001)	(0.045)	(0.011)	(0.001)	(0.046)	(0.011)
(Focal RE national density^2)/100	−0.003***	−0.198***	−0.035***	−0.003***	−0.183***	−0.028***
	(0.0002)	(0.040)	(0.007)	(0.0002)	(0.041)	(−0.028)
Local cooperatives foundations				0.372***	0.323***	0.352***
				(0.036)	(0.061)	(0.047)
Local cooperative banks density				0.086***	0.011	−0.054
				(0.021)	(0.053)	(0.04)
Policy period 2012–14	−0.147	−0.944	0.324	−0.094	−0.683	0.355
	(0.181)	(0.738)	(0.395)	(0.196)	(0.746)	(0.416)
Policy period post 2014	−0.823*	−17.000***	−0.917	−0.537	−16.603***	−0.683
	(0.374)	(0.740)	(0.884)	(0.392)	(0.750)	(0.912)
Intercept	−6.321***	−4.991***	−5.740***	−5.740***	−3.661***	−4.569***
	(1.472)	(0.881)	(0.876)	(1.473)	(1.032)	(0.911)
Log-likelihood	−2029.4***	−388***	−722.5***	−1945.2***	−376.9***	−691.2***

Notes: N = 17,644; ***p ≤ 0.001, **p ≤ 0.01, *p ≤ 0.05 (all two-tailed).

Standard errors shown in parentheses are robust standard errors clustered by quarter and NUTS-3 region.