| 1. |
- Backman, Fredrik
(author)
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Local knowledge creation with the use of industrial energy efficiency networks (IEENs) : A Swedish case study
- 2018
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In: Energy Research & Social Science. - : Elsevier. - 2214-6296 .- 2214-6326. ; 42, s. 147-154
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Journal article (peer-reviewed)abstract
- This paper presents a case study of a Swedish municipality, focusing on how local industry and local authorities, collaborating through industrial energy efficiency networks (IEENs), can increase the amount of realized energy efficient measures. The Swedish case discussed here has similarities to a German/Swiss organizational model with the purpose of supporting small and medium-sized enterprises (SMEs) in their implementation of energy efficient measures. Both models have a strong focus on knowledge creation through practice rather than on information sharing. The background, design, benefits, and drawbacks of the Swedish case model are discussed here through document studies and interviews with participants in the project. The Swedish model implies that by supporting knowledge creation in SMEs through a practice dimension, the amount of realized energy efficient measures can be increased. This model should therefore be recognized as an effective policy instrument for municipalities that are interested in supporting local industry. Another conclusion is that information sharing in networks must be complemented by the creation of situated local knowledge through practices. Finally, value, situated practical experience, trust, knowledge creation, and informal meetings are important factors that enabled the network to fully support SMEs in implementing energy efficient measures.
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| 2. |
- Bridge, Gavin, et al.
(author)
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Energy infrastructure and the fate of the nation: Introduction to special issue
- 2018
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In: Energy Research & Social Science. - : Elsevier. - 2214-6296 .- 2214-6326. ; 41, s. 1-11
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Journal article (peer-reviewed)abstract
- In this article we introduce a Special Issue of Energy Research and Social Science focused on energy infrastructure and the political economy of national development. Many countries are experiencing transformational growth in energy infrastructure, such as transmission and distribution systems; import, export and storage facilities; the development of domestic energy resources; and construction of new power generating stations based on wind, water, coal, gas and nuclear sources. Large-scale projects like these are frequently justified by appeals to grand narratives – promoting economic growth, securing energy supply, modernizing energy service provision, and transitioning to more environmentally sustainable energy systems - in which the fate of the nation is closely tied to infrastructural development. The papers in this collection present compelling empirical evidence of how claims for energy infrastructure’s national significance and/or necessity intersect with the (re)production of political and economic power. Drawing on case material from Africa, the Americas, Asia, Australia and Europe, they highlight the capacity of different energy technologies and infrastructural assemblages to shape political and economic outcomes beyond their role in storing, transporting or transforming energy. This Introduction to the Special Issue does three things. First, it characterises the scale and significance of the contemporary ‘infrastructural moment’, observing how, in many national contexts, energy policy-making remains centralised and divorced from public participation. Second, it critically differentiates existing literature on the political economy of energy infrastructure to identify five distinctive ways in which research understands the ‘political work’ infrastructure performs. Third, it introduces the papers in the Special Issue and organises them into four key themes. Overall, the Introduction affirms the importance for social science of understanding the economically and politically constitutive power of energy infrastructures. The critical reflexivity this requires is essential to moving towards energy infrastructures that are just, equitable and sustainable.
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| 3. |
- Fazey, Ioan, et al.
(author)
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Ten essentials for action-oriented and second order energy transitions, transformations and climate change research
- 2018
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In: Energy Research and Social Science. - : Elsevier BV. - 2214-6296 .- 2214-6326. ; 40, s. 54-70
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Research review (peer-reviewed)abstract
- The most critical question for climate research is no longer about the problem, but about how to facilitate the transformative changes necessary to avoid catastrophic climate-induced change. Addressing this question, however, will require massive upscaling of research that can rapidly enhance learning about transformations. Ten essentials for guiding action-oriented transformation and energy research are therefore presented, framed in relation to second-order science. They include: (1) Focus on transformations to low-carbon, resilient living; (2) Focus on solution processes; (3) Focus on ‘how to’ practical knowledge; (4) Approach research as occurring from within the system being intervened; (5) Work with normative aspects; (6) Seek to transcend current thinking; (7) Take a multi-faceted approach to understand and shape change; (8) Acknowledge the value of alternative roles of researchers; (9) Encourage second-order experimentation; and (10) Be reflexive. Joint application of the essentials would create highly adaptive, reflexive, collaborative and impact-oriented research able to enhance capacity to respond to the climate challenge. At present, however, the practice of such approaches is limited and constrained by dominance of other approaches. For wider transformations to low carbon living and energy systems to occur, transformations will therefore also be needed in the way in which knowledge is produced and used.
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| 4. |
- Fridahl, Mathias, 1980-, et al.
(author)
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Bioenergy with carbon capture and storage (BECCS): Global potential, investment preferences, and deployment barriers
- 2018
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In: Energy Research and Social Science. - : Elsevier BV. - 2214-6296 .- 2214-6326. ; 42, s. 155-165
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Journal article (peer-reviewed)abstract
- Keeping global warming well below 2 °C entails radically transforming global energy production and use. However, one important mitigation option, the use of bioenergy with carbon capture and storage (BECCS), has so far received only limited attention as regards the sociopolitical preconditions for its deployment. Using questionnaire data from UN climate change conferences, this paper explores the influence of expertise, actor type, and origin on respondents’ a) preferences for investing in BECCS, b) views of the role of BECCS as a mitigation technology, globally and domestically, and c) assessment of possible domestic barriers to BECCS deployment. Non-parametric statistical analysis reveals the low priority assigned to investments in BECCS, the anticipated high political and social constraints on deployment, and a gap between its low perceived domestic potential to contribute to mitigation and a slightly higher perceived global potential. The most important foreseen deployment constraints are sociopolitical, which in turn influence the economic feasibility of BECCS. However, these constraints (e.g. lack of policy incentives and social acceptance) are poorly captured in climate scenarios, a mismatch indicating a need for both complemented model scenarios and further research into sociopolitical preconditions for BECCS.
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| 5. |
- Kooij, Henk-Jan, et al.
(author)
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Between grassroots and treetops: Community power and institutionaldependence in the renewable energy sector in Denmark, Sweden and theNetherlands
- 2018
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In: Energy Research & Social Science. - : Elsevier BV. - 2214-6296 .- 2214-6326. ; 37, s. 52-64
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Journal article (peer-reviewed)abstract
- The speed and progress of transitions towards renewable energy systems varies greatly between Europeanmember states. Among others, these differences have been attributed to the emergence of grassroots initiatives(GIs) that develop radical ideas and sustainable practices. The goal of this paper is to understand the differencesin the emergence of GIs for renewable energy in relation to the institutional characteristics of Denmark, theNetherlands and Sweden. We analyze the possibilities of GIs to emerge and act within three dimensions: thematerial-economic, the actor-institutional and discursive dimension. We conclude that conditional factors liewithin the material-economic dimension in terms of the biophysical conditions, the structure of the economy,energy dependency and the energy market. Within the actor-institutional dimension, we conclude that thepresence or absence of fossil fuel incumbents, such as regional utilities, strongly influence the possibilities of GIs.Within the discursive dimension, openness for alternative discourses proved to be enabling for GI-activities, aswell as democratized knowledge production. In addition to these conditions of possibility, GIs can also actdespite dominant institutions, albeit limited. Finally, GIs need a strong network with knowledge institutes,technology developers and political parties in order to achieve institutional change that enables GIs to flourish.Without institutional space, GIs remain subjected to the dominant power-relations, and cannot exert much influenceupon the energy system.
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| 6. |
- Kuchler, Magdalena, 1979-, et al.
(author)
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Down the black hole : Sustaining national socio-technical imaginaries of coal in Poland
- 2018
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In: Energy Research & Social Science. - : Elsevier BV. - 2214-6296 .- 2214-6326. ; 41:S1, s. 136-147
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Journal article (peer-reviewed)abstract
- This paper explores the socio-technical imaginaries surrounding infrastructures of coal mining and coal combustion in Poland. Contemporary policy makers in Poland mobilise a national imaginary inherited from communist times – encapsulated in the slogan ‘Poland stands on coal’ – that fuses infrastructures of coal extraction and combustion with the fate of the nation. This socio-technical imaginary provides support for coal futures, even in the face of contradictory evidence for domestic resource depletion, poor regional air quality, and global climate change. To examine this process, the paper brings research on socio-technical imaginaries into conversation with work on resource materialities. It highlights how certain materialities of coal (abundance, accessibility, energy density, location) were integral to the emergence of a national socio-technical imaginary of modernisation via coal; and how other materialities (declining resource quality, effects of emissions on respiratory health, coal as CO2-in-waiting) now collide with the political strategies of a government determined to reassert ‘black gold’ as a bedrock of national development for years to come. The paper considers how contemporary political efforts to rehabilitate coal and secure its future in Poland draw selectively upon a socio-technical imaginary of coal-fuelled national modernisation.
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| 7. |
- Lozano, Rodrigo, et al.
(author)
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Socially responsible or reprehensible? Investors, electricity utility companies, and transformative change in Europe
- 2018
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In: Energy Research & Social Science. - : Elsevier BV. - 2214-6296 .- 2214-6326. ; 37, s. 37-43
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Journal article (peer-reviewed)abstract
- The overwhelming reliance of modern society based fossil-based non-renewable sources of energy productionrepresent a major challenge to sustainability. Moving towards a new more sustainable generation mix affectsinvestments on electricity utility companies. This presents a dual challenge for companies: 1) the electricitygeneration mix decision; and 2) their future access to and cost of capital. This research focuses on the role thatinvestors have in developing new more sustainable generation mix models. Five semi-structured interviews wereconducted with investors working at a major European asset manager company. The interviewees highlightedthe integration of renewable technologies as a key challenge to the viability of the utilities in the future. Otherkey challenges included a rising carbon price, greater decoupling of energy use and GDP growth, policy constraintsand uncertain regulatory frameworks, lack of relevant core competencies to innovate in their businessmodels, the integration of renewable energy into their own generation mixes and the grid, the role of newtechnologies, and a lack of urgency from top management. The findings indicate that investors play a key role inshaping electricity generation mixes, where the principal, agents, and clients must be willing to develop andadopt more sustainable generation mix models.
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| 8. |
- Morley, Janine, et al.
(author)
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Digitalisation, energy and data demand : The impact of Internet traffic on overall and peak electricity consumption
- 2018
-
In: Energy Research & Social Science. - : Elsevier. - 2214-6296 .- 2214-6326. ; 38, s. 128-137
-
Journal article (peer-reviewed)abstract
- Over the last decade, concerns have been raised about increases in the electricity used by information technologies, other consumer electronic devices, data centres, and to a much lesser degree, Internet distribution networks. At the same time, ‘smart’ innovations are widely anticipated to help reduce energy demand across diverse sectors of society. Yet such potential savings, as well as the increasing use of other digital services, are predicated upon continued expansion of digital infrastructures. This paper focuses on the phenomenal growth in Internet traffic, as a trend with important implications for energy demand. It outlines an agenda to better understand how data demand is changing. Drawing on findings from our own research in combination with secondary data analysis, we examine the alignment of peak demand for electricity and data. Peaks in data appear to fall later in the evening, reflecting the use of online entertainment, but this is far from fixed. Overall, the paper argues that a better understanding of how everyday practices are shifting, in concert with the provision and design of online services, could provide a basis for the policies and initiatives needed to mitigate the most problematic projections of Internet energy use.
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| 9. |
- Palm, Jenny, et al.
(author)
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Sufficiency, change, and flexibility: Critically examining the energy consumption profiles of solar PV prosumers in Sweden
- 2018
-
In: Energy Research & Social Science. - : Elsevier. - 2214-6296 .- 2214-6326. ; 39, s. 12-18
-
Journal article (peer-reviewed)abstract
- The number of consumers producing electricity at home, i.e., “prosumers”, is rapidly increasing in many European countries. This article analyses the electricity consumption and energy-saving behaviours of households that own photovoltaic (PV) systems in Sweden. Earlier studies of how home production of electricity affects consumption patterns are few and their results are mixed. We interviewed prosumers in Sweden and collected electricity-consumption data one year before and after they installed PVs. The differences between households were large and no general behavioural change could be detected. The interviews indicated that awareness of the energy system increased among all prosumers, but led to no substantial changes in how or when activities were performed. Most prosumers thought that the benefits of shifting their electricity load to other times were too small. The changes prosumers did make mostly concerned smaller adjustments. Households that increased their consumption justified this by their access to “free” electricity. Automation, i.e., using a timer, was relatively unknown or not used when known.
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| 10. |
- Pye, Steve, et al.
(author)
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Assessing qualitative and quantitative dimensions of uncertainty in energy modelling for policy support in the United Kingdom
- 2018
-
In: Energy Research & Social Science. - : Elsevier. - 2214-6296 .- 2214-6326. ; 46:June, s. 332-344
-
Journal article (peer-reviewed)abstract
- Strategic planning for the low carbon energy transition is characterised by a high degree of uncertainty across many knowledge domains and by the high stakes involved in making decisions. Energy models can be used to assist decision makers in making robust choices that reflect the concerns of many interested stakeholders. Quantitative model insights alone, however, are insufficient as some dimensions of uncertainty can only be assessed via qualitative approaches. This includes the strength of the knowledge base underlying the models, and the biases and value-ladenness brought into the process based on the modelling choices made by users. To address this deficit in current modelling approaches in the UK context, we use the NUSAP (Numeral Unit Spread Assessment Pedigree) approach to qualify uncertainty in the energy system model, ESME. We find that a range of critical model assumptions that are highly influential on quantitative model results have weaknesses, or low pedigree scores, in aspects of the knowledge base that underpins them, and are subject to potential value-ladenness. In the case of the UK, this includes assumptions around CCS deployment and bioenergy resources, both of which are highly influential in driving model outcomes. These insights are not only crucial for improving the use of models in policy-making and providing a more comprehensive understanding of uncertainty in models, but also help to contextualise quantitative results, and identify priority future research areas for improving the knowledge base used in modelling. The NUSAP approach also promotes engagement across a broader set of stakeholders in the analytical process, and opens model assumptions up to closer scrutiny, thereby contributing to transparency.
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