How might we co‐design energy transition policy in old industrial regions?

Abstract

There has been growing interest in collaborative approaches such as co-creation and co-design for strategic energy planning and energy policy design. However, existing analyses have conceptualized collaboration in rather vague terms, have focused primarily on the involvement of industrial actors and have been set in Western Europe. In this paper, we assess an inclusive energy transition policy co-design experiment in Ida-Virumaa, a region in Estonia historically dominated by the oil shale industry and with scarce experience of cross-sector collaboration to date. The experiment had a twofold purpose: (1) to establish a network of people interested in renewable energy and energy efficiency in the region, (2) to develop and validate proposals for policies that could accelerate the energy transition. We found that expectation alignment, social learning, resource mobilization and developmental evaluation can be used to create synergy among participants and can lead to innovative policy proposals. However, collaboration increases the time needed for policy development, the existence of alternative venues can undermine the collaborative process, fluid roles can create confusion around implementation and there might not be many resources to build on in old industrial regions. We conclude that it is still relatively easy to co-design energy policy or a strategic energy plan even in a setting that does not enjoy a well-developed collaborative culture but it is much more challenging to co-create a strong network of committed actors with clear roles in the implementation of policies and plans.

Co-creation as a governance strategy of the renewable energy transition in Denmark and Estonia

“…In other words, if collaborative implementation is to succeed then it should start already with collaboration in the design (or possibly even initiation) phase. On the other hand, existing research also shows that the move from the co-design of energy plans to their co-implementation can prove to be very tricky because of "the stakeholders' diverging motivation, cultural background and methods of (co-)operation, unequal degrees of power, the lack of well-defined bureaucratic rules and procedures for collaboration, an unclear division of roles, distributional conflicts about who pays the costs and who reaps the benefits, struggles with assigning responsibility and holding to account, and difficulties with measurement and evaluation in ambiguous contexts" (Sillak & Vasser, 2022).…”

“…Social learning is defined as a change in understanding that occurs through social interaction and goes beyond the individuals involved to become situated within wider groups or institutions within society (Reed et al, 2010). Learning can range from "surface level knowledge of alternative solutions to the same problem (single-loop learning), to the re-framing of a problem and its context (double-loop learning) or even the reconsideration of what is understood as valuable knowledge (triple-loop learning)" (Sillak & Vasser, 2022). Learning is supported by developmental evaluation in which the evaluator becomes part of the design team from the start, intervenes with evaluative questions and data, and facilitates discussion about how to simultaneously develop and evaluate the outputs and outcomes (Patton, 2011;Patton et al, 2016).…”

“…In paper 2 I show that it is relatively easy to co-design energy policy and operationalize it as a strategic energy plan. However, "it is much more challenging to co-create a strong network of committed actors with clear roles in the implementation of these policies and plans" (Sillak & Vasser, 2022). It became apparent that the co-design of energy plans does not guarantee a swift implementation unless the collaboration is institutionalized in the organizational structure.…”

“…local communities: "(1) world-class renewable energy research and education; (2) systemic policy instruments for households in transition; (3) greater local energy security; (4) green laboratories; (5) no electricity generation from oil shale; (6) improved social and ecological well-being; (7) green and successful communities; (8) green transformation of local government; (9) green transformation of industry; and (10) a new narrative for Ida-Virumaa"(Sillak & Vasser, 2022).…”

“…Figure 6. Co-creation as a governance strategy of the renewable energy transition (based onAnsell & Torfing, 2021;Sillak, 2022;Sillak et al, 2021;Sillak & Vasser, 2022) …”