The role of intermediaries in low carbon transitions – Empowering innovations to unlock district heating in the UK

Bush, Ray; Bale, Catherine S.E.; Powell, Mark; Gouldson, Andy; Taylor, Peter; Gale, William F.

doi:10.1016/j.jclepro.2017.01.129

Cited by 110 publications

(70 citation statements)

References 28 publications

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“…Studies of intermediaries show a great variety of actors that may perform intermediary activities, such as NGOs, governmental agencies, Energy Service Companies (ESCOs), consultancies, academic institutions, councils, business network platforms, and individuals [20,23,[79][80][81][82]. That being said, governments can also perform intermediary activities in the form of an enabling mode of governing [83], as has been observed in previous studies on government support for LLCEIs [10,84].…”

Section: Conceptualizing Intermediariesmentioning

confidence: 87%

The Role of Intermediaries in Supporting Local Low-Carbon Energy Initiatives

et al. 2018

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Recent scholarly attention shows that grassroots civil society low-carbon energy initiatives increasingly become part of the subnational climate change governance landscape. Despite their potency in view of consumer-owned distributed generation and enhanced citizen influence in the organization of the energy infrastructure, local low-carbon energy initiatives (LLCEIs) struggle to become viable alternatives to the centralized, private oriented energy system. To further LLCEI development, support needs to build their capacities; alleviate institutional hurdles and barriers stemming from the fossil fuel-based energy regime; and open up the system for the uptake, acceptance or breakthrough of LLCEIs. Evidence suggests that so-called "intermediaries" form a part of the solution in addressing these issues. Despite previous attempts at analyzing intermediary roles and activities vis-à-vis the development of community energy, the reality of the various roles and strategies intermediaries can employ and the support LLCEIs require to further develop have not yet been synthesized in a comprehensive analytical framework. This article aims to fill this gap by developing such a framework. We reflect on the analytical framework by evaluating the intermediary support structure in a specific case: the Province of Fryslân. From the analysis, we conclude that the Frisian case provided modest support to the claim that intermediary support is effective in addressing the needs of LLCEIs as the strategies and roles observed represent a complete and coherent support structure.

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Section: Conceptualizing Intermediariesmentioning

confidence: 87%

The Role of Intermediaries in Supporting Local Low-Carbon Energy Initiatives

et al. 2018

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“…Learning and interaction with other cities, and other intermediaries (Bush et al 2017), have helped to accelerate change and build capacity in creating city-specific pathways to change. Creation of an environment that stimulates learning and encourages interaction is important to accelerate current progress.…”

Section: Pathwaysmentioning

confidence: 99%

Institutional pathways to municipal energy companies in the UK: Realising co-benefits to mitigate climate change in cities

Roelich

Bale

Turner

et al. 2018

Journal of Cleaner Production

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Municipalities in the UK are increasingly engaging in local management of one or more parts of the energy system. The municipal energy companies set up to manage this engagement have the potential to contribute to a low-carbon transition through acceleration of low-carbon energy technology roll-out and demand management. However, municipal energy companies face many constraints that limit their growth in number and scale and restrict their potential to contribute to climate change mitigation. This paper aims to develop a better understanding of why and how municipal energy companies form to help to identify how policy and regulation could better support their proliferation and their contribution to climate change mitigation. We conducted a longitudinal analysis (from 2013-2017) of five UK cities' attempts to develop new institutional arrangements to engage in the national energy system and contribute to climate change mitigation. We found that the fundamental purpose of municipal energy companies was different to those of the private sector; using energy to deliver essential services and place-specific outcomes, rather than aiming to deliver energy at least cost. The scope of engagement was dependent on a city's unique characteristics and factors driving decisions. We found that there was no blueprint for a municipal energy company, rather the final form was shaped by a city's unique characteristics and decision drivers and emerged from a process of experimentation and learning. This 'pathway' towards a municipal energy company is also heavily influenced by the changing policy context, meaning that studying the evolution of MECs over time is very important. Specific changes in UK policy have significantly reduced the potential of MECs to contribute to carbon emissions reduction. We propose a framework of characteristics, decision drivers and pathways to better understand the evolution of MECs and to support the identification of policy and regulation that could enable their proliferation. We illustrate the application of this framework to maximise the contribution of MECs to climate change mitigation in cities. We identified a need for policy to recognize and enable different institutional drivers (including climate change) and institutional forms and encourage experimentation. Furthermore, new approaches to accounting and valuation are needed that capture social and environmental outcomes and outcomes that occur in the long-term.

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“…[38][39][40]). Intermediation is sometimes done by consultants, although national government funding is often needed to enable their involvement at the local level (see [41]; analysing DH development in the United Kingdom).…”

Section: Multi-level Perspective (Mlp)mentioning

confidence: 99%

“…Two key activities can nonetheless be suggested: -Collective knowledge and experience from elsewhere: despite being hardly measurable, behavioral or psychological means such as "resistance to change" inhibit the will of investing in projects perceived as exploratory or risky. Case studies are an important tool for increasing confidence in exploratory innovations [41]. While there are at least 50 experiences of commercial heat production with nuclear plants, only a few case studies are providing feedbacks discussing social, political or psychological dimensions (see [14,58]).…”

Section: Mobilise Interest Involve a Legitimate Placementioning

confidence: 99%

Stimulating niche nurturing process for heat production with nuclear plants in France: A multi-level perspective

Leurent

2019

EPJ Nuclear Sci. Technol.

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This paper examines how intermediaries could interact with other important actors identified by the multi-level perspective (MLP) framework, the niche actors and regime actors, to create niches for nuclear heat production in France. Whatever is the source, recovering the wasted heat is a matter of energy efficiency. Nuclear plants could remain used for several decades in France. It is thus legitimate to investigate those possible niche nurturing processes which may allow a more efficient use of this technology. Challenges are high, and our conclusions modest regarding the possible breaking through of such exploratory and collective systems. Without significant windows of opportunity, even the most willing intermediation may not be able to change the status quo. It is however important to highlight the multifarious pathways that energy transitions could follow. Drawing on lessons from the MLP, this paper proposes three key actions for intermediation willing to move beyond technology-push approaches that can lead to tension and low legitimacy. These are, sharing questions instead of knowledge; mobilise, interest, involve a legitimate place; and prevent or avoid conflicts among stakeholders. Regime changes possibly enhancing the deployment of sustainable heating systems, not only nuclear plant sourced, are also discussed.

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The role of intermediaries in low carbon transitions – Empowering innovations to unlock district heating in the UK

Cited by 110 publications

References 28 publications

The Role of Intermediaries in Supporting Local Low-Carbon Energy Initiatives

The Role of Intermediaries in Supporting Local Low-Carbon Energy Initiatives

Institutional pathways to municipal energy companies in the UK: Realising co-benefits to mitigate climate change in cities

Stimulating niche nurturing process for heat production with nuclear plants in France: A multi-level perspective

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