Pub Date : 2025-11-12DOI: 10.1016/j.erss.2025.104448
Maria Kaika , Charalampos Tsavdaroglou
This paper reconceptualizes energy as a social relation of (re)production, focusing on the overlooked intersection of refugees, housing precarity, and energy practices. Drawing upon ethnographies with refugees living in squatted houses in Thessaloniki, Greece, we introduce the concept of refugees' energy commons, to explain how refugees' communities self-organize to meet their energy needs -repairing, maintaining, and improvising energy infrastructures to provide heating, cooling, insulation, cooking, and communication. These collective energy infrastructuring practices which act as means to reclaim disrupted life trajectories, question the dominant discourses around energy poverty revealing that access to energy is not simply a matter of technical adaptation or ability to pay bills; rather, it is a matter of being embedded into a set of social relations of (re)production, within which communities, institutions, and technologies, enable or disable access to the housing-energy nexus.
{"title":"Energy as social relation: Refugees' energy commons for infrastructuring beyond the grid","authors":"Maria Kaika , Charalampos Tsavdaroglou","doi":"10.1016/j.erss.2025.104448","DOIUrl":"10.1016/j.erss.2025.104448","url":null,"abstract":"<div><div>This paper reconceptualizes energy as a social relation of (re)production, focusing on the overlooked intersection of refugees, housing precarity, and energy practices. Drawing upon ethnographies with refugees living in squatted houses in Thessaloniki, Greece, we introduce the concept of <em>refugees' energy commons</em>, to explain how refugees' communities self-organize to meet their energy needs -repairing, maintaining, and improvising energy infrastructures to provide heating, cooling, insulation, cooking, and communication. These collective energy infrastructuring practices which act as means to reclaim disrupted life trajectories, question the dominant discourses around energy poverty revealing that access to energy is not simply a matter of technical adaptation or ability to pay bills; rather, it is a matter of being embedded into a set of social relations of (re)production, within which communities, institutions, and technologies, enable or disable access to the housing-energy nexus.</div></div>","PeriodicalId":48384,"journal":{"name":"Energy Research & Social Science","volume":"130 ","pages":"Article 104448"},"PeriodicalIF":7.4,"publicationDate":"2025-11-12","publicationTypes":"Journal Article","fieldsOfStudy":null,"isOpenAccess":false,"openAccessPdf":"","citationCount":null,"resultStr":null,"platform":"Semanticscholar","paperid":"145529356","PeriodicalName":null,"FirstCategoryId":null,"ListUrlMain":null,"RegionNum":2,"RegionCategory":"经济学","ArticlePicture":[],"TitleCN":null,"AbstractTextCN":null,"PMCID":"","EPubDate":null,"PubModel":null,"JCR":null,"JCRName":null,"Score":null,"Total":0}
Pub Date : 2025-11-12DOI: 10.1016/j.erss.2025.104447
Eivind Hjort Matthiasen
Calls to broaden the scope of energy flexibility have highlighted the need to include sociotemporal rhythms, such as working schedules, to gain a deeper understanding of the temporality of flexibility. Responding to this call, this article studied the energy flexibility practices of 37 interviewees from Oslo, Norway, from different social class backgrounds. The study focused on the occupations and working arrangements (such as hybrid work, shiftwork, and normal working days) of the interviewees, and the ways in which working schedules impact energy flexibility. Through thematic analysis, the article examined three themes—energy flexibility practices and working schedules, technology, and future projectivity—emanating from the interviewees' narratives. The article found that working hours affect the timing, duration, recurrence, and sequencing of energy practices such as heating, cooking and laundry. Furthermore, the experiences of temporally allocating energy practices varied across social classes—the working-class found it more challenging to perform energy flexibility practices due to limited access to automated systems and less flexible work routines, which increased the stress experienced when managing energy use.
{"title":"Negotiating time and energy: How work patterns and social class shape energy flexibility in Norway","authors":"Eivind Hjort Matthiasen","doi":"10.1016/j.erss.2025.104447","DOIUrl":"10.1016/j.erss.2025.104447","url":null,"abstract":"<div><div>Calls to broaden the scope of energy flexibility have highlighted the need to include sociotemporal rhythms, such as working schedules, to gain a deeper understanding of the temporality of flexibility. Responding to this call, this article studied the energy flexibility practices of 37 interviewees from Oslo, Norway, from different social class backgrounds. The study focused on the occupations and working arrangements (such as hybrid work, shiftwork, and normal working days) of the interviewees, and the ways in which working schedules impact energy flexibility. Through thematic analysis, the article examined three themes—energy flexibility practices and working schedules, technology, and future projectivity—emanating from the interviewees' narratives. The article found that working hours affect the timing, duration, recurrence, and sequencing of energy practices such as heating, cooking and laundry. Furthermore, the experiences of temporally allocating energy practices varied across social classes—the working-class found it more challenging to perform energy flexibility practices due to limited access to automated systems and less flexible work routines, which increased the stress experienced when managing energy use.</div></div>","PeriodicalId":48384,"journal":{"name":"Energy Research & Social Science","volume":"130 ","pages":"Article 104447"},"PeriodicalIF":7.4,"publicationDate":"2025-11-12","publicationTypes":"Journal Article","fieldsOfStudy":null,"isOpenAccess":false,"openAccessPdf":"","citationCount":null,"resultStr":null,"platform":"Semanticscholar","paperid":"145528319","PeriodicalName":null,"FirstCategoryId":null,"ListUrlMain":null,"RegionNum":2,"RegionCategory":"经济学","ArticlePicture":[],"TitleCN":null,"AbstractTextCN":null,"PMCID":"","EPubDate":null,"PubModel":null,"JCR":null,"JCRName":null,"Score":null,"Total":0}
Pub Date : 2025-11-11DOI: 10.1016/j.erss.2025.104446
Chen Gao
Along with energy security and climate change concerns, the energy transition has become urgent for governments, communities, and individuals. To build a new secure and sustainable energy system, rural areas of the EU introduce local self-sufficient strategies of rural energy communities, which transfer inhabitants from ‘consumers’ to ‘prosumers’. It is a way of producing renewable, flexible, smart energy and decentralizing the supply system. As innovative approaches, these energy transition programs are taken over by collective action initiatives, acting as social entrepreneurship. Local collaborative workspaces (CWSs) promote these entrepreneurial activities as creative centres or open labs when they also aim to generate social impact. This empirical study takes the cases of two energy communities in rural Upper Austria that take advantage of CWSs, to understand the roles of CWSs in connecting the supportive resources from the entrepreneurial ecosystem to energy communities. Through qualitative interviews with energy entrepreneurs and CWS managers on the biography of energy communities, the entrepreneurial process of energy communities and detailed functions of CWSs are revealed through a bottom-up perspective across entrepreneurship stages. The salient agents and entrepreneurial resources in the energy entrepreneurial ecosystem are highlighted in the value creation process, which helps propose targeted policies and strategies.
{"title":"Taking advantage of collaborative workspaces: Energy community entrepreneurship and their ecosystems in Austria","authors":"Chen Gao","doi":"10.1016/j.erss.2025.104446","DOIUrl":"10.1016/j.erss.2025.104446","url":null,"abstract":"<div><div>Along with energy security and climate change concerns, the energy transition has become urgent for governments, communities, and individuals. To build a new secure and sustainable energy system, rural areas of the EU introduce local self-sufficient strategies of rural energy communities, which transfer inhabitants from ‘consumers’ to ‘prosumers’. It is a way of producing renewable, flexible, smart energy and decentralizing the supply system. As innovative approaches, these energy transition programs are taken over by collective action initiatives, acting as social entrepreneurship. Local collaborative workspaces (CWSs) promote these entrepreneurial activities as creative centres or open labs when they also aim to generate social impact. This empirical study takes the cases of two energy communities in rural Upper Austria that take advantage of CWSs, to understand the roles of CWSs in connecting the supportive resources from the entrepreneurial ecosystem to energy communities. Through qualitative interviews with energy entrepreneurs and CWS managers on the biography of energy communities, the entrepreneurial process of energy communities and detailed functions of CWSs are revealed through a bottom-up perspective across entrepreneurship stages. The salient agents and entrepreneurial resources in the energy entrepreneurial ecosystem are highlighted in the value creation process, which helps propose targeted policies and strategies.</div></div>","PeriodicalId":48384,"journal":{"name":"Energy Research & Social Science","volume":"130 ","pages":"Article 104446"},"PeriodicalIF":7.4,"publicationDate":"2025-11-11","publicationTypes":"Journal Article","fieldsOfStudy":null,"isOpenAccess":false,"openAccessPdf":"","citationCount":null,"resultStr":null,"platform":"Semanticscholar","paperid":"145529354","PeriodicalName":null,"FirstCategoryId":null,"ListUrlMain":null,"RegionNum":2,"RegionCategory":"经济学","ArticlePicture":[],"TitleCN":null,"AbstractTextCN":null,"PMCID":"","EPubDate":null,"PubModel":null,"JCR":null,"JCRName":null,"Score":null,"Total":0}
Pub Date : 2025-11-10DOI: 10.1016/j.erss.2025.104434
Sofia Spyridonidou
In this study, a set of original methods is introduced to advance the development of socially acceptable offshore wind projects (OWPs) at both global and national scales. Specifically, two complementary approaches are proposed: (1) a preparatory framework designed to support decision-makers in establishing an effective citizen participation process; and (2) a pioneering participatory planning framework aimed at systematically eliciting and integrating citizen perspectives during the early stages of OWP planning, thereby facilitating the identification of socially acceptable installation areas. To achieve these objectives, a semi-structured questionnaire survey was methodically designed using the LimeSurvey platform in conjunction with a probability sampling strategy. The collected primary data were analyzed through a combination of qualitative and quantitative techniques, including descriptive statistical analysis, thematic analysis, and advanced correlation methods, all conducted within the Statistical Package for the Social Sciences. In parallel, a versatile geoprocessing site-suitability model was developed within a Geographic Information System (GIS), enabling GIS-based assessments at multiple stages of the planning process (exclusion and evaluation phases). The proposed framework was applied in Greece, with the active participation of 1802 citizens, thereby demonstrating its capacity to enhance the legitimacy, inclusiveness, and social acceptability of OWP planning outcomes. Importantly, OWPs' social acceptability is shaped by aesthetic and environmental considerations, while citizens' acceptance levels and residence influence placement decisions. Sustainability criteria reveal high installation potential, positioning the South Aegean and the area east of Crete as optimal marine regions. The findings highlight planning guidelines for socially legitimate global OWP roadmaps and robust social impact assessments.
{"title":"“Act local, Impact global”: Mapping the social acceptance of offshore wind energy in Greece and advancing social engagement planning processes","authors":"Sofia Spyridonidou","doi":"10.1016/j.erss.2025.104434","DOIUrl":"10.1016/j.erss.2025.104434","url":null,"abstract":"<div><div>In this study, a set of original methods is introduced to advance the development of socially acceptable offshore wind projects (OWPs) at both global and national scales. Specifically, two complementary approaches are proposed: (1) a preparatory framework designed to support decision-makers in establishing an effective citizen participation process; and (2) a pioneering participatory planning framework aimed at systematically eliciting and integrating citizen perspectives during the early stages of OWP planning, thereby facilitating the identification of socially acceptable installation areas. To achieve these objectives, a semi-structured questionnaire survey was methodically designed using the LimeSurvey platform in conjunction with a probability sampling strategy. The collected primary data were analyzed through a combination of qualitative and quantitative techniques, including descriptive statistical analysis, thematic analysis, and advanced correlation methods, all conducted within the Statistical Package for the Social Sciences. In parallel, a versatile geoprocessing site-suitability model was developed within a Geographic Information System (GIS), enabling GIS-based assessments at multiple stages of the planning process (exclusion and evaluation phases). The proposed framework was applied in Greece, with the active participation of 1802 citizens, thereby demonstrating its capacity to enhance the legitimacy, inclusiveness, and social acceptability of OWP planning outcomes. Importantly, OWPs' social acceptability is shaped by aesthetic and environmental considerations, while citizens' acceptance levels and residence influence placement decisions. Sustainability criteria reveal high installation potential, positioning the South Aegean and the area east of Crete as optimal marine regions. The findings highlight planning guidelines for socially legitimate global OWP roadmaps and robust social impact assessments.</div></div>","PeriodicalId":48384,"journal":{"name":"Energy Research & Social Science","volume":"130 ","pages":"Article 104434"},"PeriodicalIF":7.4,"publicationDate":"2025-11-10","publicationTypes":"Journal Article","fieldsOfStudy":null,"isOpenAccess":false,"openAccessPdf":"","citationCount":null,"resultStr":null,"platform":"Semanticscholar","paperid":"145529351","PeriodicalName":null,"FirstCategoryId":null,"ListUrlMain":null,"RegionNum":2,"RegionCategory":"经济学","ArticlePicture":[],"TitleCN":null,"AbstractTextCN":null,"PMCID":"","EPubDate":null,"PubModel":null,"JCR":null,"JCRName":null,"Score":null,"Total":0}
Pub Date : 2025-11-10DOI: 10.1016/j.erss.2025.104439
Noel Cass , Ian Philips , Labib Azzouz , Nicholas Marks
Cycling an e-cargo bike offers key advantages of both car and bike use, and its potential to substitute many car trips offers energy demand reduction benefits. Fulfilling this potential depends on its being routinised in households' lives as a mobility practice. This paper applies social practice theory to interview data from 49 household trials of e-cargo bike use in suburbs of three cities in the United Kingdom to explore what domestic e-cargo biking is as a social practice, and whether it can substitute car use. Households likely to use e-cargo biking to replace car use were purposely sampled to receive e-cargo bikes for free trials. The paper frames its analysis within a specific theoretical understanding of ‘mobility practices’ which builds on key texts to identify such practices' complex and unique nature and their potential to substitute car trips. This is based on three methods of attracting (or in practice language, ‘recruiting’) car drivers away from driving: we explore what e-cargo biking has in common with driving; how it can tie together the other activities or social practices of life; and how activities of strong emotional importance can be combined with it. We suggest that domestic e-cargo biking is indeed a distinct social practice with elements shared with both car use and cycling, with particular importance to families with young children. We develop recommendations for policy makers to target such groups with e-cargo bikes ownership and supportive measures to enable multi-modal lifestyles that reduce the need to use or own a car.
{"title":"How do electric cargo bikes fit with real life? A social practice analysis in the United Kingdom","authors":"Noel Cass , Ian Philips , Labib Azzouz , Nicholas Marks","doi":"10.1016/j.erss.2025.104439","DOIUrl":"10.1016/j.erss.2025.104439","url":null,"abstract":"<div><div>Cycling an e-cargo bike offers key advantages of both car and bike use, and its potential to substitute many car trips offers energy demand reduction benefits. Fulfilling this potential depends on its being routinised in households' lives as a mobility practice. This paper applies social practice theory to interview data from 49 household trials of e-cargo bike use in suburbs of three cities in the United Kingdom to explore what domestic e-cargo biking is as a social practice, and whether it can substitute car use. Households likely to use e-cargo biking to replace car use were purposely sampled to receive e-cargo bikes for free trials. The paper frames its analysis within a specific theoretical understanding of ‘<em>mobility</em> practices’ which builds on key texts to identify such practices' complex and unique nature and their potential to substitute car trips. This is based on three methods of attracting (or in practice language, ‘recruiting’) car drivers away from driving: we explore what e-cargo biking has in common with driving; how it can tie together the other activities or social practices of life; and how activities of strong emotional importance can be combined with it. We suggest that domestic e-cargo biking is indeed a distinct social practice with elements shared with both car use and cycling, with particular importance to families with young children. We develop recommendations for policy makers to target such groups with e-cargo bikes ownership and supportive measures to enable multi-modal lifestyles that reduce the need to use or own a car.</div></div>","PeriodicalId":48384,"journal":{"name":"Energy Research & Social Science","volume":"130 ","pages":"Article 104439"},"PeriodicalIF":7.4,"publicationDate":"2025-11-10","publicationTypes":"Journal Article","fieldsOfStudy":null,"isOpenAccess":false,"openAccessPdf":"","citationCount":null,"resultStr":null,"platform":"Semanticscholar","paperid":"145528315","PeriodicalName":null,"FirstCategoryId":null,"ListUrlMain":null,"RegionNum":2,"RegionCategory":"经济学","ArticlePicture":[],"TitleCN":null,"AbstractTextCN":null,"PMCID":"","EPubDate":null,"PubModel":null,"JCR":null,"JCRName":null,"Score":null,"Total":0}
Pub Date : 2025-11-10DOI: 10.1016/j.erss.2025.104424
Pinar Langer
Cities are central to global sustainability goals, yet evidence on urban transitions skews towards Western democracies. This paper addresses that gap by examining how context shapes urban transformative capacity in Baku, Azerbaijan, a city with a deep oil legacy and centralised governance. Methods comprise a qualitative case study built on thirty-five semi-structured interviews conducted in 2022 with government, civil society, business, academic, and student actors, alongside documentary analysis. The study traces how forms of agency, core development processes, and cross-scale relationships develop together in the urban energy domain. Findings show that long-standing dependence on oil anchors governance norms and public imaginaries, which limits empowered communities and genuinely disruptive experimentation. International drivers, including the Paris climate commitment and the 2015 oil price shock, opened windows for reform and led to new agencies, laws, and pilot projects. Change, however, remains largely top-down. Participation is curated by state institutions, cross-agency coordination is weak, and reflexivity and social learning are limited. Intermediary organisations and international collaborations catalyse activity, but their efforts rarely become routine practice or broaden community autonomy. Empirically, the paper offers among the first systematic assessments of urban transformative capacity in a post-Soviet city. Conceptually, it shows how political regimes and historical legacies shape the link between experimentation, learning, and policy embedding. Practically, it identifies priorities for durable and inclusive transitions: widen civic space and support communities of practice, institutionalise cross-scale coordination and evaluation, align external pressures with domestic enablers, and invest in participatory foresight and locally rooted experimentation. These steps can turn symbolic progress into structural change in Baku and in comparable resource-dependent cities.
{"title":"Navigating urban sustainability: The role of contextual factors and transformative capacities","authors":"Pinar Langer","doi":"10.1016/j.erss.2025.104424","DOIUrl":"10.1016/j.erss.2025.104424","url":null,"abstract":"<div><div>Cities are central to global sustainability goals, yet evidence on urban transitions skews towards Western democracies. This paper addresses that gap by examining how context shapes urban transformative capacity in Baku, Azerbaijan, a city with a deep oil legacy and centralised governance. Methods comprise a qualitative case study built on thirty-five semi-structured interviews conducted in 2022 with government, civil society, business, academic, and student actors, alongside documentary analysis. The study traces how forms of agency, core development processes, and cross-scale relationships develop together in the urban energy domain. Findings show that long-standing dependence on oil anchors governance norms and public imaginaries, which limits empowered communities and genuinely disruptive experimentation. International drivers, including the Paris climate commitment and the 2015 oil price shock, opened windows for reform and led to new agencies, laws, and pilot projects. Change, however, remains largely top-down. Participation is curated by state institutions, cross-agency coordination is weak, and reflexivity and social learning are limited. Intermediary organisations and international collaborations catalyse activity, but their efforts rarely become routine practice or broaden community autonomy. Empirically, the paper offers among the first systematic assessments of urban transformative capacity in a post-Soviet city. Conceptually, it shows how political regimes and historical legacies shape the link between experimentation, learning, and policy embedding. Practically, it identifies priorities for durable and inclusive transitions: widen civic space and support communities of practice, institutionalise cross-scale coordination and evaluation, align external pressures with domestic enablers, and invest in participatory foresight and locally rooted experimentation. These steps can turn symbolic progress into structural change in Baku and in comparable resource-dependent cities.</div></div>","PeriodicalId":48384,"journal":{"name":"Energy Research & Social Science","volume":"130 ","pages":"Article 104424"},"PeriodicalIF":7.4,"publicationDate":"2025-11-10","publicationTypes":"Journal Article","fieldsOfStudy":null,"isOpenAccess":false,"openAccessPdf":"","citationCount":null,"resultStr":null,"platform":"Semanticscholar","paperid":"145529353","PeriodicalName":null,"FirstCategoryId":null,"ListUrlMain":null,"RegionNum":2,"RegionCategory":"经济学","ArticlePicture":[],"TitleCN":null,"AbstractTextCN":null,"PMCID":"","EPubDate":null,"PubModel":null,"JCR":null,"JCRName":null,"Score":null,"Total":0}
Pub Date : 2025-11-08DOI: 10.1016/j.erss.2025.104423
Caterina Pacini , Dierk Bauknecht
In this paper, we explore and draw attention to overcoming the challenge of emergent lock-in through policy strategies, among the other challenges associated with the acceleration of transitions. To navigate the ongoing sustainability transition, policy-making must reflect on the unintended developments and side-effects emerging in transitions, notably emergent lock-ins. We argue that this type of lock-in can drive developments that are unsustainable or not sufficiently sustainable, thereby slowing down transition processes, and second, undermining the achievement of sustainability targets, namely net-zero. Based on a narrative literature review, we discuss how emergent lock-ins have not played a central role in the literature. Furthermore, we present six strategies that deliver flexibility, ultimately reducing the risk of emergent lock-ins. Reflecting on how to anticipate and prevent these lock-ins represents a necessary step towards being able to adjust to future developments and to the uncertainty affecting transitions. In conclusion, this contribution to research is a first attempt to outline emergent lock-ins as a major challenge for the acceleration of transitions and to shed some light on the strategies to handle this challenge.
{"title":"Steering sustainability transitions with reflexivity: policy strategies for handling emergent lock-ins and path dependencies","authors":"Caterina Pacini , Dierk Bauknecht","doi":"10.1016/j.erss.2025.104423","DOIUrl":"10.1016/j.erss.2025.104423","url":null,"abstract":"<div><div>In this paper, we explore and draw attention to overcoming the challenge of <em>emergent lock-in</em> through policy strategies, among the other challenges associated with the acceleration of transitions. To navigate the ongoing sustainability transition, policy-making must reflect on the unintended developments and side-effects emerging in transitions, notably emergent lock-ins. We argue that this type of lock-in can drive developments that are unsustainable or not sufficiently sustainable, thereby slowing down transition processes, and second, undermining the achievement of sustainability targets, namely net-zero. Based on a narrative literature review, we discuss how emergent lock-ins have not played a central role in the literature. Furthermore, we present six strategies that deliver flexibility, ultimately reducing the risk of emergent lock-ins. Reflecting on how to anticipate and prevent these lock-ins represents a necessary step towards being able to adjust to future developments and to the uncertainty affecting transitions. In conclusion, this contribution to research is a first attempt to outline emergent lock-ins as a major challenge for the acceleration of transitions and to shed some light on the strategies to handle this challenge.</div></div>","PeriodicalId":48384,"journal":{"name":"Energy Research & Social Science","volume":"130 ","pages":"Article 104423"},"PeriodicalIF":7.4,"publicationDate":"2025-11-08","publicationTypes":"Journal Article","fieldsOfStudy":null,"isOpenAccess":false,"openAccessPdf":"","citationCount":null,"resultStr":null,"platform":"Semanticscholar","paperid":"145467604","PeriodicalName":null,"FirstCategoryId":null,"ListUrlMain":null,"RegionNum":2,"RegionCategory":"经济学","ArticlePicture":[],"TitleCN":null,"AbstractTextCN":null,"PMCID":"","EPubDate":null,"PubModel":null,"JCR":null,"JCRName":null,"Score":null,"Total":0}
Pub Date : 2025-11-08DOI: 10.1016/j.erss.2025.104414
Nagwan AlQershi , Ramayah Thurasamy
As the global energy system transitions from fossil fuels to renewable sources, new geopolitical tensions are emerging-this time centered on solar power. Historically, access to energy has shaped international relations, particularly during the oil-dominated 20th century. Today, solar-rich regions in the Middle East, North Africa, and Asia are becoming strategic focal points in this energy transition. This paper examines the potential for future conflict over solar resources, including competition for high-irradiance territories, access to critical minerals such as lithium and rare earth elements, and control of advanced solar infrastructure.
The analysis also highlights the geopolitical risks associated with space-based solar power (SBSP), including the possibility of orbital militarization. It explores the vulnerability of solar infrastructure to cyberattacks, as digitalization and smart-grid integration create new pathways for energy sabotage. These emerging risks mirror the dynamics of the fossil fuel era-resource dependency, unequal access, and strategic rivalry-while being further amplified by climate change-induced instability.
Drawing on comparative case studies and strategic risk assessment, the study underscores the urgent need for ethical governance, inclusive technology sharing, and multilateral cooperation to prevent solar energy from becoming a new source of conflict. It concludes that as solar power rises in strategic importance, achieving a just and peaceful energy transition will be one of the defining challenges of 21st-century geopolitics.
{"title":"Is the sun the new battleground? Investigating the future of energy conflicts over solar power","authors":"Nagwan AlQershi , Ramayah Thurasamy","doi":"10.1016/j.erss.2025.104414","DOIUrl":"10.1016/j.erss.2025.104414","url":null,"abstract":"<div><div>As the global energy system transitions from fossil fuels to renewable sources, new geopolitical tensions are emerging-this time centered on solar power. Historically, access to energy has shaped international relations, particularly during the oil-dominated 20th century. Today, solar-rich regions in the Middle East, North Africa, and Asia are becoming strategic focal points in this energy transition. This paper examines the potential for future conflict over solar resources, including competition for high-irradiance territories, access to critical minerals such as lithium and rare earth elements, and control of advanced solar infrastructure.</div><div>The analysis also highlights the geopolitical risks associated with space-based solar power (SBSP), including the possibility of orbital militarization. It explores the vulnerability of solar infrastructure to cyberattacks, as digitalization and smart-grid integration create new pathways for energy sabotage. These emerging risks mirror the dynamics of the fossil fuel era-resource dependency, unequal access, and strategic rivalry-while being further amplified by climate change-induced instability.</div><div>Drawing on comparative case studies and strategic risk assessment, the study underscores the urgent need for ethical governance, inclusive technology sharing, and multilateral cooperation to prevent solar energy from becoming a new source of conflict. It concludes that as solar power rises in strategic importance, achieving a just and peaceful energy transition will be one of the defining challenges of 21st-century geopolitics.</div></div>","PeriodicalId":48384,"journal":{"name":"Energy Research & Social Science","volume":"130 ","pages":"Article 104414"},"PeriodicalIF":7.4,"publicationDate":"2025-11-08","publicationTypes":"Journal Article","fieldsOfStudy":null,"isOpenAccess":false,"openAccessPdf":"","citationCount":null,"resultStr":null,"platform":"Semanticscholar","paperid":"145467727","PeriodicalName":null,"FirstCategoryId":null,"ListUrlMain":null,"RegionNum":2,"RegionCategory":"经济学","ArticlePicture":[],"TitleCN":null,"AbstractTextCN":null,"PMCID":"","EPubDate":null,"PubModel":null,"JCR":null,"JCRName":null,"Score":null,"Total":0}
Pub Date : 2025-11-07DOI: 10.1016/j.erss.2025.104438
Elisa Kochskämper , Jochen Monstadt
City governments' transformative capacity in climate mitigation has been attracting increasing attention in academia and practice, but until recently the decarbonization of the heating sector has tended to be neglected in debates on urban energy and climate policy. Moreover, the literature on the transformation of heating systems has primarily focused on techno-economic dimensions, largely overlooking spatial complexities and urban government capacities. Aiming to fill this gap, this study maps the emerging governance challenges faced by seven European cities that are pioneering heating transformation in their respective countries. Based on document analyses, expert interviews (N = 55), participant observation, and written feedback from key representatives of municipal governments, we identify significant governance challenges and explore how cities navigate them, applying a conceptual framework of urban government capacities. The analysis emphasizes the complexity of urban heating transformations, reflecting critically on broader debates on city governments' capacity to transform infrastructure. Results reveal that the city governments are navigating short- and long-term visions, responding to urgency and regulatory uncertainties by opting for incremental planning. Their urban transformation pathways are shaped by the interplay of existing infrastructures, tight timeframes, and regulatory gaps, often resulting in reliance on incremental experimentation, missed energy-saving opportunities, and difficulty in developing viable business cases for net-zero district heating systems.
{"title":"Decarbonizing urban heating systems in Europe: Navigating governance challenges in seven pioneering cities","authors":"Elisa Kochskämper , Jochen Monstadt","doi":"10.1016/j.erss.2025.104438","DOIUrl":"10.1016/j.erss.2025.104438","url":null,"abstract":"<div><div>City governments' transformative capacity in climate mitigation has been attracting increasing attention in academia and practice, but until recently the decarbonization of the heating sector has tended to be neglected in debates on urban energy and climate policy. Moreover, the literature on the transformation of heating systems has primarily focused on techno-economic dimensions, largely overlooking spatial complexities and urban government capacities. Aiming to fill this gap, this study maps the emerging governance challenges faced by seven European cities that are pioneering heating transformation in their respective countries. Based on document analyses, expert interviews (<em>N</em> = 55), participant observation, and written feedback from key representatives of municipal governments, we identify significant governance challenges and explore how cities navigate them, applying a conceptual framework of urban government capacities. The analysis emphasizes the complexity of urban heating transformations, reflecting critically on broader debates on city governments' capacity to transform infrastructure. Results reveal that the city governments are navigating short- and long-term visions, responding to urgency and regulatory uncertainties by opting for incremental planning. Their urban transformation pathways are shaped by the interplay of existing infrastructures, tight timeframes, and regulatory gaps, often resulting in reliance on incremental experimentation, missed energy-saving opportunities, and difficulty in developing viable business cases for net-zero district heating systems.</div></div>","PeriodicalId":48384,"journal":{"name":"Energy Research & Social Science","volume":"130 ","pages":"Article 104438"},"PeriodicalIF":7.4,"publicationDate":"2025-11-07","publicationTypes":"Journal Article","fieldsOfStudy":null,"isOpenAccess":false,"openAccessPdf":"","citationCount":null,"resultStr":null,"platform":"Semanticscholar","paperid":"145467602","PeriodicalName":null,"FirstCategoryId":null,"ListUrlMain":null,"RegionNum":2,"RegionCategory":"经济学","ArticlePicture":[],"TitleCN":null,"AbstractTextCN":null,"PMCID":"","EPubDate":null,"PubModel":null,"JCR":null,"JCRName":null,"Score":null,"Total":0}
Pub Date : 2025-11-06DOI: 10.1016/j.erss.2025.104437
Matilda Kreider, Chloe Brush, Shweta Iyer, Julia Talamo, Alexandra Casey, Chloe Constant, Suzanne MacDonald
Despite decades of research on factors shaping local responses to wind development, there is relatively little known about benefit mechanisms (e.g., agreements, funds, donations) used by developers in the U.S. land-based wind sector. To address this gap, we collected benefit mechanism data across all current utility-scale land-based wind projects installed between 1982 and 2024 (n = 1047), finding that just under one-third of projects had a benefit mechanism attached to them. We find the use of benefit mechanisms has become more common over time, is associated with larger projects, and varies by region. In terms of host community characteristics, the use of benefit mechanisms is associated with characteristics like higher education level, higher percent white, higher percent Republican, higher decision-making capacity, lower unemployment rate, and higher poverty rate. Building on a theoretical framework of purposes, we discuss what these findings could suggest about the motivations driving developers' use of these mechanisms, such as increasing local acceptance of a wind project or supporting distributive fairness. This first-of-its-kind study builds a comprehensive understanding of how benefit mechanisms have been used in the U.S. wind industry throughout its history, which can inform future approaches to benefit-sharing across sectors.
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