Socio-technical transitions in UK electricity: part 2 - technologies and sustainability

A large interdisciplinary consortium of engineers, social scientists and policy analysts has developed three low-emissions, more-electric transition pathways for the UK. The approach is based on earlier work on understanding transitions, applying a multi-level perspective with landscape, regime and niche levels to the development of sociotechnical scenarios. The pathways to 2050 focus on the power sector, including the potential for increasing the use of low-emissions electricity for heating and transport. Part 1 described studies of historical energy and infrastructure transitions that help to understand the dynamics and timing of past transitions. The role of large-scale and small-scale actors in the electricity sector and methods used to develop the pathways were also described. In part 2, associated technologies are evaluated to determine the choices that need to be made by UK energy policymakers and stakeholders. All three pathways are appraised in terms of their environmental performance using complementary life-cycle assessment and footprinting methods. Lessons can clearly be drawn for other industrialised nations attempting to reduce the emissions of their electricity generation systems, although local circumstances will determine country- and region-specific options

Socio-technical transitions in UK electricity: part 1 – history, actors and pathways

A large interdisciplinary consortium of engineers, social scientists and policy analysts has developed three low-emissions, more-electric transition pathways for the UK. The approach is based on earlier work on understanding transitions, applying a multi-level perspective with landscape, regime and niche levels to the development of sociotechnical scenarios. The pathways to 2050 focus on the power sector, including the potential for increasing the use of low-emissions electricity for heating and transport. Part 1 describes studies of historical energy and infrastructure transitions that help to understand the dynamics and timing of past transitions. The role of large-scale and small-scale actors in the electricity sector and methods used to develop the pathways are then described. In part 2, associated technologies are evaluated to determine the choices that need to be made by UK energy policymakers and stakeholders. All three pathways are appraised in terms of their environmental performance using complementary life-cycle assessment and footprinting methods. Lessons can clearly be drawn for other industrialised nations attempting to reduce the emissions from their electricity generation systems, although local circumstances will determine country- and region-specific options

Developing transition pathways for a low carbon electricity system in the UK

This paper describes outline transition pathways for a low carbon energy system in the UK, which are currently being developed in a collaborative research project, involving leading UK engineers, social scientists and policy analysts. The pathways are exploring different governance patterns, relating to the roles of central government, market actors and structures, and civil society, in relation to both centralised and decentralised systems for meeting energy service demands. This work is using a conceptual and analytical framework for specifying transition pathways that relates the multi-level perspective of landscape, regime and niche levels to recent work on technological innovation systems. The specification of the pathways draws on earlier work on UK energy and international energy scenarios, initial interviews with ‘gatekeepers’ from the UK energy policy and industry communities, and useful insights from a workshop with invited stakeholders from the policy-making, industry and academic communities, held in November 2008. The pathways explore how social and political issues, such as public acceptability of different technologies and institutional changes, the mixture of short-term and long-term drivers and influences affecting policy-making, and the strategies of large and small firms, interact or ‘co-evolve’ with present and expected future changes in technologies

Transition pathways for a low carbon energy system in the UK: co-evolution of governance processes and technologies

This paper describes the formulation of transition pathways for a low carbon (electrical) energy system in the UK. It uses an approach based on earlier work on understanding transitions, using a multi-level perspective with landscape, regime and niche levels, and its application to the development of ‘socio-technical scenarios’. The paper describes four outline transition pathways for UK energy systems, based on the co-evolution of governance systems and technologies

Transition pathways for a low carbon electricity system in the UK: Key findings and policy messages

This paper describes the key findings and policy messages from an inter-disciplinary project developing and analysing transition pathways for a UK low carbon electricity system in the UK to 2050. The project is a collaboration between leading UK engineers, social scientists and policy analysts, supported by the Engineering and Physical Sciences Research Council (EPSRC) and the energy company E.ON. Three core transition pathways explore alternative future pathways for the evolution of the UK electricity system under different governance arrangements, dominated by market, government and civil society logics respectively. The paper outlines these three core transition pathways, and briefly summarises insights from demand side, supply side, and whole systems appraisal analyses of the pathways. The pathways demonstrate that governance and regulatory frameworks will have a significant influence on the mix of low carbon generation options, the level of future energy service demands (including additional demand from electrification of heating and transport services) and mix of centralized and distributed generation. The paper also highlights the significant challenges facing market actors, energy users, social movements and policy-makers in realizing any of these pathways. The adoption of low-carbon generation and energy efficiency technologies will depend on changes to market and regulatory frameworks, to strategies of large and small firms, to practices of how households and businesses use energy. How these changes interact or ‘co-evolve’ will determine the nature of the pathway and the risks in realising it. Finally, the paper summarises how analysis of and reflection on these pathways could help to inform decision-making by government, firms and wider society on steps needed to realise a transition to a low carbon electricity future

De novo assembly of the cattle reference genome with single-molecule sequencing.

BackgroundMajor advances in selection progress for cattle have been made following the introduction of genomic tools over the past 10-12 years. These tools depend upon the Bos taurus reference genome (UMD3.1.1), which was created using now-outdated technologies and is hindered by a variety of deficiencies and inaccuracies.ResultsWe present the new reference genome for cattle, ARS-UCD1.2, based on the same animal as the original to facilitate transfer and interpretation of results obtained from the earlier version, but applying a combination of modern technologies in a de novo assembly to increase continuity, accuracy, and completeness. The assembly includes 2.7 Gb and is >250× more continuous than the original assembly, with contig N50 >25 Mb and L50 of 32. We also greatly expanded supporting RNA-based data for annotation that identifies 30,396 total genes (21,039 protein coding). The new reference assembly is accessible in annotated form for public use.ConclusionsWe demonstrate that improved continuity of assembled sequence warrants the adoption of ARS-UCD1.2 as the new cattle reference genome and that increased assembly accuracy will benefit future research on this species

Binary solvent system used to fabricate fully annealing-free perovskite solar cells

High temperature post-deposition annealing of hybrid lead halide perovskite thin films—typically lasting at least 10 min—dramatically limits the maximum roll-to-roll coating speed, which determines solar module manufacturing costs. While several approaches for “annealing-free” perovskite solar cells (PSCs) have been demonstrated, many are of limited feasibility for scalable fabrication. Here, this work has solvent-engineered a high vapor pressure solvent mixture of 2-methoxy ethanol and tetrahydrofuran to deposit highly crystalline perovskite thin-films at room temperature using gas-quenching to remove the volatile solvents. Using this approach, this work demonstrates p-i-n devices with an annealing-free MAPbI3 perovskite layer achieving stabilized power conversion efficiencies (PCEs) of up to 18.0%, compared to 18.4% for devices containing an annealed perovskite layer. This work then explores the deposition of self-assembled molecules as the hole-transporting layer without annealing. This work finally combines the methods to create fully annealing-free devices having stabilized PCEs of up to 17.1%. This represents the state-of-the-art for annealing-free fabrication of PSCs with a process fully compatible with roll-to-roll manufacture