Balancing the energy trilemma through the Energy Justice Metric

Energy justice is a fast emerging research and policy tool which captures the injustices across the energy life-cycle, i.e., from ‘cradle-to-grave’. The Energy Justice Metric (EJM) quantifies energy justice through analyzing the energy justice performance of different countries utilising data from international institutions and national governments. This paper identifies why there is a need for a modeling tool such as the EJM which focuses on the full energy life-cycle and also has a distributive (inequality-correcting) oriented approach. The EJM demonstrates how a country can achieve an improved balance between the three competing aims of the energy trilemma, i.e. economics, politics and the environment. A key feature of the EJM is modeling energy justice using a ternary plot where the energy justice performance of a country can be transferred directly onto the energy trilemma. In this paper, five countries are analysed, the US, UK, Germany, Denmark and Ireland. The EJM presents a research and policy decision-making tool that can contribute to the growing literature that tackles the issue of inequality in society, and informs on society’s decision on which energy source would be more just for a society to build.PostprintPeer reviewe

Navigating expert skepticism and consumer distrust: rethinking the barriers to vehicle-to-grid (V2G) in the Nordic region

Vehicle-to-grid (V2G) refers to a technology that could help make the electricity grid more effective, reduce the cost of ownership of electric vehicles (EVs), and help integrate intermittent renewable energy sources. However, despite these advantages, implementation and even knowledge of the technology is not widespread. In order to explore why, we ask the question: what are the barriers that V2G currently faces? To provide an answer, the authors conducted 227 semi-structured interviews with transportation and electricity experts from 201 institutions across seventeen cities within the a market currently experimenting with electric mobility and V2G, the Nordic region. Results show that there is an extensive range of barriers facing V2G, with experts suggesting in total 35 categories of barriers. While the literature espouses substantial benefits of V2G, the experts interviewed generally displayed skepticism of the benefits and necessity of V2G in the Nordics. We categorized the top nine discussed barriers into four clusters. These clusters focused on the experts’ skepticism of the benefits of V2G, consumer acceptance, economic viability, and regulatory structure for V2G participation. We conclude the paper with policy implications and suggestions for future research

Expert perceptions of low-carbon transitions: investigating the challenges of electricity decarbonisation in the Nordic region

The five Nordic countries of Denmark, Finland, Iceland, Norway and Sweden have perhaps the most aggressive and progressive climate, energy, and electricity policies in the world. This study asks: what are the greatest challenges to achieving the region’s low-carbon goals in the domain of electricity? To provide an answer, the authors conducted 227 semi-structured interviews with 257 participants from 201 institutions across seventeen cities within the Nordic region. Those interviewed represent a diverse array of stakeholders involved with electricity technology, policy and practice. Although respondents identified 40 distinct electricity challenges, the integration of renewables was by far the most frequently mentioned (14.5%) of the expert sample. Five other challenges were also mentioned the most frequently by respondents: electrification of transport and other sectors (10.6%), managing intermittency (8.8%), carbon intensity (8.4%), supporting local grids (8.4%), and adequate capacity (8.4%). Interestingly, items such as energy efficiency, consumer awareness, industry, energy security, and public opposition were mentioned by only 1.8% (or less). The article concludes by what this heterogeneity and prioritization of challenges means for future Nordic research and policy

Beyond emissions and economics: rethinking the co-benefits of Nordic Electric Vehicles (EVs) and Vehicle-To-Grid (V2G)

Electric vehicles and vehicle-to-grid are one option to achieve the transition to decarbonizing society. Despite perceived advantages of cost-savings and carbon reductions, such technologies have faced various barriers that has prevented wide-scale adoption. While much literature has carefully investigated the techno-economics dimensions to electric mobility, we ask: what are the full set of benefits that EVs and V2G offer? To provide an answer, the authors conducted 227 semi-structured interviews with transportation and electricity experts from over 200 institutions across the Nordic region. Results show that there is an extensive range of benefits for both EVs and V2G, with experts suggesting 29 and 25 categories of benefits for EVs and V2G, respectively. Though the experts covered the obvious benefits of economic savings, emissions, and renewable energy integration, several other novel benefits were identified. The second and third most common discussed EV benefit was noise reduction and better performance, which are typically not widely discussed. Similarly we find that V2G benefits covered topics like vehicle-to-home and solar integration, as well as more novel benefits, like vehicle-to-telescope and emergency power backup. The article concludes with a discussion of future research and benefits in the context of energy research and analysis

Rethinking the spatiality of Nordic electric vehicles and their popularity in urban environments: moving beyond the city?

With a global transition to electric vehicles (EVs) slowly gaining traction, it is expedient to move the debate to issues connected to geography, space, and place. One of these emerging issues is the uptake of EVs in rural areas. This paper provides a spatial state of affairs in the Nordic region and it explores how EVs are perceived and argued to fit within rural-suburban-urban categories by users and potential adopters. To do so, it draws on a mix of original and secondary data: (1) a randomized survey among 4322 respondents, (2) 227 expert interviews, (3) eight focus groups conducted across Iceland, Denmark, Sweden, Finland and Norway, and (4) geographically mapped municipal level vehicle registrations across Norway and Sweden. This data shows that while the uptake primarily takes place in (sub)urban regions, EVs are used in rural environments, partly for self-sufficiency reasons. After acknowledging that individual choices and circumstances dictate final purchase decisions, the paper concludes that planners and researchers should be aware off and, if possible, prevent that a skewed urbanized popularity keeps people elsewhere from looking at EVs as a viable option

Policy mechanisms to accelerate electric vehicle adoption: a qualitative review from the Nordic region

Electric vehicles are an important instrument to decarbonize transportation, offering a range of co-benefits such as reductions in local pollution, noise emissions, and oil dependency. Unfortunately, price, range, infrastructure and technological uncertainty are only some of the barriers to a faster adoption of these vehicles. To overcome these barriers, there is a broad call for public support and a growing body of primarily survey and choice experiment studies to show which policy mechanisms are effective, with mixed outcomes. In response, this paper offers a qualitative comparative analysis that draws on 227 semi-structured interviews with 257 transportation and electricity experts from 201 institutions across 17 cities within the Nordic region to discuss the reasoning and arguments behind EV incentives and policy mechanisms. A frequency analysis of the most coded responses favoured cost reduction mechanisms, in particular taxation exemptions; infrastructure support for public and apartment charging; the importance of consumer awareness, especially information campaigns; certain other specific policy measures like procurement programs and environmental zones; and more general policy principles. More in-depth, our analysis shows the debates around these mechanisms and how the pros and cons of these mechanisms differ per country, per transport segment, per phase of transition or market share, even per city. In short, this paper calls for strong stable national targets and price incentives combined with local flexibility to implement secondary benefits and more attention to awareness campaigns to advance the implementation of electric vehicles

The demographics of decarbonizing transport: the influence of gender, education, occupation, age, and household size on electric mobility preferences in the Nordic region

Many researchers, policymakers and other stakeholders have explored and supported efforts to transition towards more sustainable forms of low-carbon mobility. Often, discussion will flow from a narrow view of consumer perceptions surrounding passenger vehicles—presuming that they act in rationalist, instrumental, and predictable patterns. In this paper, we hold that a better understanding of the social and demographic perceptions of electric vehicles (compared to other forms of mobility, including conventional cars) is needed. We provide a comparative and mixed methods assessment of the demographics of electric mobility and stated preferences for electric vehicles, drawing primarily on a survey distributed to more than 5,000 respondents across Denmark, Finland, Iceland, Norway and Sweden. We examine how gender influences preferences; how experience in the form of education and occupation shape preferences; and how aging and household size impact preferences. In doing so we hope to reveal the more complex social dynamics behind how potential adopters consider and calculate various aspects of conventional mobility, electric mobility, and vehicle-to-grid systems. In particular, our results suggest that predominantly men, those with higher levels of education in full time employment, especially with occupations in civil society or academia, and below middle age (30 to 45), are the most likely to buy them. However, our analysis also reveals other market segments where electric vehicles may take root, e.g. among higher income females and retirees/pensioners. Moreover, few respondents were orientated towards V2G, independent of their demographic attributes. Our empirical results can inform ongoing discussions about energy and transport policy, the drivers of environmental change, and deliberations over sustainability transitions

Reviewing Nordic transport challenges and climate policy priorities: expert perceptions of decarbonisation in Denmark, Finland, Iceland, Norway, Sweden

The five Nordic countries of Denmark, Finland, Iceland, Norway and Sweden have aggressive climate and energy policies in place and are largely on track in their decarbonisation of electricity, heat, and buildings. Transportation and mobility, however, remains a pressing challenge. This study asks: what are the greatest national and regional transport challenges facing Nordic countries? To provide an answer, the authors conducted 227 semi-structured interviews with participants from 201 institutions across seventeen cities within the Nordic region. Those interviewed represent a diverse array of stakeholders involved with transport technology, policy and practice. Although respondents identified 44 distinct transport challenges, the fossil fuel intensity of transport was by far the most frequently mentioned by than two-fifths (42%) of the expert sample. Five other challenges were also mentioned the most frequently by respondents: long travel distances (17%), the state of public transport infrastructure (16%), congestion (15%), population density (10%), and electrification of transport (10%). Interestingly, items such as costs and affordability, energy or transport efficiency, consumer knowledge and awareness, and automobile accidents were mentioned by only 3% (or less). The article concludes by what this heterogeneity and prioritization of challenges means for future Nordic research and policy

Conspicuous diffusion: theorizing how status drives innovation in electric mobility

This paper explores how conceptions of luxury and status affect the manner in which a relatively novel technology—an electric vehicle— diffuses across societies. To do so, it combines Veblen’s notion of conspicuous consumption and Roger’s diffusion of innovation by proposing a new theoretical variation, which we term “conspicuous diffusion.” The paper sketches natural connections between the two theories, namely how conspicuous consumption relates to technological and societal development, and how diffusion of innovation is intrinsically connected to status. In combining these approaches, we hypothesize that the success of an innovation is guided by its adherence to the canons of conspicuousness and conspicuous value, which it loses as the innovation diffuses across the population. To illustrate the explanatory power of conspicuous diffusion, we examine the status of electric vehicles in the Nordic region, based on original data from multiple methods, including expert interviews and focus groups. We find that conspicuous diffusion can explain previous failures and current successes of electric vehicle diffusion patterns. The paper concludes with recommendations for policymakers, industry, and academia

Understanding the socio-technical nexus of Nordic Electric Vehicle (EV) barriers: a qualitative discussion of range, price, charging and knowledge

Electric vehicles are perceived as a key alternate to internal combustion engine vehicles for a transition to a decarbonized society. However, this transition towards the electrification of transport has not made equal progress globally, and faced several impediments to consumer adoption of EVs across the Nordic region and beyond. While there has been a multitude of reasons provided in the literature, we aim to characterize the barriers that remain to electrification today, as well as their perceived interconnections and futures. To provide insight into this query, the authors conducted 227 semi-structured interviews with transportation and electricity experts from 201 institutions across seventeen cities in Denmark, Finland, Iceland, Norway, and Sweden. The qualitative results and consequent cluster analysis show that common barriers like range, price and charging infrastructure continue to persist, despite technological advancements over the recent years. At the same time, results also show that barriers are highly interconnected and are commonly connected to consumer knowledge and experience. The article concludes with a discussion of policy implications of the findings and potential future research