Download or read book Energy Transition and the Local Community written by Dan Rose and published by University of Pennsylvania Press. This book was released on 2016-11-11 with total page 212 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: The worldwide shift from coal to oil-based technology was devastating for many local communities. Energy Transition and the Local Community is the story of one such community: Hazleton, Pennsylvania. Hazleton's economy, dependent solely on the mining of surrounding beds of anthracite coal, was destroyed by the changeover to oil. Yet Hazleton, when confronted with a catastrophic recession and a declining population, organized to attract new industry and eventually saw its local economy revitalized. Local communities are deeply affected whenever new forms of energy are exploited and older forms abandoned. Those communities, however, are almost uniformly ignored in ecological, environmental, and policy statements. Dan Rose, a specialist in the emerging science of human ecology, observes how energy-linked world economic fluctuations directly affect local economies. By merging theory with actual data from small communities, Rose is able to demonstrate how the decreasing availability of petroleum is pushing developed countries—exemplified by the community of Hazleton, Pennsylvania— into a new wave of recession. Hazleton, as an example, offers hope. Using this community's experience to build a model, Rose defines both the vulnerability and the strength of local populations whose fortunes rest with the energy economy of the world. A working knowledge of this model will contribute to our understanding of human adaptation and help national and local leaders cope with an imminent energy changeover.
Download or read book Renewable Energy Communities and the Low Carbon Energy Transition in Europe written by Frans H. J. M. Coenen and published by Springer Nature. This book was released on 2022-01-03 with total page 289 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: This volume addresses renewable energy communities, and in particular renewable energy cooperatives (REScoops), in the context of the revised EU Renewables Directive. It provides a comprehensive account of the history and development of the renewable energy community movement in over six different countries of continental Europe. It addresses their visions, strategy, organisation, agency, and more particularly the challenges they encounter. This is of particular importance to gain more understanding into how renewable energy communities fare in domestic energy markets where they are confronted with regime institutions, structures and incumbents’ agency that tend to favour maintaining of the status quo while blocking attempts to empower and institutionalise renewable energy communities as market entrants having a disruptive, radical green and localist agenda. This volume will be an invaluable reference for academics and practitioners with an interest in social innovation in sustainable transitions, the role of community energy in energy markets, their agency, as well as an outlook to the impact that the EU Renewables Directive may have to change national legislation and policy frameworks to create a level playing field that is essentially more fair and beneficial to renewable energy communities.
Download or read book Revolutionary Power written by Shalanda Baker and published by Island Press. This book was released on 2021-01-14 with total page 226 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: In September 2017, Hurricane Maria hit Puerto Rico, completely upending the energy grid of the small island. The nearly year-long power outage that followed vividly shows how the new climate reality intersects with race and access to energy. The island is home to brown and black US citizens who lack the political power of those living in the continental US. As the world continues to warm and storms like Maria become more commonplace, it is critical that we rethink our current energy system to enable reliable, locally produced, and locally controlled energy without replicating the current structures of power and control. In Revolutionary Power, Shalanda Baker arms those made most vulnerable by our current energy system with the tools they need to remake the system in the service of their humanity. She argues that people of color, poor people, and indigenous people must engage in the creation of the new energy system in order to upend the unequal power dynamics of the current system. Revolutionary Power is a playbook for the energy transformation complete with a step-by-step analysis of the key energy policy areas that are ripe for intervention. Baker tells the stories of those who have been left behind in our current system and those who are working to be architects of a more just system. She draws from her experience as an energy-justice advocate, a lawyer, and a queer woman of color to inspire activists working to build our new energy system. Climate change will force us to rethink the way we generate and distribute energy and regulate the system. But how much are we willing to change the system? This unique moment in history provides an unprecedented opening for a deeper transformation of the energy system, and thus, an opportunity to transform society. Revolutionary Power shows us how.
Download or read book Complex Systems and Social Practices in Energy Transitions written by Nicola Labanca and published by Springer. This book was released on 2017-05-02 with total page 337 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: This book offers an interdisciplinary discussion of the fundamental issues concerning policies for sustainable transition to renewable energies from the perspectives of sociologists, physicists, engineers, economists, anthropologists, biologists, ecologists and policy analysts. Adopting a combined approach, these are analysed taking both complex systems and social practice theories into consideration to provide deeper insights into the evolution of energy systems. The book then draws a series of important conclusions and makes recommendations for the research community and policy makers involved in the design and implementation of policies for sustainable energy transitions.
Download or read book Renewables written by Michael Aklin and published by MIT Press. This book was released on 2018-03-23 with total page 345 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: A comprehensive political analysis of the rapid growth in renewable wind and solar power, mapping an energy transition through theory, case studies, and policy. Wind and solar are the most dynamic components of the global power sector. How did this happen? After the 1973 oil crisis, the limitations of an energy system based on fossil fuels created an urgent need to experiment with alternatives, and some pioneering governments reaped political gains by investing heavily in alternative energy such as wind or solar power. Public policy enabled growth over time, and economies of scale brought down costs dramatically. In this book, Michaël Aklin and Johannes Urpelainen offer a comprehensive political analysis of the rapid growth in renewable wind and solar power, mapping an energy transition through theory, case studies, and policy analysis. Aklin and Urpelainen argue that, because the fossil fuel energy system and political support for it are so entrenched, only an external shock—an abrupt rise in oil prices, or a nuclear power accident, for example—allows renewable energy to grow. They analyze the key factors that enable renewable energy to withstand political backlash, andt they draw on this analyisis to explain and predict the development of renewable energy in different countries over time. They examine the pioneering efforts in the United States, Germany, and Denmark after the 1973 oil crisis and other shocks; explain why the United States surrendered its leadership role in renewable energy; and trace the recent rapid growth of modern renewables in electricity generation, describing, among other things, the return of wind and solar to the United States. Finally, they apply the lessons of their analysis to contemporary energy policy issues.
Download or read book Energy Democracy written by Denise Fairchild and published by Island Press. This book was released on 2017-10-12 with total page 290 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: The near-unanimous consensus among climate scientists is that the massive burning of gas, oil, and coal is having cataclysmic impacts on our atmosphere and climate. These climate and environmental impacts are particularly magnified and debilitating for low-income communities and communities of color. Energy democracy tenders a response and joins the environmental and climate movement with broader movements for social and economic change in this country and around the world. Energy Democracy brings together racial, cultural, and generational perspectives to show what an alternative, democratized energy future can look like. The book will inspire others to take up the struggle to build the energy democracy movement.
Download or read book Energy Transition written by Jens Lowitzsch and published by Springer. This book was released on 2019-01-09 with total page 797 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: Consumer (co-)ownership in renewable energy (RE) is essential to the overall success of Energy Transition. In June 2018, the European Union agreed on a corresponding enabling framework as part of a recast of the Renewable Energy Directive (RED II). The transposition of these comprehensive rules – in particular those on local RE communities – requires developing, implementing and rolling out business models that broaden the capital participation of consumers. The challenge is to include municipalities and/or commercial investors like SMEs and advance to economies of scale while retaining the benefits of individual consumer participation. This book is addressed to energy consumers in local communities, their municipalities and to the policy makers who represent them. Additionally, non-EU countries, in particular those where rural areas have limited access to energy, e.g. in Asia, Africa and Latin America, may be interested in the benefits of consumer ownership. While demand for energy in developing countries is growing, access to energy is crucial for improving the quality of life. The editor of this book presents a new model of consumer ownership in RE for both the EU and countries worldwide. Part One describes the rationale for consumer ownership in RE with regard to social, organizational, legal and financial conditions. Part Two discusses the issue of financing RE and introduces a new financing technique, the Consumer Stock Ownership Plan (CSOP), comparing it to traditional models. Part Three provides 18 country studies from Europe, North America, South America and Asia, organized so as to enable a cross-country comparison of policy approaches and feasibility. Policy recommendations are based on the results of this survey. Part Four summarizes, compares the best practice cases, presents a cost-benefit analysis of “prosumage” and against this background evaluates the impact on future policy.
Download or read book Energy Transition in the Baltic Sea Region written by Farid Karimi and published by Routledge. This book was released on 2022-02-27 with total page 227 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: This book analyses the potential for active stakeholder engagement in the energy transition in the Baltic Sea Region (BSR) in order to foster clean energy deployment. Public acceptability and bottom-up activities can be critical for enduring outcomes to an energy transition. As a result, it is vital to understand how to unlock the potential for public, community and prosumer participation to facilitate renewable energy deployment and a clean energy transition – and, consequently, to examine the factors influencing social acceptability. Focussing on the diverse BSR, this book draws on expert contributions to consider a range of different topics, including the challenges of social acceptance and its policy implications; strategies to address challenges of acceptability among stakeholders; and community engagement in clean energy production. Overall, the authors examine the practical implications of current policy measures and provide recommendations on how lessons learnt from this ‘energy lab region’ may be applied to other regions. Reflecting an interdisciplinary approach in the social sciences, this book is an essential resource for scholars, students and policymakers researching and working in the areas of renewable energy, energy policy and citizen engagement, and interested in understanding the potential for bottom-up, grassroots activities and social acceptability to expedite the energy transition and reanimate democracies. The Open Access version of this book, available at www.taylorfrancis.com, has been made available under a Creative Commons Attribution-Non Commercial-No Derivatives 4.0 license.
Download or read book Local Governments and Climate Change written by Maryke van Staden and published by Springer Science & Business Media. This book was released on 2010-04-05 with total page 462 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: Global warming is changing the world as we know it. Climate change can have catastrophic impacts in numerous cities across the world. It is time for us to react – quickly and effectively. The European Community (EC) has been leading the fight against climate change, making it one of its top priorities. We have introduced the most ambitious targets of their kind, known as the “20/20/20 by 2020” initiative within the “Climate Action and Renewable Energy Package.” As a result, European Member States have taken on a commitment to curb their CO emissions by at least 20% by 2020. 2 These targets are indeed commendable; however, they are only the start if we are to avoid the consequences of global warming. Whilst top level coordination from the European Institutions and Member State governments is vital, the role of mitigating and adapting to climate change at local level must not be forgotten. In fact, here cities, regions and their citizens play a significant a role. It is therefore vital they become directly involved in the climate change challenge. The European Commission therefore launched in 2008 a new initiative, the Covenant of Mayors, which brings together a network of European mayors in a voluntary effort to go beyond the European Union’s already ambitious targets. Half of our greenhouse gas emissions (GHGs) are created in and by cities.
Download or read book Energy Communities written by Sabine Loebbe and published by Academic Press. This book was released on 2022-07-01 with total page 516 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: Energy Communities explores core potential systemic benefits and costs in engaging consumers into communities, particularly relating to energy transition. The book evaluates the conditions under which energy communities might be regarded as customer-centered, market-driven and welfare-enhancing. The book also reviews the issue of prevalence and sustainability of energy communities and whether these features are likely to change as opportunities for distributed energy grow. Sections cover the identification of welfare considerations for citizens and for society on a local and national level, and from social, economic and ecological perspectives, while also considering different community designs and evolving business models. Defines and conceptualizes the energy community for the current generation of researchers and practitioners facing the energy transition Explores the main benefits and challenges in forming energy communities and to what extent they are welfare-enhancing Examines under what terms, conditions, regulations or policies energy communities can be beneficially and successfully organized and why Reviews the combination of business models and forms of organization which are conducive to economic feasibility and the commercial success of energy communities
Download or read book Dilemmas of Energy Transitions in the Global South written by Ankit Kumar and published by Routledge. This book was released on 2021-06-16 with total page 190 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: This book explores how, in the wake of the Anthropocene, the growing call for urgent decarbonisation and accelerated energy transitions might have unintended consequences for energy poverty, justice and democracy, especially in the global South. Dilemmas of Energy Transitions in the Global South brings together theoretical and empirical contributions focused on rethinking energy transitions conceptually from and for the global South, and highlights issues of justice and inclusivity. It argues that while urgency is critical for energy transitions in a climate-changed world, we must be wary of conflating goals and processes, and enquire what urgency means for due process. Drawing from a range of authors with expertise spanning environmental justice, design theory, ethics of technology, conflict and gender, it examines case studies from countries including Bolivia, Sri Lanka, India, The Gambia and Lebanon in order to expand our understanding of what energy transitions are, and how just energy transitions can be done in different parts of the world. Overall, driven by a postcolonial and decolonial sensibility, this book brings to the fore new concepts and ideas to help balance the demands of justice and urgency, to flag relevant but often overlooked issues, and to provide new pathways forward. This volume will be of great interest to students and scholars of energy transitions, environmental justice, climate change and developing countries. The Open Access version of this book, available at https://www.taylorfrancis.com/books/oa-edit/10.4324/9781003052821 has been made available under a Creative Commons Attribution-Non Commercial-No Derivatives 4.0 license.
Download or read book Communities and the Clean Energy Revolution written by Melanie J. La Rosa and published by Rowman & Littlefield. This book was released on 2022-01-14 with total page 251 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: Communities and the Clean Energy Revolution: Public Health, Economics, Design, and Transformation is an engaging and interdisciplinary investigation into clean energy systems such as solar and wind power and the need to transform our energy system. Looking at the intersection of clean energy with community engagement, diversity, and economic development, it is a remarkably accessible account from the front lines of the clean energy revolution. Organized as a series of case studies set in eight locations, the author profiles people leading varied renewable energy projects from using solar to survive hurricanes to passing a Green New Deal bill for America’s largest city, the beginnings of the offshore wind industry, modular solar power systems, and changing the culture of an entire utility. Each case study is set into context of broader research, addressing how cities and states meet clean energy goals, howsolar or wind power address blackouts, and how individuals can accelerate clean energy for their home, business, or community. This book goes beyond merely explaining clean energy transition by providing unique insight into the calls for a complete transformation of America’s energy system.
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 Handbook of the Politics of the Arctic written by Leif Christian Jensen and published by Edward Elgar Publishing. This book was released on 2015-09-25 with total page 640 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: The Arctic has again become one of the leading issues on the international foreign policy agenda, in a manner unseen since the Cold War. Drawing on the perspectives of geo-politics and international law, this Handbook offers fresh insights and perspectives on the most pressing issues, grouped under the headings of political ascendancy, climate and environmental issues, resources and energy, and the response and policies of affected countries.
Download or read book The Geopolitics of the Global Energy Transition written by Manfred Hafner and published by Springer Nature. This book was released on 2020-06-09 with total page 398 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: The world is currently undergoing an historic energy transition, driven by increasingly stringent decarbonisation policies and rapid advances in low-carbon technologies. The large-scale shift to low-carbon energy is disrupting the global energy system, impacting whole economies, and changing the political dynamics within and between countries. This open access book, written by leading energy scholars, examines the economic and geopolitical implications of the global energy transition, from both regional and thematic perspectives. The first part of the book addresses the geopolitical implications in the world’s main energy-producing and energy-consuming regions, while the second presents in-depth case studies on selected issues, ranging from the geopolitics of renewable energy, to the mineral foundations of the global energy transformation, to governance issues in connection with the changing global energy order. Given its scope, the book will appeal to researchers in energy, climate change and international relations, as well as to professionals working in the energy industry.
Download or read book Understanding the Energy Transition written by Natalia Magnani and published by Springer Nature. This book was released on 2021-11-22 with total page 109 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: The transformation of the dominant model of centralized energy production from fossil fuels to renewable energies is at the center of the public and scientific debate, as well as the subject of national and European policies, as it is connected to highly topical issues such as climate change, emissions reduction and natural disasters, security of supply and sustainability of the current economic development model. Up to now this topic has been mainly addressed by the economic and engineering sciences, with a research focus on the hardware rather than on the human and social software. However, energy systems, and the possibilities of change, are not only economic or technological but involve also patterns of social life, representations, organizational models and relational structures. In order to generate the social preconditions for the transition to a low-emission society, focused on a growing production of energy from renewable sources and on a greater sustainability of consumption, it is therefore urgent to reaffirm the centrality of a sociological approach to energy. This book focused on three core research areas which are crucial to understand what is at stake with the energy transition: conflicts over the construction and location of renewable energy production plants; collective action on renewable sources that promote a new model of energy system in which consumers are also producers; and the social-territorial impact of energy policies.
Download or read book Energy Sprawl Solutions written by Joseph M. Kiesecker and published by Island Press. This book was released on 2017-06-15 with total page 194 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: Over the next several decades, as human populations grow, the demand for energy will soar. But renewable energy sources have a large energy sprawl--the amount of land needed to produce energy--which can threaten biodiversity. In Energy Sprawl Solutions, scientists Joseph M. Kiesecker and David Naugle provide a roadmap for preserving biodiversity despite the threats of energy sprawl. Their strategy--development by design--identifies and sets aside land where biodiversity can thrive while consolidating development in areas with lower biodiversity value. This contributed volume features case studies from countries around the world, each describing a different energy sector and the way they have successfully maximized biodiversity protection. This book provides a needed guide for elected officials, industry representatives, NGOs and community groups who have a stake in sustainable energy-development planning.
