Download or read book Local Energy Communities written by Gilles Debizet and published by Taylor & Francis. This book was released on 2022-09-06 with total page 343 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: This book draws on social science analysis to understand the ongoing dynamics within and surrounding local energy communities in reliably electrified countries: Belgium, Canada, Colombia, France, Germany, India, the Netherlands, Spain, Switzerland and the United Kingdom. It offers a comprehensive overview of recent results and thus outlines a diversity of drivers and levers for scaling up energy communities or, at least, local energy sharing. Analysing the main types of energy communities such as collective self-consumption, citizen cooperatives and peer-to-peer digital platforms, the book does not only raise new questions for social scientists, but also offers a comprehensive overview for all those contributing to the circular economy and the decentralization of energy production in inhabited areas where energy consumption is concentrated. This book provides input for the ongoing debates in many European countries implementing the national law on the European directives for energy communities. Furthermore, without evading the antagonism between cooperative and market approaches, or the contradictions between different issues, the book outlines the innovative decision-making tools that can facilitate the development of local energy production and sharing systems. As well as being of interest to postgraduates and researchers in the field of energy studies, this book will be vital to energy professionals looking to support local energy communities’ decision-making and design, who wish to consider sociological, organizational and territorial dimensions.

Download or read book The Transition Handbook written by Rob Hopkins and published by Bloomsbury Publishing. This book was released on 2008-02-25 with total page 242 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: Move from feeling anxious about the oil crisis to developing a positive visions and taking traction action to create a more self-reliant existence with this ground-breaking book. We live in an oil-dependent world, and have become reliant in a very short space of time, using vast reserves of oil in the process – and without planning for when the supply is not so plentiful. Most of us avoid thinking about what happens when the oil runs out (or becomes prohibitively expensive), but the reality may not be as bad as we think. The Transition Handbook shows how the inevitable and profound changes ahead could have a positive effect. Written by permaculture expert Rob Hopkins, he discusses the possibility of a rebirth of local communities, which will generate their own fuel, food and housing. These will encourage the development of local currencies, to keep money in the local area, and unleash a local 'skilling-up', so that people have more control over their lives. The growth in interest in the Transition model continues to be exponential. There are now more than 35 formal Transition Initiatives in the UK, including towns, cities, islands, villages and peninsulas, with more joining as the idea takes off. With little proactivity at government level, communities are taking matters into their own hands and acting locally. If your community has not yet become a Transition Initiative, this upbeat guide, filled with beautiful black and white photographs, offers you the tools to get started. The Transition Handbook is the perfect manual to guide communities, as they begin this 'energy descent' journey.

Download or read book Local Energy Governance written by Magali Dreyfus and published by Taylor & Francis. This book was released on 2022-03-30 with total page 293 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: Local Energy Governance: Opportunities and Challenges for Renewable and Decentralised Energy in France and Japan examines the extent of the energy transition taking place at a local level in France and Japan, two countries that share ambitious targets regarding the reduction of GHG emissions, their share of renewable energy and their degree of market liberalization. This book observes local energy policies and initiatives and applies an institutional and legal analysis to help identify barriers but also opportunities in the development of renewable energies in the territories. The book will highlight governance features that incubate energy transition at the local level through interdisciplinary contributions that offer legal, political, sociological and technological perspectives. Overall, the book will draw conclusions that will also be informative for other countries aiming at promoting renewable energies. This book will be of great interest to students and scholars of energy policy and energy governance.

Download or read book Smart Grids and Buildings for Energy and Societal Transition written by Benoît Robyns and published by John Wiley & Sons. This book was released on 2024-08-28 with total page 341 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: This book presents interdisciplinary approaches to help buildings, electrical energy networks and their users contribute to the energy and societal transition. Smart Grids and Buildings for Energy and Societal Transition examines the technologies, uses and imaginaries involved in implementing smart buildings and smart grids. Production and consumption forecasts, modeling of stakeholder involvement and self-consumption within a renewable energy community exploiting blockchain technology are examples developed with a view to fostering the emergence of smart grids. The potential of smart buildings, taking into account user comfort while increasing energy efficiency, is identified. Full-scale demonstrators are used to test the proposed solutions, and to ensure that users take full advantage of the potential for electrical flexibility.

Download or read book Coexistence and Confrontation of Agricultural and Food Models written by Pierre Gasselin and published by Springer Nature. This book was released on 2023-04-03 with total page 331 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: This book analyses situations of coexistence and confrontation of agricultural and food models according to four major dimensions of territorial development: the tension between specialisation and diversification; innovation; adaptation; and food transition. New agricultural and food models are being deployed in territories around the world in response to criticisms of the old forms of agriculture and food production, and in order to meet new challenges. These models embody archetypes of the observed diversity, actors’ projects or new norms. A number of conceptual studies and case studies from France and other countries allow us to understand the interactions between these models (confrontation, complementarity, co-evolution, hybridisation, etc.), taking us well beyond the characterisation of their diversity and the evaluation of their relative performances. The coexistence and confrontation of these models build up their capacity for radical change. The book asks original questions about the analytical framework, its methodological challenges and the expected outcomes for the support of agricultural and food development in rural and urban territories. It is intended for researchers, teachers, students and professionals interested in territorial development. Pierre Gasselin, Sylvie Lardon, Claire Cerdan, Salma Loudiyi and Denis Sautier are the scientific coordinators of this book. They are geographers and economists at CIRAD, INRAE and VetAgro Sup, where they conduct research on the transformation of agriculture, food systems and territories in France and other countries. This book is the result of a collective research process involving 36 authors from Argentina, Belgium, Brazil, Burkina Faso, France, Japan, Switzerland and Vietnam. Jan Douwe van der Ploeg, author of the Foreword, is Professor Emeritus of Rural Sociology at Wageningen University & Research in the Netherlands and Associate Professor of Agricultural Sociology at the China Agricultural University in Beijing. He has conducted extensive research on processes of agricultural transition and on dynamics of rural development.

Download or read book Water Cultural Diversity and Global Environmental Change written by Barbara Rose Johnston and published by Springer Science & Business Media. This book was released on 2011-12-07 with total page 594 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: Co-published with UNESCO A product of the UNESCO-IHP project on Water and Cultural Diversity, this book represents an effort to examine the complex role water plays as a force in sustaining, maintaining, and threatening the viability of culturally diverse peoples. It is argued that water is a fundamental human need, a human right, and a core sustaining element in biodiversity and cultural diversity. The core concepts utilized in this book draw upon a larger trend in sustainability science, a recognition of the synergism and analytical potential in utilizing a coupled biological and social systems analysis, as the functioning viability of nature is both sustained and threatened by humans.

Download or read book Energy Transitions written by Olivier Labussière and published by Springer. This book was released on 2018-04-30 with total page 361 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: This book elucidates what it means to transition to alternative sources of energy and discusses the potential for this energy transition to be a more democratic process. The book dynamically describes a recent sociotechnical study of a number of energy transitions occurring in several countries - France, Germany and Tunisia, and involving different energy technologies - including solar, on/off-shore wind, smart grids, biomass, low-energy buildings, and carbon capture and storage. Drawing on a pragmatist tradition of social inquiry, the authors examine the consequences of energy transition processes for the actors and entities that are affected by them, as well as the spaces for political participation they offer. This critical inquiry is organised according to foundational categories that have defined the energy transition - ‘renewable’ energy resources, markets, economic instruments, technological demonstration, spatiality (‘scale’) and temporality (‘horizon(s)’). Using a set of select case studies, this book systematically investigates the role these categories play in the current developments in energy transitions.

Download or read book Farming Systems Research into the 21st Century The New Dynamic written by Ika Darnhofer and published by Springer Science & Business Media. This book was released on 2012-05-30 with total page 488 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: Farming Systems Research has three core characteristics: it builds on systems thinking, it depends on the close collaboration between social and biophysical sciences, and it relies on participation to build co-learning processes. Farming Systems Research posits that to contribute towards sustainable rural development, both interdisciplinary collaborations and local actor engagement are needed. Together, they allow for changes in understanding and changes in practices. This book gives an overview of the insights generated in 20 years of Farming Systems Research. It retraces the emergence and development of Farming Systems Research in Europe, summarises the state-of-the-art for key areas, and provides an outlook on new explorations, especially those tackling the dynamic nature of farming systems and their interaction with the natural environment and the context of action.

Download or read book Conflictualit s Contemporaines written by Pascal Touoyem and published by African Books Collective. This book was released on 2023-01-30 with total page 327 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: Comment penser la puissance africaine et les enjeux de la transition hgmonique globale au 21e sicle ? Telle est la question thmatique centrale de cet ouvrage qui se veut un cahier de recherche doctrinale en polmologie et en irnologie endognes, dans un contexte o la mondialisation des enjeux scuritaires signifie pour lAfrique, un reclassement gostratgique du continent o le maintien de la paix et la rsolution des conflits sont devenus un terrain daffirmation de puissance. Analytique et oprationnelle, cette publication est le fruit de nombreuses expriences de terrain, de missions denseignements, de travaux ditoriaux, de publications scientifiques et de confrences internationales.

Download or read book Dans la fabrique des transitions cologiques written by Geoffrey Carrère and published by Editions L'Harmattan. This book was released on 2019-10-25 with total page 326 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: Cet ouvrage explore et propose des analyses de processus parfois compliqués qui affectent les métiers et le gouvernement des collectifs. De quelle manière l'environnement bouscule-t-il les collectifs humains ? Comment certaines professions (agriculteurs, acteurs du tourisme, professions médicales) se remettent-elles en question pour tenir compte de l'environnement ? Quelles dynamiques de collectifs, de citoyens ou de territoires oeuvrent pour entrer en transition (agriculture urbaine, coopératives énergétiques, territoires en transition, offre locale de tourisme, mouvement de sobriété heureuse) ? Quels imaginaires habitent ces collectifs et conduisent les scientifiques eux-mêmes à questionner leurs postures et collaborations ?

Download or read book Eskom written by Sylvy Jaglin and published by Juta and Company (Pty) Ltd. This book was released on 2016-08-16 with total page 196 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: Africa’s leading producer of electricity, Eskom Holdings SOC Ltd, is also a vertically integrated monopoly, owned by the South African state. This national champion was shaken in 2008, when it was obliged to introduce ‘load shedding’, or rolling blackouts, and again in late 2014. Trying to understand how and why one of the iconic pillars of South African state capitalism is now in distress, the authors of this book argue that the so-called electricity crisis is in fact a public monopoly crisis. Moving beyond technical aspects, they explore the relationship between state power and Eskom before, during and after apartheid. From this perspective, they suggest that the current technical and financial troubles of this public utility are illustrative of the weakening of its technopolitical regime, of how national institutions have governed Eskom’s technological development, and of the pursuit of political goals in the production of electrical power. Without a clear industrial strategy during the 2000s, Eskom became a powerful tool of Broad-Black Economic Empowerment as well as a neopatrimonial system which generates profits captured by the ruling party. As a result, crisis in Eskom shakes the whole political edifice. Inefficient and its finances increasingly under scrutiny, this state-owned enterprise’s existence as a monopolistic public utility is regularly a subject of debate. The authors discuss the ambivalent role of Eskom in the national energy transition policy and whether solutions point in the direction of de-integrating this public monopoly and allowing its current technopolitical regime to enter a planned or natural decline.

Download or read book The Iceman and his Natural Environment written by Sigmar Bortenschlager and published by Springer Science & Business Media. This book was released on 2012-12-06 with total page 196 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: Before the discovery of the "Man in the Ice" in temporal context. On the other hand the reconstruc tion of the Iceman's life-style as derived from data September 1991, little was known about the Neolithic obtained from the site has to be correlated with inde period in the Central Alps. Suddenly and without precedent, here was the very well preserved corpse of pendent data sets. For that purpose pollen analysis was a man who had lived more than 5,000 years ago with his performed on peat-bogs in the vicinity of the find and clothing and equipment almost intact. The discovery further afield to obtain precise data on the vegetation was not just deservedly a world-wide sensation but a cover and climate in the Neolithic. Pollen analysis was unique opportunity for the scientific community to in performed for a vertical transect extending from the vestigate the life and death of a human from such very timber line almost up to the nival zone. The results of ancient times. It opened up wholly new horizons in the analyses reveal changes to the vegetation patterns prehistoric research, and with the help of a full range caused by pastoral farming long before the time of the of modern research techniques an attempt was made Iceman.

Download or read book The Transition Timeline for a Local Resilient Future written by Shaun Chamberlin and published by Chelsea Green Publishing. This book was released on 2009 with total page 311 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: The Transition Timeline lightens the fear of our uncertain future, providing a map of what we are facing and the different pathways available to us. It describes four possible scenarios for the UK and world over the next twenty years, ranging from Denial, in which we reap the consequences of failing to acknowledge and respond to our environmental challenges, to the Transition Vision, in which we shift our cultural assumptions to fit our circumstances and move into a more fulfilling, lower energy world. The practical, realistic details of this Transition Vision are examined in depth, covering key areas such as food, energy, demographics, transport and healthcare, and they provide a sense of context for communities working towards a thriving future. The book also provides a detailed and accessible update on climate change and peak oil and the interactions between them, including their impacts in the UK, present and future.Use it. Choose your path, and then make that future real with your actions, individually and with your community. As Rob Hopkins outlines in his foreword, there is a rapidly spreading movement addressing these challenges, and it needs you.

Download or read book Terra 2008 written by Leslie Rainer and published by Getty Publications. This book was released on 2011-06-14 with total page 438 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: Earthen architecture constitutes one of the most diverse forms of cultural heritage and one of the most challenging to preserve. It dates from all periods and is found on all continents but is particularly prevalent in Africa, where it has been a building tradition for centuries. Sites range from ancestral cities in Mali to the palaces of Abomey in Benin, from monuments and mosques in Iran and Buddhist temples on the Silk Road to Spanish missions in California. This volume's sixty-four papers address such themes as earthen architecture in Mali, the conservation of living sites, local knowledge systems and intangible aspects, seismic and other natural forces, the conservation and management of archaeological sites, research advances, and training.

Download or read book Knowing our lands and resources written by Roué, Marie and published by UNESCO Publishing. This book was released on 2017-04-03 with total page 150 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt:

Download or read book Energy and the English Industrial Revolution written by E. A. Wrigley and published by Cambridge University Press. This book was released on 2010-08-19 with total page 287 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: Retrospective: 9.

Download or read book Consuming Power written by David E. Nye and published by MIT Press. This book was released on 1999-02-18 with total page 498 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: Nye uses energy as a touchstone to examine the lives of ordinary people engaged in normal activities. How did the United States become the world's largest consumer of energy? David Nye shows that this is less a question about the development of technology than it is a question about the development of culture. In Consuming Power, Nye uses energy as a touchstone to examine the lives of ordinary people engaged in normal activities. He looks at how these activities changed as new energy systems were constructed, from colonial times to recent years. He also shows how, as Americans incorporated new machines and processes into their lives, they became ensnared in power systems that were not easily changed: they made choices about the conduct of their lives, and those choices accumulated to produce a consuming culture. Nye examines a sequence of large systems that acquired and then lost technological momentum over the course of American history, including water power, steam power, electricity, the internal-combustion engine, atomic power, and computerization. He shows how each system became part of a larger set of social constructions through its links to the home, the factory, and the city. The result is a social history of America as seen through the lens of energy consumption.