Model-Based Exploration of Co-Creation Efforts: The Case of Solar Photovoltaics (PV) in Skåne, Sweden

Co-creation in the societal sphere is becoming important in many parts of the world. However, empirical analysis of co-creation in local energy transitions has been understudied. This paper aims to contribute to the field of local energy transitions by integrating a model-based approach with the municipal co-creation efforts in a local energy transition setting. The study uses a mixed-methods approach, with both quantitative and qualitative methods underpinning the approach. A System Dynamics (SD) model is built to analyse the feedback loops created by the co-creation efforts of the municipalities in Skåne, Sweden to increase the uptake of household solar photovoltaics. Simultaneously, the model is conceptualized and built in coordination with the municipality actors, and qualitative validation provided by them. An iterative process is implemented, consisting of three steps: interaction with the municipality actors (MAs), developing the causal relationships between the model variables and model development. The suggestions and discussions with the MAs were very useful in understanding the social factors and processes which help in the diffusion of a technologically innovative product, such as solar PV. The MAs said that they found the explanation of the modelling variables useful in undertaking the co-creation efforts.

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The “laborless fuel”: Landscape, energy transitions and natural gas in the postwar U.S.

Environment and Planning E Nature and Space ◽

10.1177/2514848620987129 ◽

2021 ◽

pp. 251484862098712

Author(s):

Carlo Sica

Keyword(s):

Natural Gas ◽

Social Reproduction ◽

Capital Accumulation ◽

Energy Transition ◽

Business Owners ◽

Energy Landscapes ◽

Technological Systems ◽

Energy Transitions ◽

The Social ◽

Political Landscapes

The dire need for an energy transition to mitigate and reverse global warming is inspiring scholars to reexamine political influences on technological systems. The multi-level perspective of the socio-technical transitions framework acknowledges how technological systems are affected by the social and political landscapes where they are built. Energy landscapes literatures elaborate on the socio-technical transitions framework by explaining how the boundaries of landscapes are negotiated in the context of energy transitions. Energy scholars have found that negotiations over the form and purpose of energy landscapes frequently skew in favor of capital accumulation instead of social reproduction. Studies of landscapes in human geography and labor history have shown how the power imbalance energy scholars observed can be corrected by workers and their communities struggling against business owners and the state. Using archival data, I show how U.S. natural gas legislation in the postwar period was intended to limit coalminers’ demands for landscapes of social reproduction. This point matters because the vulnerabilities of industrial capitalism to energy worker organization could be exploited to push for a just and sustainable energy transition like the Green New Deal.

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Who Beats the Dutch Tax Department? Tracing 20 Years of Niche–Regime Interactions on Collective Solar PV Production in The Netherlands

Sustainability ◽

10.3390/su10082807 ◽

2018 ◽

Vol 10 (8) ◽

pp. 2807 ◽

Cited By ~ 7

Author(s):

Henk-Jan Kooij ◽

Arnoud Lagendijk ◽

Marieke Oteman

Keyword(s):

Renewable Energy ◽

Social Innovation ◽

Energy Transition ◽

Legal Issues ◽

The Political ◽

Solar Pv ◽

The Past ◽

The Social ◽

Collective Production ◽

Institutional Network

In the past years, Dutch citizens have experimented with various kinds of innovations to organize the collective production of renewable energy, including shared wind power and solar PV installations. Most of these attempts failed mainly due to legal issues and tax rules. Yet, one model for solar PV on collective roofs was implemented more widely, namely the postcode rose (PCR, postcoderoos): a form of cooperative solar PV production within a set of adjacent postcode areas. Set within a broader transition perspective, this article studies the emergence and evolution of the PCR as an example of a successful social innovation in the energy transition, through an innovation biography and mapping of the evolution of the social and institutional network around the innovation. The various attempts for collective solar PV, with different degrees of success and uptake into the regime, present a key aspect of niche development, namely associational work (circulation and mobilization) focused on regime change. In conclusion, the innovation path of the PCR emphasizes the importance of the political and associational in the energy transition and in transition thinking.

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Impacts of social innovation on local energy transitions: Diffusion of solar PV and alternative fuel vehicles in Sweden

Global Transitions ◽

10.1016/j.glt.2020.06.004 ◽

2020 ◽

Vol 2 ◽

pp. 98-115

Author(s):

Sujeetha Selvakkumaran ◽

Erik O. Ahlgren

Keyword(s):

Social Innovation ◽

Alternative Fuel ◽

Local Energy ◽

Solar Pv ◽

Alternative Fuel Vehicles ◽

Energy Transitions

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Which Institutional Conditions Lead to a Successful Local Energy Transition? Applying Fuzzy-Set Qualitative Comparative Analysis to Solar PV Cases in South Korea

Energies ◽

10.3390/en13143696 ◽

2020 ◽

Vol 13 (14) ◽

pp. 3696 ◽

Cited By ~ 1

Author(s):

Youhyun Lee ◽

Bomi Kim ◽

Heeju Hwang

Keyword(s):

Comparative Analysis ◽

South Korea ◽

Fuzzy Set ◽

Qualitative Comparative Analysis ◽

Energy Transition ◽

Local Energy ◽

Solar Pv ◽

Newly Industrialized Countries ◽

Governmental Organizations ◽

Non Governmental Organizations

To explore the most desirable pathway for a successful local energy transition, a fuzzy-set qualitative comparative analysis was conducted on 16 regional cases in South Korea. We developed four propositions based on previous studies and theories as a causal set. Based on the South Korean context, we selected the solar photovoltaic (PV) generation and solar PV expansion rate as barometers for measuring the success of a local energy transition. Our analysis highlights the importance of the International Council for Local Environmental Initiatives (ICLEI) membership (network), local legislation, and the environmental surveillance of locally-based non-governmental organizations (NGOs). The implications of this study will provide insights for developing or newly industrialized countries where an energy transition is underway.

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A Just Energy Transition: The Social, Political, and Economic Shifts Necessary to Divest from Coal in Colombia

SSRN Electronic Journal ◽

10.2139/ssrn.3385161 ◽

2019 ◽

Author(s):

Andrea Torres

Keyword(s):

Energy Transition ◽

The Social

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Ideological Inversion and the (De)legitimation of Neoliberalism in Chile

The Oxford Handbook of the Sociology of Latin America ◽

10.1093/oxfordhb/9780190926557.013.13 ◽

2020 ◽

Author(s):

Ismael Puga

Keyword(s):

Mixed Methods ◽

Social Economic ◽

Social Study ◽

Social Practices ◽

Economic Order ◽

Window Of Opportunity ◽

Panel Surveys ◽

Mixed Methods Approach ◽

Strategic Adaptation ◽

The Social

Using a mixed-methods approach based on discussion focus groups and panel surveys of the Longitudinal Social Study of Chile, this chapter demonstrates that Chilean’s neoliberal economic order is not legitimized by the vast majority of the population. Instead, the author argues that social norms are in serious conflict with the prevailing socioeconomic order. Within Chilean society, both citizens and social analysts are prone to agree with the existence of a “neoliberal consensus” due to the strategic adaptation of social practices that take place within a socioeconomic order that most individuals accept as a given. As a consequence, a “fantasy consensus” emerges in Chilean society in order to stabilize the social economic order, thus avoiding collective mobilization and social change. In this scenario, the protest waves that Chilean society has faced since 2011 offer additional proof that the “fantasy consensus” has experienced serious fissures, thus opening a window of opportunity to delegitimize Chile’s neoliberal order in the country.

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Legitimating power: Solar energy rollout, sustainability metrics and transition politics

Environment and Planning E Nature and Space ◽

10.1177/25148486211024903 ◽

2021 ◽

pp. 251484862110249

Author(s):

Siddharth Sareen

Keyword(s):

Solar Energy ◽

Political Ecology ◽

Global Climate ◽

Renewable Energy Sources ◽

Energy Transition ◽

Analytical Framework ◽

Solar Irradiation ◽

Low Carbon ◽

Sustainability Metrics ◽

Energy Transitions

Increasing recognition of the irrefutable urgency to address the global climate challenge is driving mitigation efforts to decarbonise. Countries are setting targets, technological innovation is making renewable energy sources competitive and fossil fuel actors are leveraging their incumbent privilege and political reach to modulate energy transitions. As techno-economic competitiveness is rapidly reconfigured in favour of sources such as solar energy, governance puzzles dominate the research frontier. Who makes key decisions about decarbonisation based on what metrics, and how are consequent benefits and burdens allocated? This article takes its point of departure in ambitious sustainability metrics for solar rollout that Portugal embraced in the late 2010s. This southwestern European country leads on hydro and wind power, and recently emerged from austerity politics after the 2008–2015 recession. Despite Europe’s best solar irradiation, its big solar push only kicked off in late 2018. In explaining how this arose and unfolded until mid-2020 and why, the article investigates what key issues ambitious rapid decarbonisation plans must address to enhance social equity. It combines attention to accountability and legitimacy to offer an analytical framework geared at generating actionable knowledge to advance an accountable energy transition. Drawing on empirical study of the contingencies that determine the implementation of sustainability metrics, the article traces how discrete acts legitimate specific trajectories of territorialisation by solar photovoltaics through discursive, bureaucratic, technocratic and financial practices. Combining empirics and perspectives from political ecology and energy geographies, it probes the politics of just energy transitions to more low-carbon and equitable societal futures.

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