Private Law for Small-ScaleEnergy Transition: Kleinvieh macht auch Mist

Björn Hoops

doi:10.21827/68135b85e94ee

Private Law for Small-ScaleEnergy Transition: Kleinvieh macht auch Mist

Authors

Björn Hoops

University of Groningen

https://orcid.org/0000-0002-1073-8004

Synopsis

This inaugural lecture by Björn Hoops shows how private law hinders the energy transition by disadvantaging small-scale energy efficiency and renewable energy projects.

Small-scale projects are at the heart of the energy transition. Millions of businesses and households insulate buildings, put solar panels on roofs, and install heat pumps in countless small projects. Some people form energy communities to generate, consume and sell energy together at a small scale. This small-scale energy transition is crucial because citizen involvement mobilizes new money for the energy transition and increases the acceptance of renewable energy. Energy communities can revitalize local communities and reduce energy poverty.

However, private law disadvantages and hampers small-scale projects. In small-scale projects businesses and households often do not own both the new installation and the land on which it is put – this causes additional formalities and costs under private law. Legal services are more expensive and insufficiently accessible for small-scale projects. Private law is stricter in the contexts where small-scale projects operate, for example residential areas. In many legal fields, such as consumer protection, private law indiscriminately imposes the same duties on small-scale projects as on large-scale ones. Finally, as small-scale projects are less profitable, legal practitioners do not know enough about legal concepts that are important to them.

There are ways to remove or circumvent these legal obstacles, for example through cheaper standardized agreements fit for small-scale projects. Changes to the law will be essential anyway. However, for the small-scale energy transition to be a success, politicians must also be willing to take up these technical private-law obstacles.

Design and layout: LINE UP boek en media bv | Riëtte van Zwol
llustration cover: Joris De Tomasi
Author photo: Iris Duvekot (https://www.irisduvekot.com/)

Published by University of Groningen Presss
Broerstraat 4
9712 CP Groningen
https://ugp.rug.nl/

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Author Biography

Björn Hoops, University of Groningen

Björn Hoops (*1988), born and bred in Northern Germany, bridges cultures, legal systems, and scientific
disciplines. After high school, he served disadvantaged communities in Cape Town. Björn read law and economics in Germany and the Netherlands, earning his PhD (cum laude) on comparative expropriation law at the University of Groningen in 2017. Since 2019, he has specialized in sustainability law, integrating anthropology, economics, and law to remove legal obstacles to climate-proofing buildings and energy communities. From 2022 to 2024, Björn was an EU-funded Marie Curie Fellow at the University of Turin.
Now Professor of Private Law and Sustainability at the University of Groningen, he incorporates sustainability law into teaching and partners with legal practitioners, serving as advisor to Olenz Notarissen. Björn promotes internationalization as Extraordinary Professor at the University of the Western Cape, South Africa, and member of the Netherlands’ Young Academy.