The rationale behind local elected representatives’ actions in the energy transition

Unofficial AI-generated summary based on the public title and abstract. Not an official translation.

🔬研究者:This paper offers a framework for analyzing local governments' capacity to co-produce renewable energy projects, relevant for researchers studying sub-national energy transition governance.

🏛政策担当者:Highlights that renewable deployment depends on local resources and political will, suggesting national policies should tailor support to municipal capabilities.

This article examines the role of local elective representatives in the local governance of renewable energy generation projects, based on a qualitative survey conducted in a French department strongly involved in the development of solar farms. While existing research mainly highlights tensions between social acceptability, regulatory constraints, and national energy objectives, this study analyses how local elected representatives adapt to, negotiate, reinterpret, or circumvent these constraints in order to shape project implementation. This article draws on resource dependence theory and on approaches related to dynamic capabilities, entrepreneurial local governance, and public value governance. This framework highlights the material, relational, and institutional resources mobilized by local elected representatives to strengthen their capacity for action in the energy transition. The empirical study is based on 35 semi-structured interviews conducted with local elected representatives, government officials, energy companies, citizens’ groups, and institutional experts. This diversity of stakeholders made it possible to identify different municipal strategies depending on the resources, capabilities, and political approaches of local authorities. Some municipalities, endowed with land resources and technical expertise, adopt a proactive strategy by negotiating specific contractual arrangements or co-producing projects through municipal or inter-municipal structures. Others, facing stronger constraints or adopting a more passive stance, rely more heavily on private-sector-led projects. Inter-municipal and departmental institutions can provide support, although their involvement remains uneven across territories. The findings show that the territorialization of the energy transition varies significantly from one municipality to another. It ranges from minimal local adaptation to more structured forms of local governance, amid persistent tensions between nationally driven renewable energy policies and local capabilities. From a managerial perspective, the study highlights how the mobilization of material resources (such as land), intangible resources (leadership, networks, and legitimacy), and inter-municipal cooperation can partly compensate for the limited technical and financial capacities of small and medium-sized municipalities. More broadly, the article shows that the co-production of the energy transition remains uneven and strongly depends on the willingness of local elected representatives to involve other territorial stakeholders.

• openalex https://shs.cairn.info/journal-gestion-et-management-public-2024-5-page-I41?lang=enfirst seen 2026-07-31 05:25:12