Energy Conservation in Existing Housing Sites; a Comparative Case Analysis\ud in the Netherlands

The housing sector in the Netherlands is responsible for a significant fraction of primary energy use and CO2 emissions. Great energy conservation opportunities are to be found in the existing housing stock, especially in large renovation projects on existing sites. Energy conservation savings of up to 90% are technically feasible. Despite this, there is little empirical evidence available about processes that influence the achievement of energy conservation goals in such locations. Moreover, no systematic, bottom-up research on the matter is available. This paper attempts to answer questions about the factors – size, direction and significance – that explain variation in the degree of energy conservation. Four main propositions were tested, comprising the following variables: actor characteristics, policy instruments, interorganizational collaboration and context. The study used a comparative research design. Data were collected from eleven existing housing sites where renovation projects had been executed, involving 70 personal interviews, a survey, and the collection of project documents. A mixed methods approach was applied for data analysis. The results show that interorganizational, collaborative efforts, policy instruments and the presence of wealthy housing associations have a positive influence on energy conservation outcomes. The mean energy conservation was slightly less than 40%, and outcomes varied between 26.5% and 69.8%. Strikingly, planning does not have a beneficial influence and the actual outcome is lower than predicted. The results are useful for national and local government policy makers, as they clearly argue that ambitious policy goals should be tempered

Agricultural green gas demonstration projects in the Netherlands. A stakeholder analysis

In the Netherlands green gas is seen as a sustainable alternative to natural gas. However, green gas is still not competitive to natural gas in terms of pricing, and production volumes are remarkably low. Currently, there is a lot of attention to green gas which stems from upgraded biogas, which is produced by manure-based anaerobic co-digestion by livestock farmers. In this article the central question is to understand green gas demonstration projects from stakeholders’ perspectives, and identify barriers accordingly. The results of our analysis show that a disproportionate burden lies with biogas producers, who are therefore unwilling to invest. In large part this is due to juridical-administrative stipulations that provide gas grid operators with little incentives to invest, notably in biogas infrastructure and biogas treatment equipment. However, biogas producers face many more risks and challenges: (production) subsidies not being granted, legal permits to operate biogas plants not being granted, limitative environmental policies that restrict business operations, and price instability regarding co-feedstock. Moreover, access to bank to loans has declined strongly in recent years. Altogether, the risks potential biogas producers face, the lack of regulatory incentives grid operators have to engage in green gas business development, and the lack of market demand among endconsumers, do not favor green gas niche development. This can only change when policy makers design stakeholder specific strategies to solve those barriers; e.g. public investments funds to cover for high upfront costs, and regulatory changes regarding the role and competences of grid operators

Samenspel actoren in bestaande bouw cruciaal voor energiebesparing

Het valt niet mee om de bestaande woningvoorraad energiezuiniger te maken. En dat terwijl ieder huis vanaf 1 januari aanstaande een energielabel krijgt met de nodige consequenties voor eigenaren/bewoners. AIO Thomas Hoppe en zijn begeleider Kris Lulofs duiken in de barrières die huiseigenaren ervaren bij het nemen van investeringsbeslissingen. Ze bevelen de overheid de beleidsnetwerkenbenadering aan om via het spel tussen lokale actoren toch het een en ander voor elkaar te krijgen

Waarom de energietransitie van de woningsector niet opschiet

De woningsector kent een grote milieudruk. Dit geldt in het bijzonder voor energieverbruik en daarmee de uitstoot van broeikasgasemissies. Juist omdat de milieudruk van deze sector zo groot is, bestaat er veel ruimte voor verduurzaming. Niettemin zijn er veel obstakels die vooruitgang op dit gebied hinderen. In dit artikel richten wij ons specifiek op de identificatie van deze barrieres en de wijze waarop zij energetische verduurzaming in de woningsector bemoeilijken. Wij analyseren de barrieres vanuit een co-evolutionair analytisch raamwerk, en nemen daarmee zowel de bestaande woningvoorraad als nieuwbouw van woningen in ogenschouw

Guest editorial: governing the challenges of climate change and energy transition in cities

Cities form the key context within which social, economic and environmental challenges for sustainable development will manifest in the years to come. As they face the grand societal challenges of climate change and the greening of energy systems, city governments are confronted with the challenge of designing and implementing workable policy strategies. We find that although much attention has been paid to low carbon energy transition in cities, there is surprisingly little attention to the dimension of governance, policy and politics in the scholarly literature. The main question in this guest editorial of the thematic issue, entitled ‘Governing the Climate Change Mitigation and Energy Transition Challenges in Cities’, is: How can effective policy strategies be designed and implemented to govern the challenges of climate change and energy transition in cities? We develop some preliminary answers to this question based on seven research papers that form the contribution to the thematic series. In particular, the various roles that cities play in governing the climate change challenges and energy transition require further description and analysis, specifying the different governing roles of urban actors and how the city—socially, institutionally or geophysically—forms the context within which governance initiatives and arrangements are formed and implemented, while cities themselves are in turn part of larger physical, infrastructural and institutional networks that influence and condition the local governance opportunities. A research agenda to explore the topic further must include particularly the following areas: the role of local government in the interplay between governance initiatives at multiple levels, the influence and the confluence of current (sectoral) policies, learning from a variation of practices of local low carbon policy, mapping the institutional dimension, mapping design and implementation practices of urban low carbon policy, assessing the effects and legitimacy of urban low carbon policies, further understanding of strategic action fields and lines of conflicts between (coalitions of) actors and identifying workable governance frameworks and policies supporting community-led energy initiatives