ABSTRACT
Two and a half decades after Germany initiated the feed-in tariff policy as part of its famed Energiewende, this renewables policy was largely replaced with one based on bidding in competitive rounds. Was this a radical break with the feed-in tradition, or a path-dependent development in a long tradition of technology steering? Were these changes to German renewables policy introduced primarily due to pressures in the European environment, or to conditions in the political or organizational field? Putting considerable pressure on the German government, the EU created a political context that strengthened domestic actors who wanted to change Germany’s renewables policy; however, we find that the key explanation for changes in German renewables policy lies in the highly politicized domestic political field, and the increasingly segmented organizational field. Whereas the new competitive approach marked a radical break with the feed-in tradition, the policy change was the result of a path-dependent process of incremental changes towards greater market-orientation – and the element of technology steering clearly builds on long traditions in the sector.
