Encouraging the Development of Renewable Energy: The Role of Cooperatives

The development of Renewable Energy (RE) has become a major societal challenge. Even though RE technology is improving fast, the general public has been slow to adopt it. Meanwhile many RE cooperatives have been created; they act as social entrepreneurs in utilizing the social capital of a community to engage the public. Thus, the purpose of this chapter is to consider how they can contribute to the adoption of RE. The author uses an exploratory research design with a multiple case approach drawing on nine RE cooperatives. The chapter discusses a number of actions implemented by cooperatives in order to develop the adoption of RE. These are related to the diminishing of the RE costs, the use of educational campaigns, and the setting of RE projects at local level; the specific status of cooperatives is another facilitating factor. The author concludes by drawing future directions for research and stressing the cultural challenges for the RE cooperative model.