The Spanish social tariff and renewable energy cooperatives: situation and perspectives

Social tariffs are, along with transfer payments and energy efficiency measures, an instrument to alleviate energy poverty. The name of the Spanish social tariff is “bono social”, and it was established in 2009. To qualify for bono social, the electricity consumer should meet any of the socioeconomic requirements stipulated by law and contract the electricity supply with a “comercializadora de referencia”, companies that are required to offer the bono social by law.Renewable energy cooperatives, a recent phenomenon in Spain, are not comercializadoras de referencia, so they are not obliged to offer the bono social. This does not mean there are no cooperative members at risk of energy poverty or vulnerable consumers.This study has two objectives. The first is to sketch the socioeconomic profile of members of the renewable energy cooperatives. The second is to analyze if these members are entitled to the bono social, or would be to other subsidized prices with different requirements to those of the bono social.For this purpose, we conducted a survey to members of the largest renewable energy cooperative in Spain, Som Energia. The results show that the members of renewable energy cooperatives are exposed to energy poverty risk, although its reach depends on the definition of vulnerable consumer.

Cool Rationalities and Hot Air: A Rhetorical Approach to Understanding Debates on Renewable Energy.

A key obstacle to the wide-scale development of renewable energy is that public acceptability of wind energy cannot be taken for granted when wind energy moves from abstract support to local implementation. Drawing on a case study of opposition to the siting of a proposed off-shore wind farm in Northern Ireland, we offer a rhetorical analysis of a series of representative documents drawn from government, media, pro- and anti-wind energy sources, which identifies and interprets a number of discourses of objection and support. The analysis indicates that the key issue in terms of the transition to a renewable energy economy has little to do with the technology itself. Understanding the different nuances of pro- and anti-wind energy discourses highlights the importance of thinking about new ways of looking at these conflicts. These include adopting a “conflict resolution” approach and “upstreaming” public involvement in the decision-making process and also the counter-productive strategy of assuming that objection is based on ignorance (which can be solved by information) or NIMBY thinking (which can be solved by moral arguments about overcoming “free riders”).

Planning for Renewable Energy: Lessons from the UK’s Devolved Administrations

The planning system has been put forward as a key element in facilitating the low carbon transition (Bulkeley 2006, While 2008), by reducing carbon footprints through initiatives such as encouraging less-energy intensive development, reducing the need to travel or promoting sustainable forms of transport. It has also played a key role on encouraging a shift to more renewable sources of energy, through establishing the spatial ‘rules’ for its regulation, consenting of specific projects and acting as the key arena for mediating a range of social concerns over the resulting socio-technical shift. Despite having this key facilitative role, planning is also regularly seen as a key impediment to renewables, particularly on-shore wind (Ellis et al 2009). There is however, little known about what makes the ‘best’ approach to planning for renewables and indeed little discussion on how to judge the effectiveness of a planning regime for this issue – is it one that maximises generating capacity, protects or landscapes or biodiversity, or perhaps one that maximises social acceptance of renewable developments?

The UK offers a useful context for exploring these issues, with its four main territories (England, Northern Ireland, Scotland and Wales) having broadly similar institutional arrangements, but autonomy over spatial planning during the period in which renewables expanded across the landscape. Each of these jurisdictions has sought to use their planning system to encourage renewables with subtlety different discourses, regulations and spatial strategies. Such an ‘experiment’ offers some important insight into what ‘works’.

This paper will draw on a two year study funded by the UK’s Economic and Social Research Council (RES-062-23-2526), which has charted the effects of devolved administrations on policy and delivery of renewable energy from 1990 to 2012. Drawing on more than 80 interviews, documentary analysis and secondary data sources it describes the growth of renewable capacity in each jurisdiction, explores the spatial strategies adopted and analyses the way in which the broader institutional frameworks in which planning for renewables has emerged. The paper uses this analysis to consider the lessons that can be drawn from the comparable experience of the devolved administrations in the UK and points to the ways in which we should evaluate the effectiveness of planning regimes for renewable energy.

Scotland, Renewable Energy and the Independence Debate: Will Head or Heart Rule the Roost?

Political support for renewable energy development, especially offshore renewables, is particularly conspicuous in Scotland and is a centrepiece of SNP policy. However, this is built on something of a paradox because, put simply, without the subsidies paid by electricity consumers in the rest of the UK, the Scottish Government's ambitious targets for renewable energy would be politically unachievable. We argue in this paper that if Scotland does move towards independence, then there could be little reason for the UK to continue paying (much) of the subsidies since the resulting renewable generation would no longer contribute towards UK renewable energy targets. We suggest that the potential scenarios, and their implications, needs to be far better considered in the arguments around the Scottish constitutional position and the broader aims of UK energy policy.