Entries by innopaths

INNOPATHS article featured in Research Highlights in Nature Human Behaviour and Nature Climate Change

March 25, 2020 in /by

An article published by INNOPATHS researchers Benjamin K. Sovacool, Andrew Hook, Mari Martiskainen, Andrea Brock and Bruno Turnheim has been featured in the Research Highlights sections of recent issues of both Nature Human Behaviour and Nature Climate Change. The article, The decarbonisation divide: Contextualizing landscapes of low-carbon exploitation and toxicity in Africa, analyses the ‘decarbonisation […]

Sustainable minerals and metals for a low-carbon future

January 3, 2020 in /by

Climate change mitigation will create new natural resource and supply chain opportunities and dilemmas, because substantial amounts of raw materials will be required to build new low-carbon energy devices and infrastructure (1). However, despite attempts at improved governance and better corporate management, procurement of many mineral and metal resources occurs in areas generally acknowledged for […]

The decarbonisation divide: Contextualizing landscapes of low-carbon exploitation and toxicity in Africa

December 26, 2019 in , /by

Much academic research on low-carbon transitions focuses on the diffusion or use of innovations such as electric vehicles or solar panels, but overlooks or obscures downstream and upstream processes, such as mining or waste flows. Yet it is at these two extremes where emerging low-carbon transitions in mobility and electricity are effectively implicated in toxic […]

Beyond cost and carbon: The multidimensional co-benefits of low carbon transitions in Europe

November 20, 2019 in /by

The paper explores the myriad potential benefits of four low-carbon transitions beyond those in the environmental or economic domain. Drawn from a rich set of original mixed methods data—across expert interviews, focus groups, and public internet forums—we examine the presumed multidimensional, qualitative co-benefits to nuclear power in France, solar photovoltaics in Germany, electric vehicles in […]

Central banking and the energy transition

November 13, 2019 /0 Comments/in /by

Continuous renewable energy deployment may be less certain than previously thought. If interest rates rise, the cost of renewable energy is disproportionately affected compared to fossil fuel alternatives. Thermostatic policies can help ensuring renewable energy deployment in such environments. Image above: Continuous deployment of wind farms may be less certain than previously thought. Aerial take […]

Long-Term Projection of Renewable Energy Technology Diffusion

November 8, 2019 in /by

The EU aims at increasing the use of renewable energy sources (RES), mainly solar-photovoltaic (PV) and wind technologies. Projecting the future, in this respect, requires a long-term energy modeling which includes a rate of diffusion of novel technologies into the market and the prediction of their costs. The aim of this article has been to […]

Why matter matters: How technology characteristics shape the strategic framing of technologies

October 24, 2019 /0 Comments/in /by

Previous work stresses that actors use strategic technology framing—i.e. purposeful language and rhetoric—to shape technology expectations, persuade stakeholders, and influence the evolution of technologies along their life-cycle. Currently, however, the literature predominantly describes strategic technology framing as a sociopolitical process, and provides only limited insights into how the framing itself is shaped by the material […]

Processes of elite power and low-carbon pathways: Experimentation, financialisation, and dispossession

October 20, 2019 in /by

What is a low-carbon pathway? To many, it is a way of mitigating climate change. To others, it is about addressing market failure or capturing the co-benefits attached to low-carbon systems, such as jobs or improved health. To still others, it represents building adaptive capacity and resilience in the face of climate change. However, these […]

Bias in energy system models with uniform cost of capital assumption

October 9, 2019 in , /by

Several studies have recently evaluated the feasibility of 100% renewable energy-based energy systems in different world regions. In a recent article, Bogdanov et al.1 contribute to this literature, by using an energy system model that takes into account the unique conditions of 145 global subregions, including factors such as renewable energy (RE) resource conditions, structure […]