Renewable, ethical? Assessing the energy justice potential of renewable electricity

Energy justice is increasingly being used as a framework to conceptualize the impacts of energy decision making in more holistic ways and to consider the social implications in terms of existing ethical values. Similarly, renewable energy technologies are increasingly being promoted for their environmental and social benefits. However, little work has been done to systematically examine the extent to which, in what ways and in what contexts, renewable energy technologies can contribute to achieving energy justice. This paper assesses the potential of renewable electricity technologies to address energy justice in various global contexts via a systematic review of existing studies analyzed in terms of the principles and dimensions of energy justice. Based on publications including peer reviewed academic literature, books, and in some cases reports by government or international organizations, we assess renewable electricity technologies in both grid integrated and off-grid use contexts. We conduct our investigation through the rubric of the affirmative and prohibitive principles of energy justice and in terms of its temporal, geographic, socio-political, economic, and technological dimensions. Renewable electricity technology development has and continue to have different impacts in different social contexts, and by considering the different impacts explicitly across global contexts, including differences between rural and urban contexts, this paper contributes to identifying and understanding how, in what ways, and in what particular conditions and circumstances renewable electricity technologies may correspond with or work to promote energy justice

What energy uses matter? Fuel poverty beyond heating

Fuel poverty policy seeks to make the use of energy affordable, particularly for those who are disadvantaged and vulnerable. But what uses of energy matter to the extent that they should be supported? In the UK energy for heating is readily seen as essential because of the need for people to keep warm and healthy in their homes. Fuel poverty policy does recognise the need for household expenditure on other forms of energy use but the rationale for seeing these as necessities that should be affordable for all has rarely been articulated. In our work we have examined the grounds on which a range of energy uses can be considered essential for enabling a minimally-decent quality of life. This research has implications for the scope of current fuel poverty policy

What counts as 'required' energy? Principles of need in modelling the extent of fuel poverty

Official definitions of fuel poverty refer to the ‘required’ level of energy consumption that households should be able to afford. The modelling that generates statistics on the number and distribution of fuel poor households depends on calculating expenditure on heating, lighting, appliances, cooking and water heating across the country’s households. Our research examined the principles underlying these calculations, looking at how ‘requirement’ is specified and whether this is based on a fixed definition of need, or on norms that shift over time