Revisiting carbon lock-in in energy systems: Explaining the perpetuation of coal power in Japan

Trencher, Gregory; Rinscheid, Adrian; Duygan, Mert; Truong, Nhi; Asuka, Jusen

doi:10.1016/j.erss.2020.101770

Cited by 100 publications

(52 citation statements)

References 78 publications

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“…Moreover, a regulatory approach based on an 'invest then connect' principle, in vigour until 2009, led to an extensive queue of prospective new projects waiting for the completion of any necessary reinforcements to support their connection [113]. While regulatory changes since then have partially mitigated this problem, the increase in RE generation capacity caused many parts of the grid to become 'closed to new connections' , 4 with congestion problems unevenly distributed across the UK.…”

Section: The Nature Extent Management and Regulation Of Built Infrastructure Requirements For Renewable Energy Delivery And The Power To mentioning

confidence: 99%

“…The development, application and proliferation of renewable energy technologies (hereafter, RE) are part of a shift underway in energy systems, not least because of the growing urgency of achieving net-zero greenhouse gas emissions [1,2]. Because such transitions work against incumbent, widely locked-in fossil fuels and associated technologies, institutions, markets, cultural meanings and user practices, replacing fossil fuels with low-carbon alternatives implies a prominent role for policy and policy-makers [3][4][5]. While some of the most significant decisions to steer energy systems are made at the national level [6], most challenges surrounding energy infrastructure provision and governance simultaneously involve other spatial levels, as energy infrastructure is embedded in specific territory, even as it organises flows for other, wider spaces [7].…”

Section: Introductionmentioning

confidence: 99%

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Policy-relevant insights for regional renewable energy deployment

Laurentis

Pearson

2021

Energ Sustain Soc

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Background The paper explores how regional actors engage with energy systems, flows and infrastructures in order to meet particular goals and offers a fine-tuned analysis of how differences arise, highlighting the policy-relevant insights that emerge. Methods Using a novel framework, the research performs a comparative case study analysis of three regions in Italy and two of the devolved territories of the UK, Wales and Scotland, drawing on interviews and documentary analysis. Results The paper shows that acknowledging the socio-materialities of renewable energy allows a fine-tuned analysis of how institutions, governance and infrastructure can enable/constrain energy transitions and policy effectiveness at local and regional levels. The heuristic adopted highlights (i) the institutions that matter for renewable energy and their varied effects on regional renewable energy deployment; (ii) the range of agencies involved in strategically establishing, contesting and reproducing institutions, expectations, visions and infrastructure as renewable energy deployment unfolds at the regional level and (iii) the nature and extent of infrastructure requirements for and constraints on renewable energy delivery and how they affect the regional capacity to shape infrastructure networks and facilitate renewable energy deployment. The paper shows how the regions investigated developed their institutional and governance capacity and made use of targets, energy visions and spatial planning to promote renewable energy deployment. It shows that several mediating factors emerge from examining the interactions between regional physical resource endowments and energy infrastructure renewal and expansion. The analysis leads to policy-relevant insights into what makes for renewable energy deployment. Conclusion The paper contributes to research that demonstrates the role of institutional variations and governance as foundations for geographical differences in the adoption of renewable energy, and carries significant implications for policy thinking and implementation. It shows why and how policy-makers need to be more effective in balancing the range of goals/interests for renewable energy deployment with the peculiarities and specificities of the regional contexts and their infrastructures. The insights presented help to explain how energy choices and outcomes are shaped in particular places, how differences arise and operate in practice, and how they need to be taken into account in policy design, policy-making and implementation.

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Section: The Nature Extent Management and Regulation Of Built Infrastructure Requirements For Renewable Energy Delivery And The Power To mentioning

confidence: 99%

Section: Introductionmentioning

confidence: 99%

Policy-relevant insights for regional renewable energy deployment

Laurentis

Pearson

2021

Energ Sustain Soc

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“…Entrenched fossil fuel interests, technologies and infrastructure, as well as existing institutions, norms or even geopolitical considerations-as is the case with China's Belt and Road Initiative-can constrain the pace of the high-carbon transition (Huang, 2016;Saha, 2020;Seto et al, 2016;Sovacool, 2017;Unruh, 2000). Empirical research on this 'carbon lock-in' effect has focussed on a variety of sectors, including transportation (Mattioli et al, 2020;Meckling & Nahm, 2019), petrochemicals (Janipour et al 2020) and power generation (Brauers et al, 2020;Rentier et al, 2019;Trencher et al, 2020). It has also spanned different geographies in the Global North (Carley, 2011;Kraushaar-Friesen & Bush, 2020;Rentier et al, 2019) and the Global South (Strambo et al, 2020).…”

Section: Activism Supply-side Constraints and A Just Transitionmentioning

confidence: 99%

The geopolitics of energy system transformation: A review

et al. 2021

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“…Since Unruh (2000) coined the term carbon lock-in, the concept has attracted a fair amount of scholarly attention for identifying the causes, types or mechanisms of lock-in (e.g., Cairns, 2014;Bertram et al, 2015;Erickson et al, 2015;Seto et al, 2016;Buschmann and Oels, 2019;Janipour et al, 2020;Trencher et al, 2020). A seminal review of the relevant literature by Seto et al (2016) suggested three types of lockin that are mutually reinforcing and create collective inertia: infrastructural, institutional, and behavioural lock-ins.…”

Section: The Conundrum Of Unlocking Carbon Lock-inmentioning

confidence: 99%

“…A seminal review of the relevant literature by Seto et al (2016) suggested three types of lockin that are mutually reinforcing and create collective inertia: infrastructural, institutional, and behavioural lock-ins. Some argue that other forms of lock-in (e.g., cognitive or discursive lock-in) should also be taken into account (Buschmann and Oels, 2019;Trencher et al, 2020). An important point is however that the interactions among technological infrastructures, governing institutions, social practises and cognitive frames give rise to an entrenchment of the energy system that favours the continued use of carbon intensive technologies.…”

Section: The Conundrum Of Unlocking Carbon Lock-inmentioning

confidence: 99%

The Oxymoron of Carbon Dioxide Removal: Escaping Carbon Lock-In and yet Perpetuating the Fossil Status Quo?

Asayama

2021

Front. Clim.

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There appears to be a paradox in the debate over carbon dioxide removal (CDR) technologies. On the one hand, CDR is recognised as a crucial technical option to offset residual carbon emissions from fossil fuel use, so that it can help a transition to the net-zero energy system. But on the other hand, a serious concern is raised about CDR as a way to circumvent necessary emissions reduction, hence perpetuating the status quo of fossil fuel use. This apparent paradox of CDR, however, has less to do with technology itself but more with the difficulty to move away from carbon lock-in—the deeply entrenched fossil-fuel-based energy system. The challenge of decarbonisation is indeed about eroding the deep lock-ins that perpetuate the production and consumption of fossil fuels. To understand the role of CDR in overcoming carbon lock-in, looking back the past debate on carbon capture and storage (CCS) is instructive. Although both CCS and CDR are criticised for keeping the fossil status quo, there is a crucial difference between them. Unlike CCS, CDR can possibly avoid the risk of reinforced lock-in, given its physical decoupling from fossil fuel use. And yet CDR has the risk of undue substitution that continues unjustly fossil carbon emissions. A change of the framing question is thus needed to puzzle out the paradox of CDR. To rightly place CDR in the challenge of rapid decarbonisation, we should ask more how CDR technologies can be used in alignment with a managed decline to fossil fuel production.

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Revisiting carbon lock-in in energy systems: Explaining the perpetuation of coal power in Japan

Cited by 100 publications

References 78 publications

Policy-relevant insights for regional renewable energy deployment

Policy-relevant insights for regional renewable energy deployment

The geopolitics of energy system transformation: A review

The Oxymoron of Carbon Dioxide Removal: Escaping Carbon Lock-In and yet Perpetuating the Fossil Status Quo?

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