Energy Research & Social Science最新文献

Green dreams or fossil schemes? Mapping Canada's green growth policy-planning network

IF 6.9 2区经济学 Q1 ENVIRONMENTAL STUDIES

Energy Research & Social Science

Pub Date : 2025-03-18 DOI: 10.1016/j.erss.2025.104038

Nicolas Graham

Green growth is a leading framework and project for addressing climate change. While social science research has challenged the possibility of green growth and the proposed means of achieving it, less work has examined the actors and business sectors that define, support and mobilize the project in different regions. Employing a neoGramscian lens and using tools of social network analysis and content analysis, this paper maps a green growth policy-planning network in Canada and considers its potential to support energy transition. It finds that while a tightly knit coalition has formed in support of green growth, fossil fuel firms and banks that heavily fund fossil fuel projects are central in the network. Consistent with ties to carbon firms, central policy organizations advance solutions that sustain the viability of the fossil fuel sector, as they emphasize the merits of reducing production emissions from fossil fuels, while avoiding or opposing policy to phase out the industry. The findings indicate a network that accommodates pressures for decarbonization while delaying energy transition. The Canadian case highlights the failure of green growth to challenge fossil fuel incumbents and vested interests, pointing to a key limitation of the project, especially in fossil fuel producing regions.

绿色增长是应对气候变化的一个主要框架和项目。尽管社会科学研究对绿色增长的可能性以及实现绿色增长的拟议手段提出了质疑，但对不同地区定义、支持和动员该项目的参与者和商业部门进行研究的工作却较少。本文从新葛兰素史克视角出发，利用社会网络分析和内容分析工具，描绘了加拿大的绿色增长政策规划网络，并探讨了其支持能源转型的潜力。本文发现，虽然支持绿色增长的紧密联盟已经形成，但化石燃料公司和为化石燃料项目提供大量资金的银行在该网络中占据核心地位。与碳企业的联系相一致，中央政策组织推进维持化石燃料行业活力的解决方案，因为他们强调减少化石燃料生产排放的好处，同时避免或反对逐步淘汰该行业的政策。研究结果表明，这一网络在承受去碳化压力的同时，也推迟了能源转型。加拿大的案例凸显了绿色增长在挑战化石燃料现有企业和既得利益方面的失败，指出了该项目的主要局限性，尤其是在化石燃料生产地区。

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引用次数: 0

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

IF 6.9 2区经济学 Q1 ENVIRONMENTAL STUDIES

Energy Research & Social Science

Pub Date : 2025-03-18 DOI: 10.1016/j.erss.2025.104030

Maria Pfeiffer , Marco Sonnberger

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.

德国计划增加对社区能源项目的支持，作为其可再生能源扩张的一部分。这些项目不仅是为了提高当地的接受度，而且也被视为一种更公平、更具民主参与性的社会选择，可以替代由大型能源公司开发和拥有的可再生能源项目。然而，根据对公民风能领域的专家和开发商进行的半结构式访谈，我们发现，在持续的风能用地抢夺中，程序和分配正义问题已经在确保土地安全的过程中被决定了。虽然存在一些中介因素，如社会压力和地块大小，但土地所有者可以充当地方风能项目的否决者，将非土地财产所有者（如公民和市政当局）排除在决策过程之外。根据我们的实证研究结果，我们认为土地所有权的分配对于地方能源公正问题至关重要，在能源转型的背景下，应更多地关注土地所有权的相关性。

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引用次数: 0

Community energy justice: A review of origins, convergence, and a research agenda

IF 6.9 2区经济学 Q1 ENVIRONMENTAL STUDIES

Energy Research & Social Science

Pub Date : 2025-03-18 DOI: 10.1016/j.erss.2025.104036

Emmanuel O. Taiwo, Laura Tozer

The transition to zero‑carbon sustainable energy systems is critical and must take an equity-oriented approach to avoid exacerbating societal injustices. We explore the concept of “community” and its potential as a viable and effective tool for studying, understanding, and fostering justice and equity in energy transitions. This paper outlines community energy justice as an area of scholarship emerging through convergence around three key concepts: community, energy transition, and justice. Using a narrative literature review approach, we unpack the origins of community energy justice research, rooted in two scholarship pillars of energy justice and community energy. We outline four driving forces and two key approaches leading to convergence between both areas of scholarship. Encompassing energy transition initiatives that incorporate both justice and community themes, we find that the overarching objective of community energy justice is to advance distributive, recognition and procedural justice in energy systems while upholding the agency, capability, and political power of community groups. These communities may transcend place-based conceptualizations to capture more expansive notions of community such as identity, process, and more. By grounding energy justice research in community-centred approaches, lenses, and case studies, community energy justice research is exploring whether and how leveraging the interrelationships among community members might result in more effective and equitable energy outcomes. We provide insights helpful for policymakers and civic actors developing community energy justice initiatives. We also highlight further research opportunities including the examination of broader social justice linkages, identifying barriers, exploring mechanisms, expanded geographies, strategic evaluations, and understanding actor motivations.

向零碳可持续能源系统过渡至关重要，必须采取以公平为导向的方法，以避免加剧社会不公。我们探讨了 "社区 "的概念及其作为研究、理解和促进能源转型中的公正与公平的可行而有效的工具的潜力。本文围绕社区、能源转型和正义这三个关键概念，概述了社区能源正义这一学术领域。我们采用叙事性文献综述的方法，解读了社区能源公正研究的起源，该研究根植于能源公正和社区能源两大学术支柱。我们概述了导致这两个学术领域趋同的四种驱动力和两种关键方法。我们发现，社区能源公正的总体目标是促进能源系统中的分配、认可和程序公正，同时维护社区团体的机构、能力和政治权力。这些社区可能会超越以地点为基础的概念，捕捉到更广泛的社区概念，如身份、过程等。通过将能源公正研究建立在以社区为中心的方法、视角和案例研究的基础上，社区能源公正研究正在探索是否以及如何利用社区成员之间的相互关系取得更有效、更公平的能源成果。我们将为制定社区能源公正计划的政策制定者和公民行动者提供有益的见解。我们还强调了进一步的研究机会，包括研究更广泛的社会正义联系、确定障碍、探索机制、扩大地域范围、战略评估以及了解参与者的动机。

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引用次数: 0

Beyond extractivist logic? Contested dynamics of lithium frontier expansion in Chile 超越采掘逻辑？智利锂矿边界扩张的争议动态

IF 6.9 2区经济学 Q1 ENVIRONMENTAL STUDIES

Energy Research & Social Science

Pub Date : 2025-03-15 DOI: 10.1016/j.erss.2025.104029

Cristián Flores Fernández

This paper examines Chile's recent and ongoing efforts to expand lithium extraction to new salt flats beyond the Salar de Atacama. Using Sovacool's “4Es” or Political Ecology of Low-Carbon Transitions framework, we analyze the tensions surrounding this expansion, focusing on its social, environmental, and political implications through the processes of enclosure, exclusion, encroachment, and entrenchment. Drawing on documentary analysis and interviews with key stakeholders, the study highlights the risks of exacerbating historical injustices in local communities and ecosystems, as well as the government's responses to address these issues, alongside their challenges and limitations. It underscores the need for constant scrutiny of current policies promoting the expansion of the extractive frontier and their potential impacts in Chile and beyond. This oversight is crucial to avoid replicating harmful and unequal socio-economic and environmental dynamics of the past, enabling a more equitable and sustainable transition within resource-rich peripheral economies seeking to leverage their comparative advantages to advance new development models and move beyond extractivist logics.

本文探讨了智利最近和正在进行的将锂开采扩展到阿塔卡马盐湖以外的新盐滩的努力。利用索瓦库尔的 "4Es "或低碳过渡政治生态学框架，我们分析了围绕这一扩张的紧张局势，重点关注其通过圈地、排斥、侵占和巩固过程对社会、环境和政治产生的影响。通过文献分析和对主要利益相关者的访谈，本研究强调了加剧当地社区和生态系统历史不公正的风险，以及政府为解决这些问题所采取的应对措施及其挑战和局限性。报告强调，有必要对当前促进采掘业扩张的政策及其对智利及其他地区的潜在影响进行持续监督。这种监督对于避免重复过去有害的、不平等的社会经济和环境动态，在资源丰富的外围经济体中实现更加公平和可持续的过渡至关重要，这些经济体正在寻求利用其比较优势，推进新的发展模式，超越采掘逻辑。

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引用次数: 0

Institutional investors and low-carbon transitions: A multi-level analysis of lead firm reorientation in northern Europe

IF 6.9 2区经济学 Q1 ENVIRONMENTAL STUDIES

Energy Research & Social Science

Pub Date : 2025-03-15 DOI: 10.1016/j.erss.2025.104031

Niklas Kreander , Ken McPhail , Frank W. Geels

Since low-carbon transitions require significant reorientations of financial flows, there is increasing interest in institutional investors (such as pension funds and insurance companies), which are seen as potential providers of long-term ‘patient capital’. While previous research has addressed topics like divestment from fossil fuels, investment in renewable energy, and barriers to change, there are calls in the literature for more integrated analyses. Responding to these calls, this paper analyses the multiple low-carbon reorientation strategies of seven leading institutional investors in Norway, Sweden, and the UK from 2012 to 2021. Using the Multi-Level Perspective to frame the research and understanding finance as a separate regime, we conceptualize low-carbon reorientation as involving a shift in institutional investments from fossil fuel regimes towards green niche-innovations. Drawing on fund analysis, interviews, and document analysis, the analysis consequently focuses on three strategies with the following findings: 1) funds are divesting from coal but holding on to oil companies, 2) investments in renewable energy firms increased significantly in recent years, 3) several funds also increased their direct investments in renewable energy projects, which is a novel finding. We conclude that leading institutional investors are reorienting in low-carbon directions, but that several financial regime rules (like prescribed capital allocation requirements and stock market indices) lead to continued oil lock-ins. Extending previous analyses of institutional investors with more recent data of lead firms, the paper thus finds more engagement with some dimensions of low-carbon transitions but also ongoing path dependence in others.

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引用次数: 0

Partisan energy preferences in the United States: Republicans prioritize price, Democrats also consider renewables

IF 6.9 2区经济学 Q1 ENVIRONMENTAL STUDIES

Energy Research & Social Science

Pub Date : 2025-03-14 DOI: 10.1016/j.erss.2025.103997

Victor Y. Wu

How does partisanship affect energy preferences in the United States? Using a nationally representative conjoint experiment (n = 1,862) to simulate Americans’ energy mix choices from investor-owned utilities and Community Choice Aggregations, this study analyzes the relative salience of price, percentage of renewables, and local renewable energy sourcing. The conjoint experiment reveals that Republicans’ and independents’ choice of energy mix is mostly determined by the monthly electricity bill, whereas Democrats’ choice of energy mix is determined equally by the monthly electricity bill and by the percentage of renewables. Thus, communicating financial incentives and cost savings is crucial for promoting renewable energy adoption among Republicans and independents. These findings contribute to the literature on partisan attitudes towards renewable energy and reaffirm the need for tailored communication strategies in an era of increasing partisan polarization.

引用次数: 0

The role of electric vehicle-to-X in net zero energy systems: A comprehensive review

IF 6.9 2区经济学 Q1 ENVIRONMENTAL STUDIES

Energy Research & Social Science

Pub Date : 2025-03-13 DOI: 10.1016/j.erss.2025.104021

Mark Letcher , Jess Britton

Vehicle-to-X (V2X) incorporates the ability to transfer energy from electric vehicles (EVs), to appliances, homes, businesses, communities and electricity distribution networks. The role of EVs and V2X is developing rapidly and could yield substantial benefits in the transition to a net zero energy system. To understand recent developments in the field we conduct a review of 75 peer-reviewed articles published between 2018 and 2023. Recognising that distribution network operators and local governments are likely to play a significant role in grid integration and charging infrastructure the review focusses on the role of decentralised actors. There has been rapid technical innovation over this period, vehicle manufacturers are moving to include bi-directional charging within vehicle specifications, and we find a strong case for policy interventions that expedite the development of V2X. Realizing the full benefits of V2X will require collaboration within and between local and national government, and with distribution grids. From a local perspective, deployment of V2X could help to realise the full potential of local renewable energy generation, progress emission reductions, and reduce the investment needed in distribution network infrastructure. With appropriate interventions and targeting it could help to reduce energy and transport inequalities but the converse is also likely to apply. We identify barriers to the development of local and national policies on V2G, provide recommendations for policy-makers, and propose issues that would benefit from further research.

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引用次数: 0

The global yet local nature of energy imaginaries: The cases of Dutch and Spanish hydrogen valleys

IF 6.9 2区经济学 Q1 ENVIRONMENTAL STUDIES

Energy Research & Social Science

Pub Date : 2025-03-12 DOI: 10.1016/j.erss.2025.104028

Paul Upham, Ms. Paula Cruells Maristany

Hydrogen valleys are envisaged (imagined), integrated industrial systems, where hydrogen is produced, stored, and utilized. Here we show how hydrogen valleys as sociotechnical imaginaries are differentiated in terms of their specific configurations, but homogenous in terms of reflecting the interests of large industrial fossil fuel suppliers and consumers. This path dependence is anticipated in sociotechnical transitions theory, which emphasises the power of incumbents with vested interests to maintain basic templates or regimes of production and consumption. The simultaneously heterogeneous and homogenous nature of hydrogen valley imaginaries can be thought of as a form of glocalisation, for which we draw on Roudometof's theory of glocalisation as involving the local refraction of diffusing, global tendencies. To illustrate this, we compare two hydrogen valleys, one in the north of the Netherlands and one in southern Spain. In the north Netherlands, the hydrogen valley imaginary comprises use of offshore windpower to electrolyse hydrogen for transport fuel, and as feedstock to heavy industry in proximate regions, including northern Germany and Belgium. This is consistent with existing gas distribution networks connecting industrial consumers. In the southern Spanish case, the imaginary positions Spain as a major exporter of green hydrogen to the rest of Europe via onshore renewable electrolysis, with export including via ocean tankers and chemical refining in existing infrastructure in Rotterdam. Overall the study explores empirically theoretically-informed themes concerning the interrelationship of mutually supportive local and global imaginaries – hence our term glocalised imaginaries.

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引用次数: 0

What happens after electrification? Exploring the evolution of appliance adoption in rural Kenya

IF 6.9 2区经济学 Q1 ENVIRONMENTAL STUDIES

Energy Research & Social Science

Pub Date : 2025-03-12 DOI: 10.1016/j.erss.2025.104015

Leticia Tomas Fillol , Antti Pinomaa , Nicolò Stevanato , Riccardo Mereu , Samuli Honkapuro

Design and dimensioning of off-grid power systems require a deep understanding of how electricity demand develops over time. However, a notable knowledge gap exists regarding how electricity loads evolve, particularly in remote areas of developing countries. This paper presents a granular analysis of appliance uptake through a case study in rural Kenya, and aims to provide real-world evidence to enhance demand forecasting in similar contexts. The study focuses on a mini-grid project and evaluates the evolution of appliance ownership during the early years following electrification. It examines differences between households with home businesses and standard households, i.e., those without income-generation activities at home, complemented by an exploration of the role of microfinance. The analysis is based on household-level survey data collected from the field. The findings highlight that establishing home businesses, access to microfinancing, and the prior presence of power systems are key drivers of faster appliance adoption. However, appliance adoption is gradual but slow, with many households owning only basic appliances even several years after gaining access to electricity. Households engaged in income-generating activities and utilizing microfinance are more likely to acquire welfare appliances at an earlier stage.

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引用次数: 0

Terminologies and concepts of energy cooperations in Europe: A systematic review of characteristics, potentials, and challenges

IF 6.9 2区经济学 Q1 ENVIRONMENTAL STUDIES

Energy Research & Social Science

Pub Date : 2025-03-11 DOI: 10.1016/j.erss.2025.104012

Alba Arias , Oleksandr Husiev , Corinne Schwaller , Ulrike Sturm

The development of energy communities and the promotion of decarbonisation of settlements through the implementation of renewable and local energy production sources has been emphasised in recent years by European agreements and agendas such as the European Green Deal, the Clean Energy for All Europeans Package, or the REPowerEU Plan. While these directives focus on Renewable Energy Communities and Citizen Energy Communities, the range of terms used in the field is much wider. For this reason, an in-depth analysis of academic literature on European energy cooperation initiatives was carried out for a five-year period between 2018 and 2023. This comprehensive literature review allowed to identify the types of cooperative energy initiatives that are being promoted in Europe to support the climate neutrality targets. The paper presents a systematic overview of the different terms used to describe energy cooperation initiatives, their organisational forms, the main actors involved, and their roles and levels of participation, the main purposes and motivations, social cohesion factors, financing systems and economic models, as well as challenges and benefits encountered. The findings allow to identify challenges and innovations that can more successfully promote the different forms of energy cooperations and thus support the decarbonisation of cities and communities by decentralising energy, using local and more sustainable resources, transgressing the current social, legal and market regulations, and involving different local actors, especially citizens, in the process.

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引用次数: 0