Resource regimes and the success of local renewable energy projects

Reaching net-zero emissions entails the development of clean, accessible, affordable, sustainable, and reliable energy sources. While governments adopt policies to foster the development of renewable energies, their implementation face economic, ecological, and social challenges referred to as complex policy problems. Until now, the literature on energy policy focused on public policies and their interactions. Other factors explaining the outcomes of the energy transition, such as property rights, have not been explicitly considered yet. Using a resource regime approach, the article investigates how property rights impact inter-policy coordination and, thereby, the success of renewable energy projects. More specifically, it tests for the impact of land property fragmentation, public landownership, land-use rights, and resource ownership on the development of renewable energy projects. The empirical material used for the analysis is a cross-case comparison of twelve renewable energy projects in three countries: Canada, France, and Switzerland. The methods employed are case-based process tracing combined with a qualitative comparative analysis.