Together with Dr Martin Fritz and Dennis Eversberg, Linda von Faber has published the article “Mentalities in the energy and heat transition: A comparative study of German bioenergy villages.”

Abstract

Bioenergy villages (BED) cover a large part of their electricity and heat requirements with locally produced biomass. Particularly in the initial phase of their promotion around 20 years ago, there were hopes that a locally self-sufficient, decentralised and grassroots energy and heating transition could develop from this. The article analyses data from a Germany-wide representative survey and a postal survey of randomly selected BED residents across Germany in order to systematically 1) compare the social structure of BED with the cross-section of German villages and the overall German population for the first time, 2) determine the prevalence of types of socio-ecological mentalities in these three groups and 3) examine the attitudes of BED residents towards the transition process in their village and towards the energy and heating transition. The results show a combination of eco-social and conservative mentalities in BED, which offers potential for broadly supported local energy transition projects. However, more political support is needed for an expansion to other villages, as the conservative mentalities in rural areas are dominated by economic-calculative elements and the eco-social motivation is lower.

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