Innovation and institutional change: the transition to a sustainable ...

The institutionalisation of green electricity 185
relations between the energy company and the environmental NGO on the
one hand opened up the system and created a new image and new venues,
but on the other hand it also enabled other energy companies to
commercialise their products on the trust which was created. In this process
of institutionalisation, there were no actors who could safeguard the
sustainability dimension of green electricity. Moreover, institutionalisation
did not take place in a complete void, but was nested in the structure of
European liberalisation of electricity markets with constitutional rules such
as the establishment of a ‘level playing field’. In practice there was never a
level playing field, as some Dutch energy firms were having a hard time
developing domestic renewable opportunities, other, sometimes foreign,
energy companies sold green electricity based on already existing power
plants abroad. The inability to specify rules to block imports based on
existing installations weakened the change process significantly. Moreover,
instead of mobilising a search for ways to satisfy demand domestically, most
efforts were focussing on ways to repair the mismatch between Dutch and
European policy frameworks. While this repair was effectively sealed with
the shift towards production subsidies that reduced attractiveness of exports
of green electricity to the Dutch market, it stills remains to be seen whether
the concept is able to regain its initial momentum for change.