Headwind for Local Energy Transitions – Protests Against Wind Power Projects as Showcases of Democratic Deficits

The German energy transition has often been framed as a socio-technical project that is based on a broad social and political consensus. Termed as “Bürgerenergiewende” (energy transition of/by citizens) the (at least discursive) focus was set on participation both political and economically. Conflicts revolving around infrastructure projects of the energy transition have all too long been neglected in research. If conflicts are addressed, they are framed by a dominant discourse of acceptance research as problems that need to be solved in order to accelerate the expansion of renewable energy. What has often been neglected however is the constructive potential of these conflicts, both for the energy transition as a national project, its implementation on local level and also for the democratic system. While often unjustly defamed as driven by NIMBY motives, case study research and indepth interviews with activists show that the protests offer valuable criticism of the current participation practices – be it in regional planning and zoning debates or be it in local licensing procedures. The paper wants to analyse these conflicts from the view point of activists and affected citizens. How do they perceive current participation practices and what does this tell us both for academic research and political and administrative practices? What perceptions of democracy and political participation prevail? This offers insights to the relationship of local democracy and social conflict not only in the context of the energy transition, but in terms of the governance of social change in general.