Becoming Part of the Movement for a Decentralized Energy Transition? Protests Against German Electricity Highways

There have always been conflicts over large infrastructure projects. But in most cases citizens‘ protests have been limited to certain local hotspots. In contrast, the extension of Germany’s electricity grid takes place in the whole country and the number of conflicts is rising, because more and more projects are reaching advanced planning-states. To a large extent, the conflicts have been driven by local concerns. In spite of environment groups have tried to broaden the dominant frames among the protest actors, the larger share of the initiatives continued their activities as single organizations without or only loose connections to other groups. A few years ago, the planning of large HVDC power lines started („Electricity Highways“). Even stronger protests arose against these projects. But this opposition not only grew in terms of quantity compared to existing power line conflicts. Moreover, it is more radical, demanding to build the power lines not at all. Still, many protest initiatives came from local contextes. But, they have become part of large umbrella organisations that support the local groups by providing organizational assistance, orientation and making the key demands more visible for legislators at different policy levels and the general public. Against this background of the conflict‘s transformation, the proposed paper deals with the question, in how far these protests are becoming part of a broader movement that is aiming for the energy system’s decentralization with a smaller demand for new grid capacity.