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Is the Regional Energy Strategy programme a useful tool to a renewable energy system?

Butz, L (2021) Is the Regional Energy Strategy programme a useful tool to a renewable energy system? Master thesis.

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Abstract

The enhanced greenhouse effect is evident and gets worse every day. Tonnes of CO2 are still emitted every day into the atmosphere intensifying this process. 196 countries signed the Paris Agreement in 2015, developed to reduce the emission of CO2. The Netherlands has signed the Klimaatakkoord in 2019 which is legally enforcing a 49% decrease of CO2 emissions in 2030 and 95% reduction in 2050. To reach this goal, the Regional Energy Strategies (RES) programme is developed. This programme is based on a bottom-up approach where the regions develop their own strategy to transition from using fossil fuels to renewable energy. The goal of this programme is to produce at least 35TWh of renewable energy in 2030. This moment is coming soon and the process is costly. Therefore it is essential to have efficient policy-making processes and effective processes that can guide this transition to a sustainable future. This study gives insights in the usefulness of the RES programme by elaborately discussing results of an analysis that covered all thirty strategies (almost 3000 pages). The analysis is based on six criteria found to be essential in prevailing energy strategies, transition theory literature, strategic planning literature and operational planning theory. The findings show that the RES programme can be considered a useful tool to achieve the national goal of producing 35TWh in 2030 with large-scale wind and solar power on land, as it has generated an estimated output of over 50TWh. Overall it was found that the development processes of the strategies can be improved by including an energy saving strategy, developing a visionary character that also has a long-term focus and by including supraregional collaboration. The current developed strategies are preliminary and require central government intervention to remain executable. The RES programme can find its strength in the bottom-up planning approach and its iterative character that enable continuous improvements.

Item Type: Thesis (Master)
Degree programme: Environmental & Infrastructure Planning
Supervisor: Kann, F.M.G. van
Date Deposited: 25 Aug 2021 13:54
Last Modified: 25 Aug 2021 13:54
URI: https://frw.studenttheses.ub.rug.nl/id/eprint/3666

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