ABSTRACT
Most research on the development of renewable energies emphasizes the tremendous importance of political regulation as a major driving force in this sector. As a large-scale project relying on state interventions, the energy transition serves as a prime target: an idealized, unfettered energy market may be positioned against an excessively regulated renewable energy market. According to evolutionary theories of innovation in this context, political regulation has helped to generate and stabilize sociotechnical niches for renewable energies. In a study on trends in ecological reform and modernization, Arthur Mol confirms this analysis when he underlines the changing role of decision makers and what he calls the environmental state: The traditional central role of the nation-state in environmental reform is shifting, leading to new governance arrangements and new political spaces. There is a larger involvement of nonstate actors and 'nonpolitical' arrangements in environmental governance, taking over conventional tasks of the nation-state and conventional politics.
