From approval to operation: Governance misalignment in renewable energy implementation

Renewable energy transitions increasingly face an implementation challenge: planned, approved, auctioned, or contracted capacity does not always become timely, connected, financially viable, and effectively integrated capacity in practice. Existing explanations emphasize policy design, grid constraints, permitting delays, market conditions, financing risks, or local opposition, but often examine these barriers within separate governance domains. This paper develops the concept of governance misalignment as a diagnostic framework for examining how renewable energy implementation shortfalls emerge at the intersections between domains. It conceptualizes renewable energy deployment as dependent on the interaction of four governance domains: planning, infrastructure, markets, and regulation, and identifies four dimensions along which these domains may become misaligned: spatial, temporal, procedural, and distributive. The argument is developed through a structured comparative review of four analytical vignettes: Germany, California, the United Kingdom, and India, which illustrate these forms of misalignment across diverse energy governance contexts. The analysis suggests that implementation shortfalls do not always stem from deficiencies within individual domains, but often arise when progress in one domain is not matched by compatible conditions in another. By distinguishing governance domains from dimensions of alignment, the paper offers a diagnostic framework for identifying where implementation breaks down and what type of strategic response is required. It contributes to energy strategy by showing that accelerating renewable energy deployment requires not only ambitious targets and project approvals, but also strategic alignment across the governance systems needed to realize them.