The transition to a near or fully renewable energy system is a complex process that relies on distributed energy production, the integration of electricity, thermal, and gas grids through energy conversion and storage technologies, as well as demand side flexibility and energy saving. Regional and municipal governments have a key role in governing the transition, but they are currently failing to live up to the task and would need to roughly double their ambitions. Co-creation is an emerging governance strategy that occurs when governments work together with businesses, non-governmental organizations, and local communities to define common problems and design and implement innovative solutions. Co-creation could provide a useful alternative for governments to accelerate the energy transition, but so far it has been insufficiently conceptualized; existing empirical studies have focused mainly on the co-creation of energy plans but not their implementation; there are no good examples of the institutionalization of co-creation in new governance bodies; and the feasibility of co-creation outside Western Europe is largely unknown.

This thesis contributes to filling these knowledge gaps by conducting a literature review and analyzing three empirical cases: the co-design of a regional energy plan in Ida-Virumaa in Estonia, and the co-implementation of municipal energy plans in Ringkøbing-Skjern and Sønderborg in Denmark. As such, it is one of the first studies that applies the proliferating knowledge about co-creation in political science to the energy sector. Results include new theoretical and empirical insights about the co-creation process, its institutional design and leadership, outputs and outcomes and antecedent regional and municipal conditions that affect co-creation.

Please email Silver Sillak silvers@plan.aau.dk to get a copy of the thesis