These pages set out our wider thinking on issues relating to innovation, governance and practice for a sustainable, secure and affordable energy system.
New Thinking
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New Thinking: Welfare and Sustainable Energy Transitions
Blog from Berlin Part Drei – Welfare and Sustainable Energy Transitions Caroline Kuzemko, IGov Team, 6th November, 2014 About Caroline: http://geography.exeter.ac.uk/staff/index.php?web_id=Caroline_Kuzemko Twitter: https://twitter.com/CarolineKuzemko In this last of the ‘Blog from Berlin’ trilogy I highlight an under-researched area: that of how questions of welfare tie in with successful energy transitions. When analysing and debating transitions we often talk about how to develop new ways of producing and using energy – emphasising environmental aspects of sustainability. This is, of course, incredibly important but we spend relatively less time considering how to make sure that energy systems are transformed in
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New Thinking: Growth, Efficiency, and EU Targets
Growth, Efficiency, and EU Targets Tom Steward, IGov Team, 5th November, 2014 About Tom: http://projects.exeter.ac.uk/igov/people/igov-team/tom-steward/ Twitter: https://twitter.com/Steward_T Last month, EU leaders struck a deal for three targets for 2030 – one on emissions, one on renewables, and one on energy efficiency. It’s this third of these that is troubling me. What was agreed was a non-binding 27% energy efficiency improvement compared to current 2030 projections. This is only moderately more ambitious than the UK official negotiating position, which was for no energy efficiency target at all – on the basis that specific renewables or efficiency
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It is the Black Fog the Daily Mail needs to worry about, not the Green Blob
It is the Black Fog the Daily Mail needs to worry about, not the Green Blob Catherine Mitchell, IGov Team, 27th October, 2014 About Catherine: http://geography.exeter.ac.uk/staff/index.php?web_id=Catherine_Mitchell As someone who travels a lot, I have spent quite a bit of time thinking about what I like and don’t like about Britain. And at the top of the list of likes is British humour. The Daily Mail picture of Parliament being taken over by the Green Blob, as argued by Owen Paterson, seems to me to be quintessentially British – it is a great, memorable, funny rip-off. There
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New Thinking: Having your cake and eating it
Having your cake and eating it: energy companies want profit without risk Catherine Mitchell, IGov Team, 22nd October, 2014 About Catherine: http://geography.exeter.ac.uk/staff/index.php?web_id=Catherine_Mitchell Having your cake and eating it – energy companies want profits without risk The fire at Didcot electricity gas plant on Sunday night has, as to be expected, led to numerous articles (e.g. here, here, here and here) which argue, when boiled down, to two simple points: (1) that not enough has been done by Government to stimulate investment in the electricity system and as a result we are now dangerously close to having
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New Thinking: Network governance and distributed energy resources
Network governance and distributed energy resources Matthew Lockwood, IGov Team, 15 October 2014 About Matthew: http://geography.exeter.ac.uk/staff/index.php?web_id=Matthew_Lockwood Twitter: https://twitter.com/climatepolitics A new IGov working paper on energy networks give a comprehensive account of the rules and incentives for network operators and network users (generators, shippers, suppliers and consumers), and how these facilitate, slow or block a shift to a more demand side focused energy system in Britain, along with a greater use of distributed energy resources. Most of these rules and incentives are created by economic regulation of networks or come under industry codes and standards, and the paper also
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New Thinking: Capacity market and DSR – the thin purple line
Capacity market and DSR – the thin purple line Matthew Lockwood, IGov Team, 9 October 2014 About Matthew: http://geography.exeter.ac.uk/staff/index.php?web_id=Matthew_Lockwood Twitter: https://twitter.com/climatepolitics Back in August, my colleague Catherine Mitchell wrote about Britain’s new Capacity Market being introduced as part of the Electricity Market Reform package. National Grid has now released figures on what capacity has pre-qualified for the CM: Apart from the point made by Greenpeace and Sandbag that the CM looks likely to prop up our old coal-fired capacity, what is particularly disappointing but not surprising is the picture on demand-side response. In total, just over 1
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New Thinking: Is the centralised utility model past its sell-by date?
Is the avalanche of financial reports right? Is the centralised utility model past its sell-by date? Catherine Mitchell, IGov Team, 6th October, 2014 About Catherine: http://geography.exeter.ac.uk/staff/index.php?web_id=Catherine_Mitchell Citi (1) is the latest financial institution to publish a short report on the future of the centralised utility model, but with a specific focus on GB. They argue that due to increasing competition the market share of the Big 6 will decline from 98% in 2013 to below 70% by 2020; and that the total profit pool available to them will decline by 40% by 2020. Ultimately, they say,
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New Thinking Blog: The times, they are a’changing
The times, they are a’changing Matthew Lockwood, IGov Team, 12 September 2014 About Matthew: http://geography.exeter.ac.uk/staff/index.php?web_id=Matthew_Lockwood Twitter: https://twitter.com/climatepolitics As John Harris argues in today’s Guardian, there are deep shifts going on in the nature of democracy across the UK (and actually the rest of Europe too). The predominant mood is one of rejection of political elites and conventional party politics by an electorate who have experienced a decade of declining living standards and increased economic uncertainty. Much of the rise of the ‘Yes’ vote for Scottish independence reflects this mood, but so does the emergence of UKIP in
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Blog from Berlin – Part Zwei: Why Culture and Institutions Matter in Low Carbon Transformations
Blog from Berlin – Part Zwei: Why Culture and Institutions Matter in Low Carbon Transformations Caroline Kuzemko, IGov Team, 11th September, 2014 About Caroline: http://geography.exeter.ac.uk/staff/index.php?web_id=Caroline_Kuzemko Twitter: https://twitter.com/CarolineKuzemko Here at IGov we are starting to conduct some comparative analyses between UK governance for sustainable energy innovations and governance in Germany, Denmark, California and Texas. We are doing this partly in order to understand more about governing for transformation, but also to try and draw some lessons for the UK. We do, however, seek to draw lessons in a manner that is sensitive to the notion that energy and climate governance
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New Thinking: The odd couple – will a new Strategy and Policy Statement help sort out the relationship between government and Ofgem?
The odd couple: Will a new Strategy and Policy Statement help sort out the relationship between government and Ofgem? Matthew Lockwood, IGov Team, 18 August 2014 About Matthew: http://geography.exeter.ac.uk/staff/index.php?web_id=Matthew_Lockwood Twitter: https://twitter.com/climatepolitics Back in 2011, shortly after coming into power, the Government did a review of Ofgem – some may remember that the Conservatives were unhappy with the regulator, and their 2010 manifesto promised reforms to make it focus more on government policy. That review basically said that the guidance given by the previous government to Ofgem over the 2000s had not been effective, and a clearer statement
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