Repairable Authority in Renewable Energy Deployment Under Long Lifecycles of Contestation, Evidence Change, and Operating Conditions

• Anucha Saelim

  Department of Environmental Science, Nakhon Phanom University, 103 Moo 3, Nakhon Phanom–That Phanom Road, Nakhon Phanom 48000, Thailand

  Author

• Kittipong Charoen

  Department of Economics and Business Administration, Buriram Rajabhat University, 439 Jira Road, Buriram 31000, Thailand

  Author

 In contested siting environments, approval is rarely the end of governance; it is the beginning of a prolonged period in which commitments are tested, evidence is contested, and operating conditions evolve. This paper develops a social science theory of repairable authority in renewable deployment. The central claim is that durable deployment depends on revision rights, defined as institutionally recognized pathways for reopening, adjusting, and enforcing commitments in response to new evidence and changing conditions, without collapsing either investor predictability or democratic legitimacy. The paper contributes a conceptual model that distinguishes between closure as an administrative event and holding as a lifecycle property of decisions. It shows how decisions fail to hold when authority is fragmented across arenas, when evidence is produced through contested intermediary arrangements, and when narratives of urgency displace accountable commitments. The analysis advances an interpretive-institutional approach that treats revision not as a procedural exception but as a normal governance function in pluralist societies under nonstationary ecological and infrastructural baselines. The paper then derives implications for institutional design centered on standing after approval, bounded but contestable transparency, and routine review rhythms that make enforcement visible while limiting discretionary drift.

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