Innovation for Sustainable Electricity Systems

Exploring the Dynamics of Energy Transitions

verfasst von: Dr. Barbara Praetorius, Dierk Bauknecht, Martin Cames, Dr. Corinna Fischer, Dr. Martin Pehnt, Dr. Katja Schumacher, Dr. Jan-Peter Voß

Verlag: Physica-Verlag HD

Buchreihe : Sustainability and Innovation

Enthalten in: Springer Professional "Wirtschaft+Technik" , Springer Professional "Technik" , Springer Professional "Wirtschaft"

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Über dieses Buch

Innovation is key to achieving a sustainable electricity system. New technologies and organizational changes can bring about more sustainable, climate-friendly electricity structures. Yet the dynamics of innovation are complex, and difficult to shape. This book, written by experts in the field, sets out to explore the dynamics, the drivers and the setting of innovation processes. Case studies on micro cogeneration, carbon capture and storage, consumer feedback, network regulation and emissions trading provide insights into innovation dynamics in the electricity system and are analyzed to derive strategic implications for innovation policies. A special focus is placed on drivers and barriers of change, and their consequences for shaping the innovation process. This book is an indispensable source of information for researchers and decision makers in energy and climate change as well as for lecturers and students interested in the principles and ramifications of electricity innovation dynamics.

Inhaltsverzeichnis

Frontmatter

1. Introduction

Innovation is key to achieving a sustainable electricity system. New technologies and behavioral change are needed to bring about radical reductions in carbon emissions, and to enhance energy security for today and the future generations. Also, innovation is a continuous process: it happens every day and builds a future in which coming generations will live. Innovation not only comprises new technology, but also new forms of organization, new practices, new discourses and new insights on global and local concerns. Innovation is therefore deeply entwined with sustainable development.

In this book we make an attempt at answering these questions by digging deeper at some selected points, aiming at laying bare some crucial processes of renewal which are beneath the overwhelming impression of system transformation in electricity. These processes comprise the creation of novelty in areas as diverse as small distributed generation technology, large scale carbon clean-up technology, consumer information and feedback methods, innovative forms of electricity market regulation and public policies for reducing the environmental burden of electricity production by issuing tradable emission certificates. We maintain that the future of electricity is brought about through these (and other) ongoing innovation processes and their interaction. We understand electricity transformation as the result of such diverse innovation processes. If we want to shape the future of electricity, we need to understand the dynamics and identify the specific potential for sustainable development in each specific process of innovation, and to mirror it against the evolving future electricity system as a whole. This is what we are going to embark on with this book.

2. Transformation and Innovation in Power Systems

The electricity system has been innovating itself from the beginning onwards – albeit with a long period of stabilization and incremental growth in between. It is with upcoming crises and impulses from inside and outside that the incumbent system is challenged and that marginal and innovative options (such as renewable technologies, or Combined Cycle Gas Turbines) have made their way into the system up to now. In this chapter, we provide a brief sketch of the transformation process in electricity systems as a context of our more focused case studies. We outline the development of electricity systems in the last one and a half centuries, look at the related innovation cycles and the outcome in terms of the current electricity system.

3. Towards a Systemic Understanding of Innovation

So far we have discussed selected aspects of the electricity system and its transition over time. We surveyed the evolution of the technological, institutional and structural components of today’s electricity system in Germany, and assessed indicators for the diffusion and success of innovation as well as for its path dependency. All of these aspects are a necessary background for our research. However, both statistics and standardized indicators miss explanatory power with regard to the dynamics of innovation. While they are an important ingredient in capturing the innovation history and technological developments, they fail to capture the coevolutionary dynamics within the process of innovation and the interactive relation between the different elements of the electricity system in the innovation process, and they fail to indicate possible drivers and driven, and barriers to innovation in the electricity system. As we are interested in identifying options and the need for shaping the innovation and transformation path towards a sustainable future electricity system, we need a more complex conception of innovation and a more systemic understanding of the processes involved.

For this purpose, we first clarify the concept of innovation used in this book, and also the definition of sustainability as applied in analyzing the innovation cases. We then discuss suggestions for systemic perspectives on innovation dynamics with regard to their usefulness for the purpose of the innovation cases analyzed in this book. From this basis we derive the research design applied to the innovation case studies in this book.

4. Micro Cogeneration

Micro combined heat and power (micro cogeneration) is the simultaneous generation of heat (or cold) and power on the level of individual buildings, based on small energy conversion units (below 15 kW_el) which are usually fuelled by natural gas or heating oil. The heat is used for space and water heating inside the building, whilst electricity is used within the building or fed into the public electricity grid (Fig. 4.1). With the help of modern communication technologies, micro cogeneration could also be controlled centrally and integrated into an ensemble of other generation or load management technologies, forming a so called “virtual power plant”.

This chapter looks at the dynamics of micro cogeneration diffusion, with a particular focus on the German market. We explore structural and functional elements of the related innovation system and analyze the functions and factors that promote or prevent the emergence of such an innovative technology within the existing German energy system. Micro cogeneration was chosen as the subject of the case study because it offers a rewarding opportunity for studying the conditions facing innovations in potentially unfavorable regime contexts (Pehnt et al. 2006; Praetorius et al. 2008).

5. Carbon Capture and Storage

Coal is a major pillar of electricity generation worldwide, providing around 40% of total electricity generation (IEA 2006b). Emerging countries like China or India are continuously commissioning new large coal plants in order to meet their massive increases in electricity demand. In Germany, coal and lignite are major domestic energy resources and also dominating inputs to electricity generation. Prospects for escaping this “carbon lock-in” and the related environmental and climate impacts are unfavorable at present (Unruh 2000; 2002; Perkins 2003; Unruh and Carrillo-Hermosilla 2006).

This chapter sets out to explore these issues in more detail. We ask whether CCS could contribute to a sustainable future electricity system, and whether it is likely to be available in terms of time, costs, and regulatory and institutional framework so that the challenges of climate change mitigation currently under discussion can be met. We start with an overview of the current state of CCS technology, its economics and environmental performance, and discuss the challenges facing the technology and its deployment. From this, we portray the process of innovation in Germany and the factors influencing it. As CCS is at an early stage of development, and as its diffusion dynamics are strongly dependent on the engagement of actors, specific attention is given to the setting of the actors and actor constellations in Germany. We then discuss the possibilities and needs for shaping the framework conditions for innovation in such a way that CCS may contribute to a sustainable electricity system to a suitable extent. We conclude with an overview of our findings.

6. Consumer Feedback Through Informative Electricity Bills

In Germany, the household sector is currently the one with the fastest growing end energy consumption. Electricity consumption is rising especially fast. Having a 27% share of total national electricity consumption in 2005, households are now the second biggest electricity consumer after industry. This poses problems for a sustainable energy future: due to high generation and distribution losses, electricity consumption puts a special strain on total primary energy demand. And the latter must come down if renewable energy sources are to contribute substantially to energy supply (Enquête-Kommission 2002; DLR et al. 2004; Velte 2004; DIW et al. 2005, Greenpeace and EREC 2007).

This chapter explores innovative approaches for improving feedback on electricity consumption. It combines a more general discussion based on a literature review with the analysis of an example case, the introduction of informative electricity bills in Germany, specifically by the utility Stadtwerke Heidelberg. The case study builds on evaluation research that has been carried out by the ifeu research institute for the Stadtwerke Heidelberg, which includes a customer survey, and on interviews with utilities. In section 6.2, different design options and their potential impact are discussed. In section 6.3, experience with improved feedback is reviewed in order to assess its sustainability effect. Section 6.4 analyzes the process of implementation of innovative feedback forms. Section 6.5 discusses possibilities for shaping such an innovation and its implementation, using the example of the informative bill.

7. Emissions Trading

Emissions trading is a comparatively new policy instrument which has recently been introduced to the existing governance structure of electricity systems in Europe. The development of emissions trading thus represents an innovation in its own right, an innovation in governance.

This chapter discusses emissions trading as an innovation in the context of the broader task of transforming electricity systems for sustainable development. We place a special focus on the various design options of emissions trading and their likely impact on the sustainable development of electricity systems. A short analysis of the innovation process that led to the currently observable policy practices demonstrates the intricacies of putting policy theory in practice. In conclusion, we draw together analysis of design options and innovation dynamics to discuss possibilities for shaping the innovation process of emissions trading with a view to exploiting the potentials of emissions trading for the sustainable development of electricity systems.

8. Network Regulation

This chapter focuses on an innovation process in the realm of regulatory practices and institutions. It deals with the development of new forms of network regulation in electricity systems. This comprises methods and institutional arrangements for the operation of the network infrastructure. A key challenge in liberalized electricity markets is that network services are still natural monopolies and must be provided to all market participants on equal conditions in order to make competition work. The central position of networks within the system, however, gives rise to much broader repercussions within the sector. Recent developments in network regulation are therefore closely linked to the sustainable development of electricity systems as a whole.

9. Innovation Dynamics in the Electricity System: Progressing Towards a Sustainable Path?

Innovation is core to transforming the electricity system towards a sustainable path. In its nature, innovation can be technological, but also institutional, policy-related, behavioral or organizational, to mention just some possible perspectives — and it usually touches upon all of these dimensions at once. Hence innovation is a complex and systemic phenomenon whose characteristics and implications reach far beyond the idea of technological novelties. These are the presumptions from which we started investigating the design and the dynamics of innovation in electricity systems.

Titel: Innovation for Sustainable Electricity Systems
verfasst von: Dr. Barbara Praetorius
Dierk Bauknecht
Martin Cames
Dr. Corinna Fischer
Dr. Martin Pehnt
Dr. Katja Schumacher
Dr. Jan-Peter Voß
Verlag: Physica-Verlag HD
Electronic ISBN: 978-3-7908-2076-8
Print ISBN: 978-3-7908-2075-1
DOI: https://doi.org/10.1007/978-3-7908-2076-8