Community-based micro grids: a common property resource problem

This paper introduces a new methodological and theoretical foundation for studying the reasons for successes and failures of community-based micro grids (CBMGs). While technical and financial factors involved are very critical they are comparatively well researched. This analysis argues that further research into, in particular, the institutional design of CBMGs is required in order to improve long-term sustainability. The paper suggests that the electricity in an isolated micro grid can be treated as a common property resource (CPR), which then opens up the established academic literature regarding collective action in the presence of CPRs. More specifically this paper analyses how the rich set of enabling conditions for collective action, which has been established in the context of traditional CPR situations such as water for irrigation or pasture for grazing, can be applied to the context of CBMGs. The goal is to arrive at workable recommendations for policy-makers and practitioners to inform the design and improve the long-term sustainability of CBMGs. Ultimately this has the potential to contribute towards efforts to bring modern energy services to significant parts of rural populations without electricity access

All together now: institutional innovation for pro-poor electricity access in sub-Saharan Africa

Access to electricity is an important precondition to many aspects of human and economic development. Yet, in rural sub-Saharan Africa in particular, access rates remain very low — at an average of 17% and much lower in some cases. Rural electrification in Kenya, the focus of this thesis, had only reached 7% in 2014. Given the goal of universal electrification by 2030, formulated as part of Sustainable Development Goal 7, scalable and replicable approaches that are able to support productive and non-productive uses are required. Mini-grids are one promising solution to this problem, alongside grid extension and off-grid approaches such as solar home systems. However, their long-term operational sustainability has historically been a challenge. While the academic literature to date on sustainable energy access has largely been two-dimensional in its analysis of mini-grids (focusing on technology and economics or financing), this thesis contributes to an emerging body of recent contributions to the literature, which have begun to foreground socio-cultural considerations. Bridging the literature on collective action for common-pool resource (CPR) management and property rights theory, a refined theoretical framework is produced for the purpose of analysing the institutional conditions for sustainable management of rural mini-grids. The utility of this framework and of treating electricity in a mini-grid as a CPR is demonstrated via empirical analysis of three case studies of mini-grids in rural Kenya and evidence from 24 expert interviews. This yields insights on nontechnological approaches to addressing operational challenges relating to sustainable mini-grid management, e.g. fair allocation of limited amounts of electricity to different consumers in ways that are acceptable to the entire community. This thesis develops contributions to the literature on sustainable CPR management and collective action, property rights theory and energy access in developing countries. From these theoretical and empirical insights, it explores a novel institutional structure for sustainable management of pro-poor mini-grids in the form of a community–private property hybrid management platform, thereby opening up opportunities for future research into the implementation of such a platform. The thesis represents the first comprehensive attempt to analyse the institutional aspects of pro-poor mini-grid management as well as the first comprehensive attempt to treat electricity in a mini-grid as a CPR

Sustainable energy for whom? Governing pro-poor, low-carbon pathways to development: lessons from solar PV in Kenya

Using a combination of insights from innovation studies, sociotechnical transitions theory and the STEPS pathways approach, this paper analyses the evolution of the Kenyan photovoltaics (PV) market. Considered by many to be an exemplar of private sector led development, the Kenyan PV market has witnessed the adoption of more than 300,000 solar home systems and over 100,000 solar portable lights. The notion of an entrepreneurially driven unsubsidised solar market has proved to be a powerful narrative amongst development actors who, paradoxically, have provided millions of dollars of funding to encourage the market’s development. We argue that this donor support has been critical to the success of the market, but not simply by helping to create an enabling environment in which entrepreneurs can flourish. Donor assistance has been critical in supporting a range of actors to build the elements of a PV innovation system by providing active protection for experimentation, network-building, and the construction of shared visions amongst actors throughout supply chains and amongst users.This analysis gives important clues for designing climate and development policies, with implications for the governance of energy access pathways that are inclusive of poor and marginalised groups in low income countries

The behavioral turn in flood risk management, its assumptions and potential implications

Recent policy changes highlight the need for citizens to take adaptive actions to reduce flood-related impacts. Here, we argue that these changes represent a wider behavioral turn in flood risk management (FRM). The behavioral turn is based on three fundamental assumptions: first, that the motivations of citizens to take adaptive actions can be well understood so that these motivations can be targeted in the practice of FRM; second, that private adaptive measures and actions are effective in reducing flood risk; and third, that individuals have the capacities to implement such measures. We assess the extent to which the assumptions can be supported by empirical evidence. We do this by engaging with three intellectual catchments. We turn to research by psychologists and other behavioral scientists which focus on the sociopsychological factors which influence individual motivations (Assumption 1). We engage with economists, engineers, and quantitative risk analysts who explore the extent to which individuals can reduce flood related impacts by quantifying the effectiveness and efficiency of household-level adaptive measures (Assumption 2). We converse with human geographers and sociologists who explore the types of capacities households require to adapt to and cope with threatening events (Assumption 3). We believe that an investigation of the behavioral turn is important because if the outlined assumptions do not hold, there is a risk of creating and strengthening inequalities in FRM. Therefore, we outline the current intellectual and empirical knowledge as well as future research needs. Generally, we argue that more collaboration across intellectual catchments is needed, that future research should be more theoretically grounded and become methodologically more rigorous and at the same time focus more explicitly on the normative underpinnings of the behavioral turn

Insights into the accuracy of social scientists' forecasts of societal change

How well can social scientists predict societal change, and what processes underlie their predictions? To answer these questions, we ran two forecasting tournaments testing the accuracy of predictions of societal change in domains commonly studied in the social sciences: ideological preferences, political polarization, life satisfaction, sentiment on social media, and gender–career and racial bias. After we provided them with historical trend data on the relevant domain, social scientists submitted pre-registered monthly forecasts for a year (Tournament 1; N = 86 teams and 359 forecasts), with an opportunity to update forecasts on the basis of new data six months later (Tournament 2; N = 120 teams and 546 forecasts). Benchmarking forecasting accuracy revealed that social scientists’ forecasts were on average no more accurate than those of simple statistical models (historical means, random walks or linear regressions) or the aggregate forecasts of a sample from the general public (N = 802). However, scientists were more accurate if they had scientific expertise in a prediction domain, were interdisciplinary, used simpler models and based predictions on prior data

Oil in the 21st Century: responding to key drivers of change

The ECSSR 16th annual energy conference, The oil era : emerging challenges, held at the center on November 8-10, 2010, and the resultant papers contained in this volume, provide a professional, academic investigation of the challenges that lie ahead for the oil ag

Science Communication gets Personal: Ambivalent Effects of Self-Disclosure in Science Communication on Trust in Science

In an attempt to display themselves as warm, approachable, and trustworthy, researchers might reveal personal details about themselves (i.e., self-disclosure) when communicating their science to the public. Here, we test whether self-disclosure in science communication can actually increase public trust in science. We present six online experiments (overall N=2431), integrate their results in a mini meta-analysis and report a field experiment in a science museum (N=480): In sum, our findings suggest that self-disclosure leads to small, but measurable increases in laypeople’s feelings of closeness towards researchers and perceptions of researchers’ warmth-related trustworthiness; yet, self-disclosure also leads to decreases in competence-related trustworthiness perceptions. The credibility of scientific findings was, overall, unaffected by self-disclosing communication. Findings from the field study further question whether self-disclosure in science communication has any practical relevance

Debunking free market myths: transforming pro-poor, sustainable energy access for climate compatible development

No description supplie