Blowing us towards a brighter future? Assessing organisational resilience within local renewable energy cooperatives

Abstract

With populations increasing and economies growing, energy demand is also rapidly increasing through the 21st century. However, in 2016, renewable energy only represented 24% of the global power output. To move to a more sustainable or even carbon neutral society, a radical energy transition is necessary. This calls for a global transformation of energy systems as we know them. A relatively new development within the renewable energy sector that has been gaining attention are community renewable energy organisations. This can be defined as an organisation that is originally set up and managed by actors from civil society. Their main aim is to educate on renewable energy use, help with collective renewable energy or technology procurement or to provide renewable energy for consumption by other local actors. However Community operated initiatives face several organisational challenges, including problems regarding effective team leadership, organisational continuity and increasing membership. Even though there seems to be a wide array of scientific literature that contributes to organisational challenges in local renewable energy cooperatives, and to organisational resilience in more traditional organisations, there is little to no research to be found that explores overcoming these challenges and promoting organisational resilience in local renewable energy initiatives specifically. The main research question that this research project has aimed to answer is: What are the main factors that contribute to organisational resilience within local renewable energy organisations in the Netherlands? With the main objective being to generate more knowledge on organisational resilience within local renewable energy organisations in the Netherlands, and to make recommendations on the potential contributing factors and barriers for organisational resilience and how to utilize those contributing factors and barriers. First a theoretical framework on factors contributing to organisational resilience was developed. Five groups of factors were identified, namely contextual factors, knowledge and resource capacity, buffering and safety net, organisational structure and organisational values. Next, the theory was applied to local renewable energy organisations and an analytical framework containing factors for resilience was developed. Then 53 local renewable energy organisations were contacted and in-depth interviews were conducted for 16 cooperatives using these factors. Then, the way organisational resilience is perceived per case or organisation was assessed, and afterwards the comparative analysis between the different organisations was conducted. Then, main barriers and drivers for organisational resilience per case or organisation were assessed. Next, it was explored how to overcome these barriers and use the drivers to increase organisational resilience. Lastly, conclusions and recommendations on barriers and drivers regarding organisational resilience for future developments of local renewable energy organisations were formulated. The main conclusions to be drawn were first of all: in theory, there seems to be a strong focus on the importance of buffering and safety net, but in practice cooperatives do not really concern themselves with it as much. Furthermore, in practice, most cooperatives focus on contextual factors. Next, accessibility of resources is often mentioned as either a strong contributor or a large barrier, and last, clearly defining and dividing roles and responsibilities helps planning for future uncertainties. This research also provides a set of recommendations for cooperatives. Formulate a clear organisational objective to improve internal alignment and increase transparency, improve ties with the community and stakeholders to strengthen resources, cooperate with others in the industry to share knowledge and experience and effective internal and external resource management is key to prepare for the future. When all these factors are in place, cooperatives should focus on planning strategy, risk awareness and communication and stress-testing to cope with future uncertainties and vulnerabilities.