Interest-based Participation in Co-creation of Renewable Energy Innovations

Public participation in wind energy development is, despite a history of grassroots innovation,
mostly conceptualized and practiced as deliberative engagement through discrete events. Thus,
the primary locus of interaction between experts and lay people is one in which the former sets
the rules and the latter performs its part within this frame. However, alternative approaches as
co-creation is increasingly gaining traction, with its proposals of reconfigurations of actor
relations and agency. To further the research agenda and improve our understanding of what a
co-creative approach could mean for the development and governance of renewable energy
development, this paper takes stock of the research on the topic through a systematic review. The
paper reviews 51 academic publications and discusses how a co-creative approach affects our
understanding of the role of participators.
The analysis shows that co-creation works on different levels: public participation in renewable
energy innovations can be both a way of creating concrete projects but also a way of shaping the
socio-technical system as energy producers and owners. In the literature using co-creation,
citizens are categorized together with other actors as industry associations, NGOs, business
actors etc. as a maybe more equal representation of the role of publics. Furthermore, the
language used to refer to ‘citizens’ often has market-oriented connotations. We suggest that a
way of tapping into this configuration is to consider participation not always as deliberative
consensus seeking but also as interest-based negotiations aimed at achieving robust
compromises.