Cross-Border Renewable Energy Transitions

Lessons from Europe's Upper Rhine Region

Edited By Philippe Hamman
Routledge, 2022, 1st Edition, 266 Pages
ISBN 9781032059389

Book Description

This book explores the intrinsically multiscale issue of renewable energy transition from a local, national and transnational perspective, and provides insights into current developments in the Upper Rhine Region that can serve as an international model.

Organised around the exploration of stakeholder issues, the volume first describes a framework for public action and modelling and then articulates a triple complementary focus from the viewpoint of law, economics and sociology. This multidisciplinary approach is anchored in the social sciences, but also explores the ways in which technological issues are increasingly debated in the implementation of the ecological transition. With a focus on the Upper Rhine Region of France, Germany and Switzerland, the contributions throughout analyse how concrete regional projects emerge, and whether they are carried out by local authorities, private energy groups, network associations or committed citizens. From this, it appears that real-world energy transition modes can be best understood as permanent transactional processes involving institutional regulations, economic levers and barriers and social interactions.

This book will be of interest to advanced students and scholars focusing on renewable energy transition, stakeholder issues, environment and sustainability studies, as well as those who are interested in the methodological aspects of the social sciences, especially within the fields of sociology, law, economy, geography, political science, urbanism and planning.

Table of Contents

Part I: From conceptual framework to regional prospective modelling

Chapter 1. Renewable energy transition beyond borders in Europe: From a literature review to a case study in the Upper Rhine Region (Philippe Hamman)

Chapter 2. A regional cross-border approach to the energy transition: Political context and decarbonisation pathways, renewable energy potentials, and two energy system models (Ines Gavrilut, Felix Kytzia, Kristina Izmailova, Zeina Najjar, Barbara Koch, Marco Andrés Guevara-Luna, Adrien Barth, Alain Clappier, Nadège Blond, Johannes Miocic, Joris Dehler-Holland, and Bushra Canaan)

Part II: Regulatory frameworks and cross-border cooperation issues

Chapter 3. Franco-German cross-border cooperation on hydropower implementation: Regulatory issues and future challenges (Melis Aras and Vincent Dubarle)

Chapter 4. Franco-German partnerships for the production of photovoltaic energy: The difficulties of a cross-border cooperation for renewable energies (Élisabeth Lambert and Laurie Nogues)

Chapter 5. Deep geothermal energy versus transboundary environmental protection: The law as a conciliation tool? (Lou-Anne Bedaride and Sophie Gambardella)

Part III: Economic barriers, opportunities and incentives

Chapter 6. Chances and barriers to European transnational collaboration in the development of a sustainable energy market: Potentials in the Upper Rhine Region (Nora Auguste Möller, Maximilian Hansmann, Dominik Schröder, Bianca Blum, and Bernhard Neumärker)

Chapter 7. The political economy of a transnational and sustainable electricity market: The expansion of the Trinational Metropolitan Region Upper Rhine (TMO) (Viola Nellessen, Dominik Schröder, Bianca Blum, and Bernhard Neumärker)

Part IV: Sociological interplays: key actors and citizen participation

Chapter 8. Renewable energies in the Upper Rhine Region from a stakeholder viewpoint: Projects, territorialisation and networks in the making (Marie Mangold and Philippe Hamman)

Chapter 9. Citizen energy cooperatives in the Upper Rhine Region: Commoning issues in the transition towards a decarbonised and decentralised future (Philippe Hamman)

Conclusions (Philippe Hamman)