What are the regionally specific institutions that matter for renewable energy deployment and how can they be identified? Some insights from Italian regions

ABSTRACT

While energy transition processes are embedded in locally and regionally specific institutions, infrastructures and natural environments challenges remain in identifying the institutions that matter for renewable energy deployment, how they work and how they influence energy transition at the regional level. The paper discusses the institutional configurations, discernible by looking at the influence that the socio-material forms of energy exert on energy infrastructure, and its governance. It is argued that the socio-material dimensions of renewable energy are useful to emphasise the institutions that matter for renewable energy deployment and can shed light on the capacity of regional governments to steer renewable energy transitions. By adopting a comparative case study approach, the paper stresses the way in which the normative and cultural contexts of the regions under-consideration have influenced and modulated the effects of national regulatory schemes on renewable energy deployment. While similar institutional settings have worked in different ways across the regions investigated, the approach adopted is helpful in emphasising the relational and multi-scalar character of institutions and their effect on the regional capacity, and capability, to act in renewable energy deployment.

KEYWORDS:

• Institutions
• renewable energy
• regional development
• socio-materialities of energy

Acknowledgements

Financial support for the research underpinning this paper has come from a Doctoral Study jointly sponsored by the EPSRC and the Welsh School of Architecture and a Short-Term Scientific Mission sponsored by the COST ACTION TU1104 – SMART ENERGY REGIONS and is gratefully acknowledged.

Disclosure statement

No potential conflict of interest was reported by the author(s).

Ethical approval and consent to participate

The research conducted during this study was approved by the Ethics committee of the Welsh School of Architecture of Cardiff University, reference n. EC 1504.231. All research participants signed consent to participate.

Notes

1 A distinguishing characteristic that emerge between these images, often referred to as visions (see for instance Raven, Sengers, and Spaeth 2019) and the binding expectations referred to above is that some expectations can become so widely shared that they will acquire a normative force, becoming expressed as entitlement (cf. Berkhout 2006).

2 FiTs are charged on the electricity bills and Italian energy users will be paying each year a surcharge of 9 billion euros on their energy bill (Antonelli and Desideri 2014).

3 The code here signifies interview data. Please refer to Appendix 1 for a list of interviewees. The material from the interviews is attributed to the organisation but not the respondents to protect their anonymity.

4 It is also worth noting that Tuscany has also a number of hydropower stations that can help with the integration of RE in the region as they can provide energy storage.

Additional information

Funding

The work for this paper has also been supported by an Economic and Social Research Council Postdoctoral Fellowship, [grant number ES/T008253/1].