The German Energiewende (energy transition towards a green energy supply) is a unique national project, and represents the German response to at least three policy problems: 1) global climate change, 2) dependence on foreign energy resources, and 3) the need to opt out of nuclear energy. Most renewable energy project implementation under this policy takes place at the local (or community) level. Involving communities in the decision making process helps to attenuate controversy arising from NIMBYism, where communities are generally supportive of renewable energies but prefer to have these projects developed outside of their own “back yard”. On the other hand, some communities have made significant progress towards a transition to renewable energies, while others are lacking behind. This paper uses three emerging approaches for policy analysis—discourse theory, network analysis and Ecology of Games—to explain variation in community implementation of renewable energy projects.

This paper measures variation in discourses, or arguments for and against renewable energy projects, and also considers how individual policy participants interact with one another across a variety of institutional and policymaking contexts. The Discourse Network Analyzer (DNA) software is used to categorize statements, and attach statements to speakers as well as a speaker’s organizational affiliation. This allows for the observation of different types of discourse “networks”— and makes three complementary analyses possible that help understanding the implementation of the German Energiewende at the local level. First, two national and two sub-national newspapers are analyzed in order to identify overall argumentation patterns and storylines about the implementation of renewable energy projects at the local level. Second, local policymaking discourses are analyzed within six different communities. Half of these localities are particularly successful, while the other three show a below average progress towards the transition to renewable energies, keeping other factors constant. Through analyzing these local level discourses actor, constellations emerge and can be identified—for example, speakers revealing similar beliefs are likely to form advocacy coalitions towards or against future projects or policies. The comparison of the evolving network structures allows identifying advantageous forms of networks and the favorable use of storylines. Third, newspaper articles from the same six communities are analyzed in order to identify the games played within the policy making process. According to the Ecology of Games framework varying kind of overlapping, interdependent games—economic, political, social—are played within a local community which can shape the policy decision making processes. A game is a field of ongoing competition and cooperation, which is structured by a specific set of rules as well as by player’s payoffs and their corresponding strategies. The examination can help identify the relevant games and their core factors (e.g. actors, modes of interaction, outcomes, and strategies), to then compare the different game constellations—for example the dominance of one game over another or the simultaneousness of games—in order to examine favoring and constraining factors of policy development.

This three-layered analysis sheds light on the discursive arguments, actor constellations and interdependency of local games that favor or strain policy development towards a renewable energy supply.