Networked Urban Climate Governance: Neighborhood-Scale Residential Solar Energy Systems and the Example of Solarize Portland

Abstract

With this paper I investigate the role of civil society groups in speeding the urban adoption of green technologies (in particular, renewable energy systems) by creating economic niches, and catalyzing market transformations. I focus on a qualitative case study of Solarize Portland, a community-managed solar energy program that has transformed the local and regional market for solar energy in Portland, OR. This case study is analyzed through the lens of recent theories of public participation that emphasize the multiplicity and complexity of participatory processes in practice. I conclude that—thanks to their flexibility, risk tolerance, and locally embedded understanding of technological change—civil society groups have the capacity to design and implement significant urban sustainability projects. They achieve this by creating niches within the urban landscape that allow local small and medium-sized enterprises to develop and refine their businesses practices; by coordinating novel partnerships between state, community, and private-level actors; and by grounding technological change in the broader social networks that give them meaning and momentum. These findings speak directly to the way that cities approach the complex sociotechnical transitions involved in reshaping urban infrastructure to respond to the challenge of climate change.