Context and Community Renewable Energy Development in Western Australia: Towards Effective Policy and Practice

Abstract

Community renewable energy projects are contributing diverse sustainability benefits in a transforming energy landscape, but in Western Australia, projects are few and far between and the state is being left behind in national policy discussions. Drawing upon a socio-technical framework which conceptualises the context of innovation journeys according to patterns in the context, we investigate Western Australia and its major electricity network as a site for community-driven renewable energy development. Our case-study analysis suggests that project development in Western Australia to date has survived in niche pockets, which have been unusually conducive to community energy development, in a context otherwise riddled with political, technical, and regulatory hurdles.