In Whose Calculation? The Conflicts, Compromises, and Conversions of Corporate-Initiated Renewable Electricity Markets

Abstract

This paper investigates how corporate-led renewable electricity (RE) markets, shaped by voluntary initiatives and calculative devices, restructure energy governance. Using Taiwan's RE market as a case study and drawing on marketisation theory, it reveals how multinational corporations, in collaboration with state actors, embed power asymmetries into climate governance. These asymmetries marginalise smaller firms and local stakeholders, reinforcing unequal access to RE. The findings challenge the state–market dichotomy, showing how both actors co-produce market rules through decentralised, yet uneven, governance. For scholars of environmental governance and energy policy, the paper offers a critical lens to assess how market instruments function not only as tools of coordination but also as mechanisms of exclusion. It argues for policy frameworks that explicitly address these asymmetries, and for practical interventions that democratise access to RE markets.