Top-Down or Bottom-Up Process: Two Different Ways to Implement a Local Energy Autonomy Project in France

Bottom-up approaches driven by population, civil society actors and local actors are often preferred to top-down approaches driven by local or national authorities. This chapter questions this preconception. We compare two local energy autonomy projects in small French towns: the project in Le Mené (Brittany) is emblematic of a bottom-up approach and the one in Malaunay (Normandy) of a top-down approach. Both cases illustrate initiatives where the energy transition is understood as a driver of local development. We question the differences in the systems of actors and in the project processes, in the problems raised and finally in the forms of energy autonomy that can be achieved. Our work shows that the results of the two projects are contrasting. Bottom-up and top-down processes do not face the same problems. While top-down processes have difficulties in finding a local base, bottom-up processes face the problem of their long-term institutionalisation as local actors change. In addition, both types of projects are confronted in their own way with a globalised energy sector in which they have to fit in, which is not without problems. In the end, the possibilities of achieving forms of energy autonomy are very much linked to the local situation, to the characteristics of the territory, to its equipment and networks, to the characteristics of the buildings, to the local economy, etc., probably as much as to the bottom-up or top-down character of the action process.