A grassroots sustainable energy niche? Reflections on community energy case studies (original) (raw)
Related papers
2010
Zusammenfassung: The challenges of sustainable development (and climate change and peak oil in particular) demand system-wide transformations in socio-technical systems of provision. An academic literature around co-evolutionary innovation for sustainability has recently emerged to attempt to understand the dynamics and directions of such socio-technical transformations and social change, which are termed'sustainability transitions'. This literature has previously focused on market-based technological innovations.
Lessons from the past for sustainability transitions? A meta-analysis of socio-technical studies
To break away from techno-institutional lock-in in climate change and in other sustainability problems, many have focused on innovation in technological 'niches'. The destabilisation of the incumbent 'regime' has been neglected and external 'landscape' pressures under-analysed. With this in mind, this article examines the factors of regime destabilisation and forms of regime resistance in past technological transitions in energy and transport. It analyses 23 energy (electricity, heat & chemicals) and 11 transport (drive chain, networks, fuels & land planning) transitions pre-1990. Furthermore, in order to properly frame these results and make any "lessons from the past" applicable to the present, this article includes an assessment of current sustainability trends. The key lessons from past energy transitions are that regime outsiders with the right ideology and influence on the market can destabilise the energy sector, which has traditionally had strong incumbents. As incumbents are weakened, past transport transitions show that further change may come from emphasising the Health and Lifestyle benefits of sustainability transitions.
Innovation and Institutional Change - The Transition to a Sustainable Electricity System
Industrialised societies, and especially energy and transport systems, are addicted to fossil fuels. The emergence and shape of these systems is inextricably linked to the exploitation of fossil resources such as coal, oil and gas. Apart from local and regional environmental problems, carbon emissions through fossil fuel burning have created the problem of human-induced global warming. The nature of the global warming problem is unprecedented: it threatens fundamental aspects of ecosystems and society in decades to come. The required response will be unprecedented as well: one element is that it demands fundamental transformation of existing systems of production and consumption away from its carbon base; another element is that it demands alternative forms of governance stretching from the local to the global. This book focuses on the electricity sector as a key system in the change towards a carbon-lean and sustainable society. The main purpose is to gain understanding in the way the interaction between technological and institutional changes may offset processes towards systems change, and the way these processes may be directed towards sustainability. The focus is on explaining relative success and failure of alternative practices and paths in the Dutch electricity system. This is done against the backdrop of the existing sociotechnical system for electricity and its established modes of production, coordination, and provision, and in relation to broader institutional arrangements for knowledge generation, economic exchange, policy and regulation, and societal legitimacy. Two relative successful paths are reviewed in depth: decentral cogeneration and green electricity. Both cases point at the importance of interlocking of changes in institutional arrangements in the electricity sector and broader political and societal structures to create the foundation for the alternative practices. Momentum was gained as a range of actor groups became mobilised along a newly emerging institutional logics. The cases also underlined the difficulty to maintain these logics on a sustainable path involving fundamental change of systems of production and consumption. A final chapter draws lessons for transition policy.
Translocal diffusion of transformative innovation, 2020
This paper develops a conceptual understanding of transformative innovations as shared activities, ideas and objects across locally rooted sustainability initiatives that explore and develop alternatives to incumbent and (perceived) unsustainable regimes that they seek to challenge, alter or replace. We synthesize empirical work from two European research projects (TRANSIT and ARTS), in which initiatives and networks were empirically studied, to develop a broader conceptual understanding of the emergence of transformative innovation. The development of initiatives can occur through growing, replicating, partnering, instrumentalising and embedding. This is supported through translocal networks that connect initiatives by sharing ideas, objects and activities across local contexts. This translocal characteristic of transformative innovations harnesses an enormous potential for sustainability transitions, but requires further understanding as well as governance support. The perspective we present provides a conceptual starting point to further explore the development and diffusion of transformative innovation as well as transition governance strategies.