Solar ‘power’: Socio-political dynamics of infrastructural development in two Western Indian states

Sareen, Siddharth; Kale, Sunila S.

doi:10.1016/j.erss.2018.03.023

Cited by 63 publications

(23 citation statements)

References 43 publications

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“…Such recognition can resoundingly close public discourse and perception of smart grids as necessarily harbingers of sustainability (Ballo 2015), and problematise prevalent state narratives by inserting citizen concerns into the public debate (see Vesnic-Alujevic et al 2016). It can turn focus towards the potential for automation and dynamic tariffs to contribute to mitigation efforts by streamlining policies and political economic factors towards greater grid flexibility and renewables integration (see Sareen and Kale 2018). This is especially important given the current and future rapid electrification of other sectors, especially transport (both land-based and ferries) in Norwegian cities like Bergen, which present challenges that smart grids can help address.…”

Section: Resultsmentioning

confidence: 99%

Smart gridlock? Challenging hegemonic framings of mitigation solutions and scalability

Sareen

Rommetveit

2019

Environ. Res. Lett.

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Urban energy transitions are key components of urgently requisite climate change mitigation. Promissory discourse accords smart grids pride of place within them. We employ a living lab to study smart grids as a solution geared towards upscaling and systematisation, investigate their limits as a climate change mitigation solution, and assess them rigorously as urban energy transitions. Our 18 month living lab simulates a household energy management platform in Bergen. Norway's mitigation focus promotes smart meter roll-out as reducing carbon emissions, by (i) unlocking efficiency gains, and (ii) increasing awareness for demand-side management. We problematise this discourse. Raising awareness encounters intractable challenges for smart grid scalability. Scattered efficiency gains constitute modest increments rather than the substantial change requisite for rapid mitigation. Whereas promissory smart grid discourse overlooks these ground-truthed limits, our findings caution against misplaced expectations concerning mitigation. We contest discursive enthusiasm on smart grids and argue for aligning local and systemic concerns before upscaling to avoid obscuring risks. Scaling up requires understanding and addressing interdependencies and trade-offs across scales. Focus group discussions and surveys with living lab participants who used sub-meter monitors to track real-time household electricity consumption data over an extended period show that technical issues and energy behaviour, as well as political economic and policy structures and factors, pose significant limits to smart grids. Urban strategies for climate change mitigation must be informed by this recognition. Our results indicate that upscaling relies on bottom-up popular acceptance of the salient technical, organisational and standardisation measures, but that measures to improve the democratic legitimacy of and participation in energy transitions remain weak. We highlight limits to smart grids as a standalone urban mitigation solution and call for a sharper focus on accompanying thrust areas for systematisation and scalability, such as renewable energy integration and grid coordination.

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Section: Resultsmentioning

confidence: 99%

Smart gridlock? Challenging hegemonic framings of mitigation solutions and scalability

Sareen

Rommetveit

2019

Environ. Res. Lett.

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“…References were limited to those relevant to the adoption of renewable energy in brownfield electricity systems and excluded literature pertaining to the adoption of these technologies in developing countries that did not have pre-established centralised energy systems. As noted by Sareen and Kale [36], the issues facing developing and developed countries can be markedly different from each other.…”

Section: Methodsmentioning

confidence: 99%

“…Political decisions have been shown to be major determinants of the form that energy transitions take [36,82,83].…”

Section: Balancing Divergent Interestsmentioning

confidence: 99%

“…Policies to support technologies such as rooftop PV, batteries and electric vehicles typically lag behind both the technological advancements and rates of implementation currently experienced with these technologies [40]. This points to the importance of political support for policy development, a factor supported by research into the adoption of distributed energy resources in the United States [83], UK [78], as well as PV in India [36], and Africa [105]. Huang [84] found that policy support in China was most effective when it occurred consistently across each level of government.…”

Section: Socio-political Aspectsmentioning

confidence: 99%

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Rooftop PV and the Renewable Energy Transition; a Review of Driving Forces and Analytical Frameworks

2021

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Rooftop solar photovoltaics (PV) are accelerating the transition towards low carbon electricity systems in many countries, particularly in Australia. This review paper provides an overview of the (1) technical, (2) economic, (3) socio-political, and (4) regulatory and institutional aspects that should be considered concurrently when navigating the transition towards a rooftop PV-dominated electricity system. We consider the suitability of two prominent long-range transitions theories for understanding the importance and interaction of elements within these four aspects during the transition. The multi-level perspective (MLP) of transitions theory is considered best suited for this task as it addresses fundamental shifts in the socio-technical systems, rather than being weighted towards technological and/or economic solutions. We find that relatively little research has been undertaken where the renewable energy transition is being driven by the uptake of rooftop PV within the distribution network of established islanded electricity systems. These islanded electricity systems will be the first to experience system impacts from high levels of rooftop PV. This review provides further analysis of important gaps in understanding the rooftop-PV-led energy transition and the implications for policy makers in maintaining stable electricity supplies during the transition.

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“…Studying such practices of bureaucratic legitimation can be challenging, but is an essential component of identifying whether and how energy transitions can proceed with public accountability (Kalkuhl et al 2013;Saltzstein 1979). Such examination must often be undertaken in several locations across multiple scales (Krause and Meier 2005)-down the corridors of power where bureaucracy is executed; in policy documents, where its formal contours are delineated; by listening to the accounts of actors who claim they are marginalised; through attention to emergent material changes that open new possibilities and how these possibilities are bureaucratised; and by triangulating between the various concurrent changes in bureaucratic requirements during sectoral evolution (Sareen and Kale 2018). Where such examination uncovers bureaucratic mediation that forecloses opportunities for energy transition to aid decarbonisation and social equity, these practices can be specifically challenged to build accountability gains within specific contexts of energy transition.…”

Section: Bureaucratic Legitimationmentioning

confidence: 99%

A Typology of Practices of Legitimation to Categorise Accountability Relations

Sareen

2019

Enabling Sustainable Energy Transitions

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This chapter presents the central element of an accountability analysis approach-a typology of four practices of legitimation: discursive, bureaucratic, technocratic and financial. These are empirically derived and defined in generic terms as social relations premised on accountability. Their study can characterise accountability under energy transitions. Discursive legitimation practices normalise certain perspectives over others through textual and spoken interventions across a variety of forums. Bureaucratic legitimation practices, often codified and sequential, validate some actions and actors and constrain others. Technocratic legitimation practices perform systematic checks and approval of actions that entail technical expertise. Financial legitimation practices, often spatially remote and materially elusive, enable actors to block action or to fulfil financial requirements and proceed with material actions, shaping sectoral change.

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Solar ‘power’: Socio-political dynamics of infrastructural development in two Western Indian states

Cited by 63 publications

References 43 publications

Smart gridlock? Challenging hegemonic framings of mitigation solutions and scalability

Smart gridlock? Challenging hegemonic framings of mitigation solutions and scalability

Rooftop PV and the Renewable Energy Transition; a Review of Driving Forces and Analytical Frameworks

A Typology of Practices of Legitimation to Categorise Accountability Relations

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