The Conditions of Successful Renewable Energy Governance. Exploring Qualitative Comparative Analysis (QCA) in Energy Policy Research

In order to understand the occurrence of successful renewable energy governance, it is necessary to understand the factors (conditions) that might influence it. This paper presents an exploratory study which pursues the goal of discussing one of the main methodological approaches and testing key theoretical assumptions with the aim to answer the following question: What are the conditions of successful renewable energy governance? Successful governance is to be understood as governance that enables states to actually attain the European and national goals regarding the transformation of the energy system(s). In concrete terms, the objective of this paper is to explore and illustrate the opportunities and limitations of one specific configurational method - Qualitative Comparative Analysis (QCA) - for analyzing successful (renewable) energy governance, to assess the possibilities for mixed method approaches, and to evaluate its use for further research.