Legal and political barriers and enablers to the deployment of marine renewable energy

Ocean energy is a promising source of clean renewable energy, with clear development targets set by the European Commission. However, the ocean energy sector faces non-technological challenges and opportunities that are frequently overlooked in deployment plans. The present study aimed to provide a critical evaluation of the ocean energy sector’s legal, institutional, and political frameworks with an identification and analysis of both barriers and enabling features for the deployment of ocean energy. In the first stage, a literature review on the current political and regulatory frameworks of a set of European countries was carried out, setting the basis for the main challenges and enabling factors faced by the sector. Secondly, a critical analysis of the main non-technological barriers and enablers was performed, which was supported by questionnaires sent to regulators, technology developers, and test-site managers. This questionnaire allowed us to collect and integrate the views, perceptions, and personal experiences of the main stakeholders of the ocean energy sector in the analysis. The most relevant insights were collected to guide future policy instruments, supports, and consenting measures in a more informed and effective manner and to help accelerate the development of the sector

Technical objects at the prism of hydrosocial cycle : new theoretical and empirical approaches

This special issue entitled "Technical objects at the prism of hydrosocial cycle : new theoretical and empirical approaches" presents new insights concerning water-society relations in social sciences. It is characterized by interdisciplinary approaches and engages with two main theoretical frameworks : science and technology studies and political ecology. Both are indeed mobilized in order to deepen the analysis of the dialectical relation between technical objects and hydrosocial systems, by using the concept of hydrosocial cycle. Our aim is to explain how "infrastructure" and "apparatus" forge and transform water-society interrelations, reshape them and modify their functioning. But also how the hydrosocial cycle, in return, sets out particular forms of infrastructure and apparatus. This paper firstly introduces the theoretical and epistemological debates linked to this special issue. And then it presents the thirteen papers gathered in this special issue, which, based on empirical studies, offer different uses of hydrosocial cycle approach to investigate water/society dialectical relations.Open access journalThis item from the UA Faculty Publications collection is made available by the University of Arizona with support from the University of Arizona Libraries. If you have questions, please contact us at [email protected]

Technical objects at the prism of hydrosocial cycle : new theoretical and empirical approaches

This special issue entitled "Technical objects at the prism of hydrosocial cycle : new theoretical and empirical approaches" presents new insights concerning water-society relations in social sciences. It is characterized by interdisciplinary approaches and engages with two main theoretical frameworks : science and technology studies and political ecology. Both are indeed mobilized in order to deepen the analysis of the dialectical relation between technical objects and hydrosocial systems, by using the concept of hydrosocial cycle. Our aim is to explain how "infrastructure" and "apparatus" forge and transform water-society interrelations, reshape them and modify their functioning. But also how the hydrosocial cycle, in return, sets out particular forms of infrastructure and apparatus. This paper firstly introduces the theoretical and epistemological debates linked to this special issue. And then it presents the thirteen papers gathered in this special issue, which, based on empirical studies, offer different uses of hydrosocial cycle approach to investigate water/society dialectical relations.Open access journalThis item from the UA Faculty Publications collection is made available by the University of Arizona with support from the University of Arizona Libraries. If you have questions, please contact us at [email protected]

Technical objects at the prism of hydrosocial cycle : new theoretical and empirical approaches

This special issue entitled "Technical objects at the prism of hydrosocial cycle : new theoretical and empirical approaches" presents new insights concerning water-society relations in social sciences. It is characterized by interdisciplinary approaches and engages with two main theoretical frameworks : science and technology studies and political ecology. Both are indeed mobilized in order to deepen the analysis of the dialectical relation between technical objects and hydrosocial systems, by using the concept of hydrosocial cycle. Our aim is to explain how "infrastructure" and "apparatus" forge and transform water-society interrelations, reshape them and modify their functioning. But also how the hydrosocial cycle, in return, sets out particular forms of infrastructure and apparatus. This paper firstly introduces the theoretical and epistemological debates linked to this special issue. And then it presents the thirteen papers gathered in this special issue, which, based on empirical studies, offer different uses of hydrosocial cycle approach to investigate water/society dialectical relations.Open access journalThis item from the UA Faculty Publications collection is made available by the University of Arizona with support from the University of Arizona Libraries. If you have questions, please contact us at [email protected]

: transition

International audienc

: transition

International audienc

Hierarchy of social impacts: towards a consolidated method for a representative social impact prioritization

International audienceSocial Life Cycle Assessment involves assessing numerous social impact categories associated with several stakeholders. To do so, extensive data collection is needed and can be expensive and time-consuming (UNEP, 2020). Moreover, depending on the scope definition (i.e., sectors and geographical areas), the social impact subcategories proposed by UNEP Guidelines may not all have the same relevance. Applying a prioritization step is, thus, crucial to guide data collection efforts. The approach to prioritize the social impact categories to be evaluated strongly influences the legitimacy of the assessment (Bouillass, 2021). However, some bottlenecks still exist, including: 1) difficult access to some stakeholders themselves, 2) lack of understanding of the method by respondents, 3) need for measuring the level of sample representativeness of results. Given these difficulties, the following question about participatory approach may be formulated: “How to ensure that the respondents of a survey represent well their stakeholder category?”. This work proposes to validate the representativeness of prioritization results based on a participatory approach. A statistical procedure is used to define a sampling protocol, build surveys, and process data (Ladenburg and Dubgaard, 2007). Firstly, a set of parameters (e.g., companies’ size, companies’ activities, etc.) are identified to describe the stakeholder category as a whole. Secondly, the values of these parameters at the stakeholder category level are compared with those observed at the sample level. Thirdly, if a significant difference is observed between the category and the sample, a statistical adjustment (i.e., weighting) is applied to the dataset.The approach is here applied to the offshore wind power sector. This case study will show how the proposed statistical approach can strengthen the representativeness of the participatory approach to prioritize social impact subcategories

Towards Social Life Cycle Assessment of Energy Systems: case study on offshore wind farms from companies’ perspective

International audienceIn the energy transition context, private decision-makers and policymakers must choose between different energy scenarios for process improvement and territorial planning. Hence, implications of the development of these technologies need to be objectively analysed to ensure their alignment with energy transition objectives. Life Cycle Analysis is nowadays one of the most appropriate methods to assess impacts related to products and services. While LCA application for environmental assessment is already consolidated, social aspects of sustainability are not systematically evaluated yet. For application to social impacts, the UNEP/SETAC Guidelines propose a framework to conduct Social-LCA. However, its application to specific systems is still under development. Most frequently, social issues included in sustainability analyses on electricity generation sector concern number of employment or health and safety issues. Moreover, few studies in the literature present a rigorous approach to account for social impacts affecting different stakeholder categories, especially at territorial level. Offshore wind farm development by industrial requires accounting for many criteria related to territories’ issues and social acceptance.This study presents a S-LCA method based on industrial perception for defining the priority social aspects and related stakeholders in the context of offshore wind farms. It is conducted in the framework of project which relies on close collaboration with key industrial partners. Since LCA results are especially suitable for comparative purposes, the S-LCA method must be designed by considering the social issues not only at offshore wind farm scale, but also at power generation sectorial scale. The identified ranking of social issues will be used to identify where the S-LCA study will focus on in the next steps