European Energy Transformations Compared. Exploring Building Blocks of a Framework for Analysis

Against the background of both global and national challenges like climate change or energy security, sustainable energy transformations are on the agenda of many countries. Beyond all differences in terms of definition of sustainable energy supply as well as targets and scopes of energy transformations, the challenges of energy transformation governance are quite similar. The intention of the proposed paper is to develop a framework of analysis that accounts for different governing strategies in coping with these challenges. The research framework serves two particular purposes: first, it should explain different patterns of energy transformations, and secondly, it aims at capturing options for further development of national energy systems. Roughly, we distinguish two dimensions of analysis. The first dimensions covers the policies of energy transformation including long-term strategies, choice of policy instruments and the scope of application of the instruments (power supply; power transmission and grids; energy consumption). In the second dimension, we turn to the procedures and institutions of energy transformation. Patterns of coordination between the different tiers of government, public and private actors as well as legacies of the energy sector are of interest in this regard. Finally, we will put the framework to a first test with illustrations from selected case studies.