Exploring trade-offs:A decision-support tool for local energy system planning

Policymakers are in a balancing act when creating local energy transition strategies. Embedding new technologies in an existing energy system is highly complex. Policymakers must deal with multi-system interactions such as sector coupling, multi-scale effects such as bottom-up behavior and top-down policies, and requirements from local spatial planning, grid constraints, and resource availability.Decision support tools can help to navigate this complex landscape. This paper showcases a tool to support policymakers with heating strategies for Dutch neighborhoods. The tool is a GIS-based simulation model of the energy system developed using a collaborative approach and applied in a scenario study. Energy calculations are done over a year with an hourly resolution, while scenarios can include any future energy system configuration. The results highlight trade-offs between heating strategies, interaction effects with the mobility and electricity transitions, and bottlenecks in transition pathways. Collective district heating has less grid impact but higher emissions and costs, while individual (hybrid) heat pumps have lower emissions and costs but more grid impact. No-regrets and enabling technologies are insulation and smart charging of electric vehicles and boilers.Collaborative modeling with a GIS-based user-interface increases system understanding, including trade-offs, transition pathways, and bottlenecks, in a collective and interactive way. This creates a shared and well-grounded vision, resulting in robust local renewable energy strategies

Beyond a checklist for acceptance:understanding the dynamic process of community acceptance

Community acceptance is considered a prerequisite for successful energy transitions and the uptake of renewable energy technologies (RET). While policy and research often focus on acceptance as an outcome, the process of acceptance remains a black box, especially in uncontested RET implementation contexts. We study the dynamic process of community acceptance where (1) different actor groups can have (2) different roles and (3) different active and passive responses towards (4) different objects of acceptance within the RET project implementation. Results show that community acceptance occurs over time and goes beyond citizen or resident acceptance alone. By unpacking different dimensions of acceptance, we show that even in uncontested cases, acceptance is ambiguous and includes various responses toward various objects. Furthermore, we see that roles can influence and interact dynamically with responses and that preferences for roles are heterogeneous. To move beyond acceptance as a merely coincidental outcome, but a widely embraced and intentional process, this process should meet the participatory needs of different actors.</p

Off-grid energy policy:an analysis and new priorities

Progress in Sustainable Development Goal 7 is often framed as a driver of inclusive, just energy transitions and the 2030 Agenda for Sustainable Development. Yet, equitable transitions entail more than basic access to clean and affordable energy services; they depend critically on pluralistic, democratic, inclusive, and sustainable outcomes and impacts. Only recently has the energy and sustainability transitions literature become more critical of the sometimes-unsustainable nature of ‘sustainability’ transitions. While unsustainable trends clearly emergefrequently, it is generally unknown who or what drives them. This study considers what role policy and policymakers play in shaping sub-Saharan Africa’s energy transition. More specifically, it analyzes the implications of off-grid solar policy i.e., actions, plans, and funding priorities of global-level energy and development organizations, investors, and governments,aimed at promoting the uptake of off-grid solar energy products. The study questions whether or not their efforts are actually driving the prioritized inclusive, just transition. Starting point is the African solar PV market—its realities and imminent sustainability challenges, capturing them in a dichotomy-based typology of solar innovation trajectories. As a guiding lens, we adopt the New Sussex Manifesto ‘3D agenda’ (diversity, direction, distribution). This study demonstrates that future energy planning must embrace diversity and the thousands of local solar entrepreneurs to carve out a more equitable energy transition-pathway in sub-Saharan Africa

Off-grid energy policy:an analysis and new priorities

Progress in Sustainable Development Goal 7 is often framed as a driver of inclusive, just energy transitions and the 2030 Agenda for Sustainable Development. Yet, equitable transitions entail more than basic access to clean and affordable energy services; they depend critically on pluralistic, democratic, inclusive, and sustainable outcomes and impacts. Only recently has the energy and sustainability transitions literature become more critical of the sometimes-unsustainable nature of ‘sustainability’ transitions. While unsustainable trends clearly emergefrequently, it is generally unknown who or what drives them. This study considers what role policy and policymakers play in shaping sub-Saharan Africa’s energy transition. More specifically, it analyzes the implications of off-grid solar policy i.e., actions, plans, and funding priorities of global-level energy and development organizations, investors, and governments,aimed at promoting the uptake of off-grid solar energy products. The study questions whether or not their efforts are actually driving the prioritized inclusive, just transition. Starting point is the African solar PV market—its realities and imminent sustainability challenges, capturing them in a dichotomy-based typology of solar innovation trajectories. As a guiding lens, we adopt the New Sussex Manifesto ‘3D agenda’ (diversity, direction, distribution). This study demonstrates that future energy planning must embrace diversity and the thousands of local solar entrepreneurs to carve out a more equitable energy transition-pathway in sub-Saharan Africa

Knowledge flows in global renewable energy innovation systems: the role of technological and geographical distance

Understanding the global knowledge dynamics of renewable energy technologies requires consideration of both technological and geographical dimensions. This paper assesses the relative importance of technological and geographical distant knowledge in the future knowledge development of technological innovation systems (TIS) of renewables. Using global renewable energy patents, we quantify the absorptive capacity of countries as the degree of knowledge accumulation in the knowledge diffusion between domestic actors in a TIS. Our results show that international knowledge flows within a renewable energy TIS are more important for countries with smaller absorptive capacity, whereas countries with larger absorptive capacity benefit more from domestic knowledge originating in other TISs. Consequently, each country faces unique opportunities and constraints with respect to global technological developments when developing renewable energy technologies. These findings lead to policy implications that are specific to developing renewable energy technologies in different countries

Agent-Based Modelling of Charging Behaviour of Electric Vehicle Drivers

The combination of electric vehicles (EVs) and intermittent renewable energy sources has received increasing attention over the last few years. Not only does charging electric vehicles with renewable energy realize their true potential as a clean mode of transport, charging electric vehicles at times of peaks in renewable energy production can help large scale integration of renewable energy in the existing energy infrastructure. We present an agent-based model that investigates the potential contribution of this combination. More specifically, we investigate the potential effects of different kinds of policy interventions on aggregate EV charging patterns. The policy interventions include financial incentives, automated smart charging, information campaigns and social charging. We investigate how well the resulting charging patterns are aligned with renewable energy production and how much they affect user satisfaction of EV drivers. Where possible, we integrate empirical data in our model, to ensure realistic scenarios. We use recent theory from environmental psychology to determine agent behaviour, contrary to earlier simulation models, which have focused only on technical and financial considerations. Based on our simulation results, we articulate some policy recommendations. Furthermore, we point to future research directions for environmental psychology scholars and modelers who want to use theory to inform simulation models of energy systems

Catching up in clean energy technologies: a patent analysis

How we can accelerate the diffusion of new clean energy technologies worldwide is a highly relevant topic for energy and climate policies, as well as industrial policies. We trace the time lag between the introduction and the diffusion of breakthroughs in solar photovoltaic technology and wind power technology. Our results show that both domestic knowledge base and organizational proximity to the country introducing breakthroughs, help latecomer countries catch up by actively innovating in these technologies on their own. Moreover, we find that there are more opportunities for latecomer countries with stronger domestic knowledge base to catch up in solar photovoltaic technology than wind power technology. The results of this paper provide systematic evidence of the technology-sensitive catching-up process in the clean energy technological paradigm

Social tipping dynamics in the energy system

This paper reviews evidence on how the fast growth in renewable energy technologies can trigger social tipping dynamics that potentially accelerate a system-wide energy transition. It does so by reviewing a variety of literature across several disciplines addressing socio-technical dimensions of energy transitions. The tipping dynamics in wind and solar power create potential for cascading effects to energy demand sectors, including household energy demand. These most likely start with shift actions and adoption of household-scale batteries and heat pumps. Key enablers are strong regulations incentivising reductions in demand and setting minimum efficiency levels for buildings and appliances. While there is evidence of spillovers to more environmentally friendly behaviour, the extent of these and the key leverage points to bring them about present a knowledge gap. Moreover, these behavioural feedback loops require strong additional policy support to “make them stick”. Understanding the economic and social tipping dynamics in a system can empower decision-makers, fostering realistic energy transition policies. This paper highlights energy communities as a promising niche for leveraging tipping dynamics. Ultimately, bridging the gap between these tipping dynamics and institutional reforms is crucial for unlocking the full potential of sustainable energy systems