Bottom-Up and Top-Down Approaches to Local Energy Transition in Germany

The chapter includes two German case studies of local energy transition. Freiamt is a sparsely populated rural village in the Black Forest and transition is initiated and implemented bottom-up by the citizens. For almost 30 years the residents increase renewable energy plants and profit from the transition. Wilhelmsburg is a district of Hamburg. A strategy to implement more renewable energy was introduced and implemented top-down through the Internationale Bauaustellung (IBA) from 2006 to 2013 in cooperation with the city of Hamburg and other actors. Citizens played a minor role in this top-down approach. However, experimental ways to produce renewable energy could be tested. Both local energy transition (LET) processes are analyzed by using the Three-Levels-Model (Drewello in Sustainability 14:11119, 2022).