The Bioenergy Village Movement in Germany – Agrarian Backwardness or Future Oriented Re-organisation of the Energy System?

Germany is in the process of transforming its system of electricity generation and distribution. Th e transformation process was advanced by a number of civil society actors keen on dismantling the old centralised, undemocratic, environmentally unsound and unhealthy system, and replacing it with a new one, closer to the people, decentralised and using renewable energies. One type of transformative activity is linked to the bioenergy village movement, which can be found in mainly agricultural areas and which largely relies on biomass as a transition technology. To date a systematic analysis of these attempts is lacking. Th is paper will place relevant activities in the context of the German electricity transition and analyse the actors involved in this movement, their driving motivations and strategies. It will show that despite their small scale character, the movement constitutes an important building block of a new electricity infrastructure. Further discussion will be made whether the theoretical framework chosen (theory of strategic action fi elds) to study the movement is well suited to analyse similar processes of transformation. Th e research performed was part of the German Helmholtz alliance “Energy-trans: Future infrastructures for meeting energy demands. Towards sustainability and social compatibility”.