Energy Efficiency as a Wicked Problem

Abstract

Together with increased shares of renewable energy supply, improved energy efficiency is the foremost means of mitigating climate change. However, the energy efficiency potential is far from being realized, which is commonly explained by the existence of various barriers to energy efficiency. Initially mentioned by Churchman, the term "wicked problems" became established in the 1970s, meaning a kind of problem that has a resistance to resolution because of incomplete, contradictory, or changing requirements. In the academic literature, wicked problems have later served as a critical model in the understanding of various challenges related to society, such as for example climate change mitigation. This aim of this paper is to analyze how the perspective of wicked problems can contribute to an enhanced understanding of improved energy efficiency. The paper draws examples from the manufacturing sector. Results indicate that standalone technology improvements as well as energy management and energy policy programs giving emphasis to standalone technology improvements may not represent a stronger form of a wicked problem as such. Rather, it seems to be the actual decision-making process involving values among the decision makers as well as the level of needed knowledge involved in decision-making that give rise to the "wickedness". The analysis shows that wicked problems arise in socio-technical settings involving several components such as technology, systems, institutions, and people, which make post-normal science a needed approach.2 of 11 energy management principles [6,7]. Another line of argument is that there has been a lack of a systems approach in energy efficiency research [8]. One perspective that could contribute to an enhanced understanding of improved energy efficiency is the perspective of "wicked problems". A wicked problem is a problem that has a resistance to resolution because of incomplete, contradictory, or changing requirements. The solution depends on how the problem is formulated, and vice versa, the problem definition depends on the ideas about the solution. Efforts to solve a wicked problem may impair the situation or create other problems because of complex interdependencies. Relating to Valentine et al. [9], wicked problems arise when different worldviews collide.One example can be derived from the Swedish industrial energy policy program PFE (Program for improving energy efficiency in energy intensive industry). Stenqvist and Nilsson [10] could prove that the policy instrument as such was effective, and from a technical perspective, large savings have occurred for the two five-year program periods. This indicated a "success" or "effectiveness" of the policy, but in a governmental report, also bringing in the neoclassical economic perspective on the policy, the improvements could also be due to other mechanisms that are not necessarily connected to the PFE [11].A second example of a wicked problem is the view of what is and what is not an energy efficiency measure. Relating again to Valenti...

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