Institutional context, innovations, and energy transitions: Exploring solar photovoltaics with hydrogen storage at a secondary school in Norway

Public administrative action is crucial in facilitating sustainability transitions. Although organizational structures, cultures and established practices have been shown to lead to differing innovation results and technological diffusion at various levels of governance, little attention has been paid to the role of local government and administration in sustainable energy transitions. This study analyses renewable energy innovation at the local level of public administration in Norway. Drawing on the institutional and entrepreneurial literature, we examine the key formal decisions and organizational culture development that, combined with policy entrepreneurship, ultimately led to an unlikely and risky decision: to include a costly and unusual local energy system in the construction of a new secondary school. Tracing the administrative processes over 20 years, and drawing on document data supported by 14 interviews, we find that the strong and politically shielded administrative section, backed by a firm mandate and an established internal culture of innovation anchored in historic and local identity among the population and local industry, led to this decision. These factors were further facilitated by acts of policy entrepreneurship at crucial moments, shaping the underlying structures and institutional culture. The independence and strong direction of the administrative section can be emulated in other contexts in order to facilitate innovation. With suitable adaptations to other contexts, our findings may help to accelerate energy transitions through system innovations elsewhere.Institutional context, innovations, and energy transitions: Exploring solar photovoltaics with hydrogen storage at a secondary school in NorwayacceptedVersio

Exploring paths and innovation in Norwegian carbon capture and storage policy

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Biofuelling the energy transition in Nordic countries: explaining overachievement of EU renewable transport obligations

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Forbrukerfleksibilitet: Et kunnskapsgrunnlag for å forstå husholdningers oppfatninger og muligheter

I Norge ble en ny modell for beregning av nettleie innført 1. juli 2022. Formålet med den nye nettleien er å motivere husholdninger til å fordele strømforbruket jevnere utover døgnet. På tidspunktet hvor den nye nettleien ble planlagt innført var det liten kunnskap om virkninger av slike virkemidler på forbrukere. Flexeffect-prosjektet startet har undersøkt virkninger virkemidler for fleksibel strømbruk på forskjellige husholdningsgrupper. Resultatene viser at mange av forbrukerne forstår og er enige med formålet for ny nettleie. Samtidig gjør utformingen det vanskelig å forstå og tilpasse seg i hverdagslivet og det er konkurrerende signaler og hensyn de må ta. Videre har mange uttrykt bekymring for at den nye nettleien kan få uheldige og urettferdige fordelingsvirkninger. Våre funn viser også at det er krevende for forbrukere å ta i bruk ny teknologi for å øke forbrukerfleksibiliteten. Selv om forbrukerhensyn er nevnt i den politiske rosessen for å innføre ny nettleie er forbrukerne svakt representert i utformingen og forbrukerhensynene som inngår i konsultasjonene har en tendens til å være generelle. Dimensjoner som systembehov er blitt mer vektlagt enn orbrukerbehov og ikke minst forbrukeres evne til tilpasning

Centrally Decentralising? Analysing Key Policies and Pathways in Norway's Electricity Transitions

With national electricity systems, ‘transition’ may involve decentralising production and ownership, and digitalising the system. These processes are facilitated by smart metering, ‘prosuming,’ and changes in consumer behaviour. Driving factors may be national steering, or the process can be left to the market. In Norway, the government has opted for tightly steered national coordination of three key areas: national smart-meter implementation (since 2011), prosumer regulation (since 2016), and a national end-user demand flexibility regulation (expected to be adopted in 2020). These regulations influence production patterns, energy flows and grid activities. Drawing on organisational fields theory, this article asks: Why was it decided to adopt these policies centrally? Which actors have had greatest influence on policy outputs? And, finally, what of the possible implications? The regulations, developed in a sector in a state of field crisis, have generally been supported by the relevant actors. The Norwegian case can help to explain incumbent roles and field crisis, as well as nuanced drivers in complex transitions, beyond decarbonisation.publishedVersio

Centrally Decentralising? Analysing Key Policies and Pathways in Norway's Electricity Transitions

With national electricity systems, ‘transition’ may involve decentralising production and ownership, and digitalising the system. These processes are facilitated by smart metering, ‘prosuming,’ and changes in consumer behaviour. Driving factors may be national steering, or the process can be left to the market. In Norway, the government has opted for tightly steered national coordination of three key areas: national smart-meter implementation (since 2011), prosumer regulation (since 2016), and a national end-user demand flexibility regulation (expected to be adopted in 2020). These regulations influence production patterns, energy flows and grid activities. Drawing on organisational fields theory, this article asks: Why was it decided to adopt these policies centrally? Which actors have had greatest influence on policy outputs? And, finally, what of the possible implications? The regulations, developed in a sector in a state of field crisis, have generally been supported by the relevant actors. The Norwegian case can help to explain incumbent roles and field crisis, as well as nuanced drivers in complex transitions, beyond decarbonisation

Shockingly cold and electricity-dependent in a rich context: Energy poor households in Norway

Norway remains an understudied context for energy poverty. Resting on semi-structured interviews with 17 households located in two general areas around the wider Oslo region, the article draws on Bourdieu's concepts of social fields and capitals, as well as more recent social practice theory. We use this to explore what makes Norwegian households vulnerable to energy poverty, their coping strategies, and implications for health and wellbeing. With its particular reliance on electricity as household energy carrier, general high income-levels, and being at the forefront of the energy transition, the case of Norway generates insights useful for understanding energy poverty implications of decarbonisation. We show that households that are heavily dependent on electricity, have unstable incomes, and live in energy-inefficient rental housing are especially vulnerable. The most marginalised households are typically headed by unemployed persons of working age; dependent on parental assistance to live ‘normal’ lives, and they often struggle with stigmatisation and shame. Lack of access to economic and social capital influences their energy practices and vulnerability in several social fields, also beyond direct living conditions. With increasing electrification of sectors like heating, transport and industry, findings from Norway are relevant to energy-poverty scholarship on electricity dependency and decarbonisation.Shockingly cold and electricity-dependent in a rich context: Energy poor households in NorwayacceptedVersio

Anchoring Policies, Alignment Tensions: Reconciling New Zealand’s Climate Change Act and Emissions Trading Scheme

Climate Change Acts (CCAs) seek to anchor national climate policy by establishing long‐term targets and lines of accountability that guide the development of other climate policy instruments. However, counter‐pressures to modify CCAs can occur where tensions exist with the provisions of already‐established policies that enjoy substantial political and stakeholder support. Such tensions can be especially pronounced where CCAs necessitate major changes to emissions trading schemes (ETSs) that have formed the mainstay of efforts to reduce national emissions. This article employs a novel anchoring policy framework to examine the dynamics of aligning ETSs with CCAs. We investigate debates on reforms to the New Zealand Emissions Trading Scheme following the introduction of the Zero Carbon Act in 2019 to examine how alignment pressures between anchoring and subordinate policies are negotiated. The analysis reveals several tactics used to increase the acceptability of reforms to the New Zealand Emissions Trading Scheme and protect the Zero Carbon Act’s integrity. The article concludes by arguing that a greater understanding of alignment pressures between anchoring and subordinate policies is essential in enabling both CCAs and ETSs to contribute to achieving decarbonisation goals

Policy styles, opportunity structures and proportionality: Comparing renewable electricity policies in the UK

Researchers expect under-reaction in climate policy. However, this might differ depending on the access of different interest groups to a political system. To explore the relationship between entrenched patterns of domestic politics and proportionality of climate policy, we compare two renewables policies which financially support new renewable electricity in the UK. Drawing on the literature on policy styles and related opportunity structures, this article shows that UK political parties have responded to growing public concern and NGO pressure by, at times, trying to out-green one another to win votes. However, powerful industry actors have been influential in shaping UK renewables policies, in particular when political competition about the individual policies has been low. The findings suggest that an over-reaction in terms of exceeding the marginal costs of renewable electricity production is equally likely under conditions of high or low political competition.publishedVersio