From project participants to policy shapers: How communities influence renewable energy governance

Community involvement in renewable energy is often examined at the project level, where communities appear as opponents, supporters, participants, landholders, or co-developers. This article examines when and how such involvement becomes consequential for renewable energy governance beyond individual projects. Drawing on a qualitative case study of wind energy development in Israel, based on planning records, Environmental Impact Assessment materials, government documents, field visits, and 26 semi-structured interviews, the study analyzes four governance arenas: coalition-building with other communities and NGOs, direct engagement with regulators, involvement in Environmental Impact Assessments, and participation in planning committees. The findings show that community influence does not arise from participation in a single setting. Rather, it emerges through cross-arena translation: the process through which local concerns are reformulated into institutionally recognizable claims, circulated across informal and formal arenas, and taken up in planning, regulatory, and assessment procedures. Through this process, communities shaped governance in three observable ways: by placing siting, procedural fairness, benefit-sharing, cumulative impacts, and local legitimacy on policy agendas; by affecting consultation, review, and planning procedures; and by broadening the forms of evidence considered relevant in environmental assessment and planning. At the same time, influence remained conditional and uneven, depending on institutional access, organizational capacity, technical and legal expertise, and regulatory receptivity. The article contributes to research on participatory governance and renewable energy governance by explaining how community engagement becomes consequential through the translation of local concerns into institutionally recognizable claims.