When energy policy meets community: Rethinking risk perceptions of renewable energy in Germany and the Netherlands

Although in academic literature several analyses can be found concerning energy policy instruments and their effectiveness in supporting renewables, usually no distinction is made between different investor groups that these instruments address. The present article focuses on an emerging group of investors, namely renewable energy communities, and on policy instruments fostering their operation and spread. The aim of the article is to assess and compare national support systems in Germany and in the Netherlands, respectively to identify which instruments are perceived as the ones most effectively supporting community-based renewable energy projects. To do so, first we adopt an investors’ risk framework to evaluate the effectiveness of support systems according to their ability to decrease investors’ risks, and we operationalize this framework by introducing indicators for a theory led analysis. Second, we also explore the investors’ perceptions of the policy instruments by conducting interviews with community members to see which instruments are perceived supportive in practice and which ones are less popular among community investors. Our results show that in both countries instruments designed and expected to reduce specific types of risk do not always achieve that goal practice, and this is reflected in the perception of the aforementioned investor groups.