Financing the civic energy sector: How financial institutions affect ownership models in Germany and the United Kingdom

By S. Hall, T. Foxon, Ronan Bolton. 2016

176 citations recorded by the source corpus.

This paper examines the relations between financing institutions and more local ownership structures for energy provision. This research defines municipal and civil society structures involved in energy provision as the ‘Civic Energy Sector’. It argues that the financial institutions of nations are key enabling institutions for this sector to contribute to a low carbon energy transition. The path of development of these financial institutions helps to shape the ownership structures and technology choices of energy systems and futures in different nations. This paper presents findings from case analysis comparing the United Kingdom’s latent civic energy sector, with the expansion of this sector in Germany. Using an institutional economics framing, the paper demonstrates the importance of the German local banking sector in facilitating civic ownership structures in that country. In contrast, the neo-liberal, market-led financial institutions in the UK, reinforce energy pathways less reliant on civic ownership models. Hence, the forms of low carbon energy transition being pursued in these countries are constrained by path dependence of institutions both within and beyond the energy sector.

Subfields: Accounting, Electrical and Electronic Engineering, Finance

View Paper: https://www.semanticscholar.org/paper/5d8a31c77e2e78f6011b71587fd9e08991692c14

How researchers see this paper

The researchers whose trusted networks rank it highest, strongest advocate first. Every researcher gets a different order.

In Accounting

1. Bjarne Steffen
2. S. Hall
3. Mark Davis
4. Donal Brown
5. A. Geddes
6. Tobias S. Schmidt

In Electrical and Electronic Engineering

1. Donal Brown
2. Mark Davis
3. Tobias S. Schmidt
4. S. Hall
5. A. Geddes
6. Bjarne Steffen
7. C. Mitchell
8. K. Roelich

In Finance

1. Tobias S. Schmidt
2. A. Geddes
3. Bjarne Steffen
4. S. Hall
5. Mark Davis
6. Donal Brown

Citations in the corpus

• The importance of project finance for renewable energy projects (2018, background): “In Germany, municipally-owned saving banks and local co-operative banks often took that role, in contrast for instance to the UK where a more centralized banking system was less willing to fund especially civic-owned projects (Hall et al., 2016).”
• Business model innovation in electricity supply markets: The role of complex value in the United Kingdom (2016, background): “Whilst municipal utilities are well established in Europe (Hall et al., 2016), municipal supply in the UK is extremely rare.”
• Historical institutionalism and the politics of sustainable energy transitions: A research agenda (2017, background): “In both cases, the presence or absence of positive feedback mechanisms is linked to policy design and the role of wider institutions, including financial institutions (see also Hall et al 2016).”
• Policy mixes for incumbency: Exploring the destructive recreation of renewable energy, shale gas ‘fracking,’ and nuclear power in the United Kingdom (2017, unknown): “…(Hess 2016; Geels 2014) can prevent the successful emergence of new business models and institutional structures that would enable the more rapid deployment of renewables (Fuenfschilling & Truffer 2014; Coenen et al. 2012; Andrews-Speed 2015; Farla et al. 2012; Hall et al. 2016; Kuzemko 2014).”
• What is prosumerism for? Exploring the normative dimensions of decentralised energy transitions (2020, background): “We posit that these normative outcomes are contingent on the types of institutions that govern energy transitions [43,83], how their governance implicates the business models adopted, and the logics of value creation”
• Statistical Evidence on the Role of Energy Cooperatives for the Energy Transition in European Countries (2018, methodology): “For example, Wales established the Rural Community Energy Fund to provide feasibility grants, while Scotland has the Community and Renewable Energy Scheme, improving access to capital through preferential loan conditions, and England operates the Rural Community Energy Fund [7,63,69,70].”
• The multiple roles of state investment banks in low-carbon energy finance: An analysis of Australia, the UK and Germany (2018, background): “…Campiglio (2016) discusses the potential role of banking and monetary policy in expanding credit creation to finance the energy transition and Hall et al. (2016) examine how the industry structure of the banking sector can shape ownership structures and technology choices of energy…”