Rushing for the gold of the energy transition: An empirical exploration of the relevance of landownership for the wind energy expansion in Germany

Germany plans to increase support for community energy projects as part of its renewable energy expansion. These are not only intended to increase local acceptance but are also seen as a socially fairer and more democratically participatory alternative to renewable energy projects developed and owned by large energy companies. However, based on semi-structured interviews with experts and developers in the field of citizen wind energy, we show that issues of procedural and distributive justice are already being decided in the process of securing land through an ongoing land rush for wind sites. Although there are some mediating factors, such as social pressure and parcel size, landowners can act as veto players for local wind energy projects, excluding non-owners of land property, such as citizens and municipalities, from the decision-making process. Based on our empirical findings we argue that the distribution of landownership is crucial for questions of local energy justice and that more attention should be paid to the relevance of landownership in the context of energy transitions.