Energy Research & Social Science最新文献

{"title":"Strategic analysis of metal dependency in the transition to low-carbon energy: A critical examination of nickel, cobalt, lithium, graphite, and copper scarcity using IEA future scenarios","authors":"Sa'd Shannak,&nbsp;Logan Cochrane,&nbsp;Daria Bobarykina","doi":"10.1016/j.erss.2024.103773","DOIUrl":"10.1016/j.erss.2024.103773","url":null,"abstract":"<div><div>The 2023 edition of the IPCC document provides a thorough examination of the complex relationship between global energy infrastructure and essential mineral resources. It is crucial to adopt a comprehensive and proactive stance to understand and address the growing environmental challenges associated with energy production and consumption. This addresses the supply and demand scenarios of critical minerals, specifically nickel, cobalt, lithium, graphite, and copper, and examines their roles across diverse applications beyond clean energy technologies. Applying scenarios from the International Energy Agency (IEA) established in 2023, we conducted a comparative analysis to determine whether future use could impact their availability, ensuring that there is an adequate supply for all applications, not just clean technologies, in the years to come. We applied a holistic strategy that integrates technological innovation with policy ingenuity to guide society towards a sustainable reduction in its carbon footprint. Our objectives include: (1) to evaluate the potential effects of the widespread adoption of various technologies on future demand for these critical minerals, utilizing the IEA's 2023 scenarios; (2) Investigating Scarcity Risks and Demand Growth Dynamics; and (3) pinpointing specific minerals that require immediate and strategic attention to prevent potential shortages. Our findings show that demand scenarios differ by minerals and metals, identifying each of the risks and policies to address them. By contributing to the IPCC's ongoing efforts to combat climate change, this study underscores the vital importance of making informed decisions, fostering technological innovations, and implementing robust policies to successfully navigate the transition to a sustainable, low-carbon society.</div></div>","PeriodicalId":48384,"journal":{"name":"Energy Research & Social Science","volume":"118 ","pages":"Article 103773"},"PeriodicalIF":6.9,"publicationDate":"2024-09-26","publicationTypes":"Journal Article","fieldsOfStudy":null,"isOpenAccess":false,"openAccessPdf":"","citationCount":null,"resultStr":null,"platform":"Semanticscholar","paperid":"142322598","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}

{"title":"Socio-technical challenges and prospects of residential solar PV diffusion in Ghana: Insights from regime and intermediary actors","authors":"Mark M. Akrofi ,&nbsp;Mahesti Okitasari ,&nbsp;Benjamin C. McLellan","doi":"10.1016/j.erss.2024.103772","DOIUrl":"10.1016/j.erss.2024.103772","url":null,"abstract":"<div><div>This study seeks to broaden the understanding of factors influencing the diffusion of residential solar PV in Ghana by examining the socio-technical challenges confronting this sector from the perspective of regime and intermediary actors. Semi-structured interviews were conducted with focal persons at the Energy Commission, Land Use and Spatial Planning Authority (LUSPA), 18 licensed solar home system (SHS) companies, and 15 real estate developers in Accra. The study uncovers compliance and mediation-based interactions between the intermediary and regime actors. Significant regime support for residential solar PV exists through incentives such as capital subsidies, net-metering schemes, and partnerships with financial institutions to provide soft loans for residential solar investments. Nonetheless, policy-regulation incoherence, a sectoral dichotomy between energy and urban planning, fragmented institutional efforts, inadequate access to long-term finance, and limited awareness/technical know-how of SHS emerged as the key challenges to residential solar PV diffusion in Ghana. Resolving these challenges requires synergies between the regime and intermediary actors to enact conducive regulatory frameworks and coordinate the activities of all actors to facilitate residential solar PV uptake in Ghana. The study also posits that the transition from a fossil-dependent regime to a low-carbon one not only requires a re-direction of financial incentives to technological niches but also to user-based intermediaries.</div></div>","PeriodicalId":48384,"journal":{"name":"Energy Research & Social Science","volume":"118 ","pages":"Article 103772"},"PeriodicalIF":6.9,"publicationDate":"2024-09-26","publicationTypes":"Journal Article","fieldsOfStudy":null,"isOpenAccess":false,"openAccessPdf":"","citationCount":null,"resultStr":null,"platform":"Semanticscholar","paperid":"142322694","PeriodicalName":null,"FirstCategoryId":null,"ListUrlMain":null,"RegionNum":2,"RegionCategory":"经济学","ArticlePicture":[],"TitleCN":null,"AbstractTextCN":null,"PMCID":"OA","EPubDate":null,"PubModel":null,"JCR":null,"JCRName":null,"Score":null,"Total":0}

{"title":"“We rather not connect trade to politics, let alone geopolitics” – The changing role of Russia as a landscape pressure for zero-carbon energy transitions","authors":"Paula Kivimaa ,&nbsp;Marja Helena Sivonen","doi":"10.1016/j.erss.2024.103775","DOIUrl":"10.1016/j.erss.2024.103775","url":null,"abstract":"<div><div>This article aims for conceptual and empirical insights by focusing on a missing aspect in sustainability transitions research: the geopolitical setting as a landscape pressure for energy transitions. It analyses how energy super-power Russia is depicted before and after 2022 as a factor influencing the energy transition of small northern European countries: Estonia, Finland and Norway. The article also provides empirical findings on the impacts of the ongoing war on European energy transitions. We use the ‘landscape’ concept of transition studies to analyse actor perceptions and expectations of this geopolitical landscape shift, via interviewing experts at the energy-security nexus. Landscape is the selection environment for niches and socio-technical regimes, influencing their operational conditions. It contains rapid shocks, e.g., wars and pandemics, and slower geopolitical developments, the effects of which are dependent on the interpretation of actors. The results show that, before 2022, despite all three countries sharing a border with Russia, it was perceived differently as a landscape pressure: a direct security threat in Estonia; both a rather implicit indirect threat and a favoured economic partner in Finland, and; a distanced landscape factor in Norway. Perceptions about Russia became more uniform towards a geopolitical threat after the 2022 landscape shock, resulting also in extraordinary policy measures. The differences between countries show that landscape pressures are partly socially constructed, and, hence, subject to active influence by some actors. For instance, some landscape pressures may be affected by efforts of (de)politicisation or (de)securitisation to reduce or increase the public's focus on them.</div></div>","PeriodicalId":48384,"journal":{"name":"Energy Research & Social Science","volume":"118 ","pages":"Article 103775"},"PeriodicalIF":6.9,"publicationDate":"2024-09-26","publicationTypes":"Journal Article","fieldsOfStudy":null,"isOpenAccess":false,"openAccessPdf":"","citationCount":null,"resultStr":null,"platform":"Semanticscholar","paperid":"142322597","PeriodicalName":null,"FirstCategoryId":null,"ListUrlMain":null,"RegionNum":2,"RegionCategory":"经济学","ArticlePicture":[],"TitleCN":null,"AbstractTextCN":null,"PMCID":"OA","EPubDate":null,"PubModel":null,"JCR":null,"JCRName":null,"Score":null,"Total":0}

{"title":"Assessing the impact of off-grid solar electricity in protected areas: A capabilities analysis of the Kaimur Wildlife Sanctuary, India","authors":"Vikesh Sharma,&nbsp;Madhusmita Dash","doi":"10.1016/j.erss.2024.103770","DOIUrl":"10.1016/j.erss.2024.103770","url":null,"abstract":"<div><div>This paper argues that simply increasing electricity connections may not result in the true realization of universal access to clean energy. It endorses the idea that energy services should be assessed from a capability perspective. Therefore, the study aims to assess the role of solar electricity in improving people's well-being on socioeconomic and environmental fronts. The data has been collected from 350 randomly selected households from 20 villages using a household schedule, and a qualitative approach has been used for analysis. Focused group discussions and key informant interviews have been used for in-depth understanding. The findings suggest that it has the potential to improve people's well-being by offering quality lighting, a healthy environment, and enhancing safety. Further, every household has been saving an average of 84 kg of CO₂, 2 kg of black carbon, and 2 kg of PM_2.5 emissions per year. Furthermore, they save ₹2200 on their lighting energy expenses and ₹600 on the social cost of CO₂ emissions yearly. However, this does not create opportunities for new economic activities. Frequent failures of solar plants and a lack of maintenance services limit plants' lifespans and widen people's dissatisfaction. It can be a long-term solution for protected areas, but only if it adds value to their lives by offering livelihood opportunities and satisfying their aspirational demand. Reducing the electrician's workload can improve maintenance services. Improvements in plant lightning protection systems can help to avoid frequent breakdowns. Lastly, improving the complaint system and awareness regarding using appropriate electric appliances can be fruitful.</div></div>","PeriodicalId":48384,"journal":{"name":"Energy Research & Social Science","volume":"118 ","pages":"Article 103770"},"PeriodicalIF":6.9,"publicationDate":"2024-09-25","publicationTypes":"Journal Article","fieldsOfStudy":null,"isOpenAccess":false,"openAccessPdf":"","citationCount":null,"resultStr":null,"platform":"Semanticscholar","paperid":"142320354","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}

{"title":"Energy democracy: Reclaiming a unique agenda in energy transitions research","authors":"Susan Morrissey Wyse ,&nbsp;Runa R. Das","doi":"10.1016/j.erss.2024.103774","DOIUrl":"10.1016/j.erss.2024.103774","url":null,"abstract":"<div><div>The intersection of energy transitions and equity is a rapidly expanding area of research and concern. Within this literature, <em>energy democracy</em> and <em>energy justice</em> have arisen as two equity-related concepts sharing both overlap and distinctions, at times leading to conceptual confusion and diverging recommendations on how to address their overlap. Given the importance that research adequately wrestles with the intersection of energy transitions and equity, it is critical that scholars do not inadvertently obscure the complexities inherent in this field of research. With this in mind, our perspective paper illustrates the uniqueness of these concepts, with particular focus on energy democracy.</div><div>While energy justice has arisen as a valuable academic framework for assessing critical energy issues, we differentiate energy democracy as both a critique of dominant approaches to energy transitions and the offering of an alternative vision involving the reconfiguration of social relations in energy systems. We argue that without understanding the broader struggles in which energy democracy is embedded, it may otherwise be difficult to understand why its distinctiveness matters. Our paper therefore situates energy democracy within broader struggles to prefigure a democratic economy. Further, we argue that critical engagement with these broader social movements and their associated literatures may position energy researchers to better wrestle with challenges facing energy democracy and energy transitions, including systemic power imbalances, Western biases in equity-related frameworks, and the structural barriers inherent in existing economic systems.</div></div>","PeriodicalId":48384,"journal":{"name":"Energy Research & Social Science","volume":"118 ","pages":"Article 103774"},"PeriodicalIF":6.9,"publicationDate":"2024-09-24","publicationTypes":"Journal Article","fieldsOfStudy":null,"isOpenAccess":false,"openAccessPdf":"","citationCount":null,"resultStr":null,"platform":"Semanticscholar","paperid":"142314692","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}

{"title":"Spatial distributive justice has many faces: The case of siting renewable energy infrastructures","authors":"Paul Lehmann ,&nbsp;Erik Gawel ,&nbsp;Jan-Niklas Meier ,&nbsp;Milan Jakob Reda ,&nbsp;Felix Reutter ,&nbsp;Stephan Sommer","doi":"10.1016/j.erss.2024.103769","DOIUrl":"10.1016/j.erss.2024.103769","url":null,"abstract":"<div><div>Infrastructures for using renewable energy sources (RES) produce local benefits and burdens for communities in their vicinity. The spatial distribution of these local benefits and burdens is typically heterogeneous, which frequently raises concerns of spatial distributive justice. In this paper, we first develop an analytical framework to synthesize the literature in this field. Our framework highlights that approaches to spatial distributive justice have to answer three fundamental questions: Who are the recipients of spatial distributive justice? Which local benefits and burdens are to be distributed in space? Which principle of spatial distributive justice is applied? We observe that existing studies use very different specifications of spatial distributive justice, and usually only one specification at a time. We complement our analysis by an exemplary numerical illustration using data for current RES deployment in Germany. Varying our specifications regarding recipients (states vs. counties vs. individuals), RES infrastructure (onshore wind power vs. utility-scale solar photovoltaics) and the principle of distributive justice (equality principle vs. ability principle vs. benefit principle) leads to a relatively wide range of Gini coefficients (an established measure of spatial disparity) from 0.37 to 0.84. This illustrates that different specifications of spatial distributive justice may lead to deviating, even contradictory, assessments of the existing spatial distribution of RES infrastructures. Our analysis suggests that assessments should apply a transparent and comprehensive approach to spatial distributive justice, including all relevant RES infrastructures, the full set of local benefits and burdens, and variations in the assumed recipients and principles of spatial distributive justice.</div></div>","PeriodicalId":48384,"journal":{"name":"Energy Research & Social Science","volume":"118 ","pages":"Article 103769"},"PeriodicalIF":6.9,"publicationDate":"2024-09-24","publicationTypes":"Journal Article","fieldsOfStudy":null,"isOpenAccess":false,"openAccessPdf":"https://www.sciencedirect.com/science/article/pii/S2214629624003608/pdfft?md5=2359db28354d1c804ef70a0fe91182e7&pid=1-s2.0-S2214629624003608-main.pdf","citationCount":null,"resultStr":null,"platform":"Semanticscholar","paperid":"142314691","PeriodicalName":null,"FirstCategoryId":null,"ListUrlMain":null,"RegionNum":2,"RegionCategory":"经济学","ArticlePicture":[],"TitleCN":null,"AbstractTextCN":null,"PMCID":"OA","EPubDate":null,"PubModel":null,"JCR":null,"JCRName":null,"Score":null,"Total":0}

{"title":"Lifecycle social impacts of lithium-ion batteries: Consequences and future research agenda for a safe and just transition","authors":"Ana Mariele Domingues ,&nbsp;Ricardo Gabbay de Souza ,&nbsp;João Victor Rojas Luiz","doi":"10.1016/j.erss.2024.103756","DOIUrl":"10.1016/j.erss.2024.103756","url":null,"abstract":"<div><div>Lithium-ion batteries (LIBs) are essential in the low-carbon energy transition. However, the social consequences of LIBs throughout the entire lifecycle have been insufficiently explored in the literature. To address this gap, this study conducted a comprehensive review of peer-reviewed literature, grey literature, and conflicts in the Global Atlas of Environmental Justice associated with LIBs lifecycle. The UNEP Social Lifecycle Assessment framework was utilised for categorisation of stakeholders and social impacts categories. The socio-ecological dynamics and consequences of the global production of LIBs were analysed from the perspective of the Safe and Just operating spaces of the Doughnut Economics (DE). The main results indicate that Worker, Local community, and Society are the most investigated stakeholders, while Consumers, Value chain actors and Children are overlooked. Social impact subcategories related to Safe and healthy living conditions and Access to material resources receive more attention due to social concerns about environmental and social degradation associated with raw material extraction in the LIBs lifecycle. The analysis from DE framework reveals that the increased business as usual production of LIBs can hinder the achievement of a safe and just transition due to undesired socio-ecological consequences, such as increased CO₂ emissions, air pollution, land degradation, biodiversity loss, and water pollution that leading to increase poverty, inequality, discrimination (gender and race), health damage, corruption, and conflicts. More research is needed to understand and simulate social consequences of LIBs lifecycle. To this end, a holistic future research agenda is provided.</div></div>","PeriodicalId":48384,"journal":{"name":"Energy Research & Social Science","volume":"118 ","pages":"Article 103756"},"PeriodicalIF":6.9,"publicationDate":"2024-09-23","publicationTypes":"Journal Article","fieldsOfStudy":null,"isOpenAccess":false,"openAccessPdf":"","citationCount":null,"resultStr":null,"platform":"Semanticscholar","paperid":"142311255","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}

{"title":"Flexibility justice: Exploring the relationship between electrical vehicle charging behaviors, demand flexibility and psychological factors","authors":"Wei-An Chen ,&nbsp;Chien-Fei Chen ,&nbsp;Stephanie Tomasik ,&nbsp;Evangelos Pournaras ,&nbsp;Mingzhe Liu","doi":"10.1016/j.erss.2024.103753","DOIUrl":"10.1016/j.erss.2024.103753","url":null,"abstract":"<div><div>The adoption of electric vehicles (EVs) is transforming the landscape of energy consumption. While the technical and economic dimensions of EV adoption are increasingly well understood, the aspect of justice in demand flexibility remains underexplored. This study examines the complex relationship between flexibility in EV charging behaviors and the influence of socio-psychological and justice factors. We explore a range of demographic and social-psychological variables including charging anxiety, environmental concerns, perceived cost-saving perception, perceived privacy, and trust in utility providers. Our results reveal that these variables positively influence the changes in charging habits, including time-shifting and load-reduction. This study also uncovers disparities in charging behavior adjustments across various demographics groups. For instance, White respondents are more likely to charge their EVs during off-peak hours than their non-White counterparts and homeowners show a greater intention to reduce EV charging load during peak hours compared to renters. Additionally, high-income individuals exhibit a stronger willingness to shift charging times to off-peak, with White respondents within the high-income group being the most likely to reduce the amount of charging load during peak hours. Conversely, low-income White respondents are less inclined to make such adjustments. These disparities are likely tied to socioeconomic status, as more vulnerable groups often face greater constraints in adjusting their schedules. Therefore, it is imperative that policies prioritize flexibility justice by addressing the specific needs and behaviors of vulnerable groups, aiming to mitigate the additional burdens resulting from their limited flexibility.</div></div>","PeriodicalId":48384,"journal":{"name":"Energy Research & Social Science","volume":"118 ","pages":"Article 103753"},"PeriodicalIF":6.9,"publicationDate":"2024-09-23","publicationTypes":"Journal Article","fieldsOfStudy":null,"isOpenAccess":false,"openAccessPdf":"","citationCount":null,"resultStr":null,"platform":"Semanticscholar","paperid":"142311256","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}

{"title":"Value-sensitive design under ground? Exploring the community-based monitoring of a geothermal project in the Netherlands","authors":"Michael Duijn ,&nbsp;Jitske van Popering-Verkerk ,&nbsp;Karlien Sambell ,&nbsp;Hanneke Puts","doi":"10.1016/j.erss.2024.103768","DOIUrl":"10.1016/j.erss.2024.103768","url":null,"abstract":"<div><div>The transition towards a carbon-free energy system necessitates societal changes, next to technological and economic transformations. For geo-energy projects, these societal changes relate to difficulties in achieving local support for subsurface initiatives. Societal acceptance of geo-energy projects entails more than a one-way perspective in which project initiators and experts try to convince society. To increase societal acceptance, an approach that broadly includes public values is imperative to locally embed geo-energy technologies. Value sensitive design of geo-energy systems requires deliberative processes of actor involvement in defining public values. One of the methods, known for its deliberative quality, is community-based monitoring (CBM), often implemented to assess long-term impacts of new technologies on its (social) environment. Research on value-sensitive design of CBM is lacking. This paper explores opportunities for value-sensitive CBM for geo-energy projects by examining 1) how public values could become part of CBM, and 2) how value-sensitive design of CBM could contribute to the project development strategy. An in-depth case study of a geothermal energy project in the Netherlands was conducted. This project has been developed as ‘black box’, similarly as most geo-energy projects in the Netherlands, causing anxiety and suspicion at local communities and stakeholders that are neither directly involved, nor evidently benefit from it. A practical mitigation of both inadequacies is to include local communities, stakeholders and local government, in monitoring the project's impacts. The case study shows that CMB 1) might address the imbalance in the distributive justice by including costs and benefits for local actors, and 2) might mitigate lacking procedural justice by organizing the structured and structural participation of local actors in setting up the monitoring system and in collecting and interpretating data.</div><div>Collaborative monitoring broad arrays of values, as an integrated part of the project development strategy, can address the needs and expectations of local communities and stakeholders, creating better preconditions for their societal acceptance. An adjacent benefit might be that by informing local communities and stakeholders, local governments and legislators can be put at ease, preventing current negative sentiments around geo-energy projects with ‘contested’ technologies from occurring, that often lead to the termination of these projects without well-informed dialogue between actors involved.</div></div>","PeriodicalId":48384,"journal":{"name":"Energy Research & Social Science","volume":"118 ","pages":"Article 103768"},"PeriodicalIF":6.9,"publicationDate":"2024-09-23","publicationTypes":"Journal Article","fieldsOfStudy":null,"isOpenAccess":false,"openAccessPdf":"https://www.sciencedirect.com/science/article/pii/S2214629624003591/pdfft?md5=a5f3b01c78d8aa6aa2d946baf0f15419&pid=1-s2.0-S2214629624003591-main.pdf","citationCount":null,"resultStr":null,"platform":"Semanticscholar","paperid":"142311268","PeriodicalName":null,"FirstCategoryId":null,"ListUrlMain":null,"RegionNum":2,"RegionCategory":"经济学","ArticlePicture":[],"TitleCN":null,"AbstractTextCN":null,"PMCID":"OA","EPubDate":null,"PubModel":null,"JCR":null,"JCRName":null,"Score":null,"Total":0}

{"title":"Risk preferences, bill increases and the future reliability of electricity networks in Australia","authors":"Mark Tocock ,&nbsp;Darla Hatton MacDonald ,&nbsp;John M. Rose","doi":"10.1016/j.erss.2024.103763","DOIUrl":"10.1016/j.erss.2024.103763","url":null,"abstract":"<div><div>With the rapid uptake in renewable energy there are emerging risks for countries that rapidly displace baseload generation with intermittent sources. Whilst these risks can be mitigated with storage technologies, the cost to do so, is ultimately passed onto households in the form of higher electricity bills. We use a discrete choice experiment to explore some of the potential trade-offs households might be willing to consider in order to experience lower bill increases including delaying electricity infrastructure investments as well as demand-side management policies. Respondents were asked to evaluate alternative electricity contracts with lower cost increases, delayed renewable and battery storage investments and the potential imposition of consumption limits. We also explore how household risk attitudes explain differences in compensation required within a mixed logit model. Our results suggest that households which are highly risk-averse may require more compensation.</div></div>","PeriodicalId":48384,"journal":{"name":"Energy Research & Social Science","volume":"118 ","pages":"Article 103763"},"PeriodicalIF":6.9,"publicationDate":"2024-09-21","publicationTypes":"Journal Article","fieldsOfStudy":null,"isOpenAccess":false,"openAccessPdf":"https://www.sciencedirect.com/science/article/pii/S2214629624003542/pdfft?md5=1e38e01acabc9f5bb63c0dd55d79e78a&pid=1-s2.0-S2214629624003542-main.pdf","citationCount":null,"resultStr":null,"platform":"Semanticscholar","paperid":"142311350","PeriodicalName":null,"FirstCategoryId":null,"ListUrlMain":null,"RegionNum":2,"RegionCategory":"经济学","ArticlePicture":[],"TitleCN":null,"AbstractTextCN":null,"PMCID":"OA","EPubDate":null,"PubModel":null,"JCR":null,"JCRName":null,"Score":null,"Total":0}