Academic exploration of energy democracy has produced a rich theorization of its foundations that exhibits significant pluralism in response to different geographic, social, ideological and technical contexts. This paper develops the literature by considering how sociotechnical transitions associated with energy system digitalization may affect the theory and praxis of energy democracy. Our analysis draws on three dimensions of energy democracy: popular sovereignty, participatory governance, and civic ownership. Digitalization is shown to both present challenges and new avenues for the exercise and study of energy democracy. Firstly, digitalization simultaneously enables and constrains the exercise of popular sovereignty by diversifying energy citizen roles and complicating accountability. Secondly, digitalization creates new dimensions of risk around skills, knowledge and resource access, which can exclude citizens from participatory governance. Thirdly, digitalization challenges common conceptions of civic ownership by introducing new material-software dependencies and re-defining the assets that underpin the energy system. Finally, digitalization fundamentally changes the nature of decision-making, potentially undermining current understandings of the concept and its democratic function. Further exploration of ‘digital energy democracy’ would hold value for research and practice in the sector.

Discursive choices made by policy entrepreneurs are an important factor in the development of climate change acts (CCAs). This article examines the extent to which such choices reflect the strategic need for CCA entrepreneurs to compromise pragmatically and modulate their policy preferences in order to secure the agreement needed for CCA adoption. Drawing upon theoretical insights from discursive institutionalism (DI) and policy entrepreneurship, this article analyses discursive choices during negotiations surrounding the New Zealand Zero Carbon Act (ZCA). The analysis shows that endogenous political-ideological constraints compelled entrepreneurial actors to modify first-choice preferences for emissions reduction legislation by reframing their coordinative discursive interventions to accommodate potentially oppositional groups. Further research is required into the conditions under which such strategies become discursively operational, to provide guidance to climate policy entrepreneurs as CCAs continue to diffuse globally.

The circular economy (CE) concept is informing the governance of resource use and waste management on a global scale, leading to widespread policy instrument innovation. However, the recent appearance of CE ‘policy portfolios’ raises questions about whether such policies are genuinely path-breaking or are merely adjustments to existing arrangements. Tracing the emergence of the European Union’s Circular Economy Package shows that, while some measures are genuinely novel, many others are ‘patched’ onto pre-existing instruments and that the overall portfolio exhibits a high degree of institutional ‘layering’. Given the evidence of relative ineffectiveness of past incremental environmental interventions, there is a mismatch between such approaches and the scale, pace and scope of transformation implied by contemporary articulations of the circular economy concept. Creating the policy conditions for sustainable production and consumption may require more radical policy formulations than CE proponents acknowledge.

Academic exploration of energy democracy has produced a rich theorization of its foundations that exhibits significant pluralism in response to different geographic, social, ideological and technical contexts. This paper develops the literature by considering how sociotechnical transitions associated with energy system digitalization may affect the theory and praxis of energy democracy. Our analysis draws on three dimensions of energy democracy: popular sovereignty, participatory governance, and civic ownership. Digitalization is shown to both present challenges and new avenues for the exercise and study of energy democracy. Firstly, digitalization simultaneously enables and constrains the exercise of popular sovereignty by diversifying energy citizen roles and complicating accountability. Secondly, digitalization creates new dimensions of risk around skills, knowledge and resource access, which can exclude citizens from participatory governance. Thirdly, digitalization challenges common conceptions of civic ownership by introducing new material-software dependencies and re-defining the assets that underpin the energy system. Finally, digitalization fundamentally changes the nature of decision-making, potentially undermining current understandings of the concept and its democratic function. Further exploration of ‘digital energy democracy’ would hold value for research and practice in the sector.

Discursive choices made by policy entrepreneurs are an important factor in the development of climate change acts (CCAs). This article examines the extent to which such choices reflect the strategic need for CCA entrepreneurs to compromise pragmatically and modulate their policy preferences in order to secure the agreement needed for CCA adoption. Drawing upon theoretical insights from discursive institutionalism (DI) and policy entrepreneurship, this article analyses discursive choices during negotiations surrounding the New Zealand Zero Carbon Act (ZCA). The analysis shows that endogenous political-ideological constraints compelled entrepreneurial actors to modify first-choice preferences for emissions reduction legislation by reframing their coordinative discursive interventions to accommodate potentially oppositional groups. Further research is required into the conditions under which such strategies become discursively operational, to provide guidance to climate policy entrepreneurs as CCAs continue to diffuse globally.

As the global offshore wind industry enters a new phase of accelerating growth, access to publicly owned seabed is a crucial challenge. A variety of allocation models have been used in different countries. Until recently, sites were generally awarded on the basis of qualitative criteria designed to guarantee project deliverability and alignment with policy commitments. In some places, these ‘beauty contests’ include a fee to retain exclusive development rights, without the allocation itself being based on price. There is a growing number of site allocations based on price-competitive auctions in which the highest bidder wins the site. In the UK, for example, the recent Round 4 auction resulted in approximately €1bn in option fees, payable annually for up to ten years until a lease is taken up. In the US, the Federal government has been selling offshore wind leases by auction for almost a decade. Enthusiasm for competitive allocation is not universal, however. Unlike in England and Wales, Crown Estate Scotland implemented a tight cap on bids in a recent allocation.

University of Sussex Science Policy Research Unit (SPRU): Energy and Climate Seminar series

The European Union (EU) has established a major role in directing policy change, both internally and beyond its borders: a phenomenon known as ‘Europeanisation’. This article examines the Europeanisation of water policy in Turkey in relation to implementation of the EU Water Framework Directive (WFD). Although some principles of EU water policy have been adopted in Turkey, the WFD has also been subject to significant domestic modification, prompting questions about how and why such patterns of partial implementation occur. In this respect, learning and socialisation within transnational ‘instrument constituencies’ (ICs) is shown to be an important explanatory factor. It follows that diffusion of the EU’s water policy and the WFD beyond its borders may be enhanced by promoting the capacity for instrument constituency learning (or the ‘cognitive environment’) in non-EU countries.

Renewable energy auctions are a widespread instrument to support renewable energy deployment in Europe. In this on-line regional workshop of the AURES II project, the impact of auctions and their design elements on firms, renewable energy sectors and countries will be discussed, mostly with a European focus.

Market-based, competitive bidding processes, i.e. auctions, are becoming a dominant policy instrument for securing future electricity production from renewable energy sources (RES) around the world. The rapid growth is striking: in 2005, only six countries employed RES auctions, and by 2017 at least 84 countries had adopted the mechanism. This article outlines the rationale for the shift, describes some of the key design characteristics of auctions, together with best practices and potential pitfalls, and briefly considers the future of auctions in the face of declining support needs.

The circular economy (CE) concept is informing the governance of resource use and waste management on a global scale, leading to widespread policy instrument innovation. However, the recent appearance of CE ‘policy portfolios’ raises questions about whether such policies are genuinely path-breaking or are merely adjustments to existing arrangements. Tracing the emergence of the European Union’s Circular Economy Package shows that, while some measures are genuinely novel, many others are ‘patched’ onto pre-existing instruments and that the overall portfolio exhibits a high degree of institutional ‘layering’. Given the evidence of relative ineffectiveness of past incremental environmental interventions, there is a mismatch between such approaches and the scale, pace and scope of transformation implied by contemporary articulations of the circular economy concept. Creating the policy conditions for sustainable production and consumption may require more radical policy formulations than CE proponents acknowledge.

A talk outlining the prospects for long-term EU-UK cooperation in climate and energy policy in the context of Brexit

The role of socio-political power is central to the development of policy, but systematic analyses of power associated with the development of energy policy are rare. Power is also an important yet somewhat under-researched aspect of socio-technical transitions research. The Renewable Heat Incentive (RHI) policy aims to increase deployment of low-carbon heat in Great Britain and begin a transformation to a low carbon GB heat system. This article analyses the socio-political power associated with the development of the RHI policy based on Lukes' 'dimensions of power' approach using a methodology based on triangulation. We identify a number of policy change episodes during the development of the RHI and describe the influence of key actors on the policy. Despite the common assumption of the power of incumbents, we show that those actors with niche technological expertise, close relationships with Government actors and actors within the administration have been the most powerful drivers of policy development and change. Niche actors sped up the introduction of the RHI scheme and have also had some success in increasing relative support for biomethane injection. The power of a civil servant to slow the introduction of the domestic element of the RHI has also been identified.

The selection and design of renewable electricity support instruments is an important part of EU energy policy and central to the governance of the Energy Union. In 2014, the European Commission published updated guidelines for state aid that effectively mandate the EU-wide implementation of auctions for allocating revenue support to commercial scale renewable electricity generation. This article argues that the RES auction’s rapid ascent towards dominance is explained by a coincidence of an activist interpretation of EU state aid law creating demand for knowledge about the instrument and the emergence of a ready source of supply from a burgeoning community of a RES auction specialists and experts. Knowledge gained through EU-wide implementation of auctions further adds to supply of auctions expertise among the community. The implications of positive feedback between instrument demand and the growing supply of knowledge about an instrument reinforces the importance of critical engagement between policymakers and policy experts.

As witnessed at the recent session of the climate change Conference of the Parties in Madrid (COP25), carbon markets dominate discussion about climate change policy.

At times, it can seem difficult to talk about anything else.

Why has climate policy almost universally been so slow to change, so difficult to make and, by most measures, so wholly inadequate to the task? How can our collective decision making fail so badly to bring about change that is not just economically sensible but existentially imperative? These questions have inspired an entire generation of researchers and scholars and the answers are predictably diverse

Incumbency is frequently considered as a barrier to the transformation of unsustainable socio-technical systems such as energy systems. However, despite wide use of the term, ‘incumbency’ has never been fully or adequately defined within the sustainable transitions literature. This working paper considers the use and meaning of the term incumbency in relation to sustainable transformations, specifically in relation to the UK’s heat system. It takes ideas of incumbency from other disciplines including economics, politics and innovation. Synthesising these literatures, the paper proposes a number of characteristics of incumbency. Finally we propose a definition of incumbency in relation to sustainability transformations, which suggests that incumbents are actors already present in a specific socio-technical system, who are likely to be involved with unsustainable practices, and who possess the capacity to affect system change.

In 2014, European heads of state selected new targets for the EU as part of the 2030 climate and energy framework. The targets will guide the ambition and nature of EU policy in this area until 2030 and are likely to have important implications for Europe’s transition to a low-carbon economy. The decision taken by the European Council was preceded by several years of vigorous interaction between interest groups, the European Commission and the member states. The outcome of this interaction set the agenda for EU climate and energy policy but the role of interest groups in climate and energy policy, especially relative to important economic ideas, is relatively under researched. By augmenting and applying the multiple streams approach developed by John Kingdon in the 1980s and using process-tracing techniques, this thesis contributes a detailed case study of this important instance of European interest representation. It is found that the complex and dynamic political context for the interaction made planning and executing advocacy campaigns challenging for all actors. The debate about the 2030 framework is shown to hinge on the idea of technology-neutrality and its status on the policymaking agenda. A number of policy coalitions are observed with a wide range of characteristics, some novel. Several attempts at ‘policy entrepreneurship’ by interest groups are recorded but most were disrupted by the confused and fast-changing political situation. It is shown that a combination of spill-over between policy windows, framing and coalition building activity served to push the idea of technology neutrality up the agenda. The multiple streams approach is shown to be broadly applicable to the research context and aims but greater agency over policy windows than originally assumed must be granted to actors and the possibility for successful policy entrepreneurship to yield unintended policy outcomes allowed for.

Offshore wind megaprojects in European waters have significant carbon abatement potential and increasing their number is a policy goal for several European maritime nations. But experience has shown that governance of large-scale, commercial offshore wind development is not straightforward. It is found that in five EU member states, policy innovation intended to enable investment in offshore wind projects is leading to a convergence upon a distinctive European model of offshore wind governance. The European Union appears to play numerous roles in this process and further research into how offshore wind policy innovation propagates in the EU is warranted. Policy relevance the governance of offshore wind megaproject development places specific demands on several areas of policy. This article firstly provides an account of recent developments in how offshore wind governance functions in some of the most important offshore wind-using nations. Secondly, the discussion of the EU's role in shaping offshore wind governance will inform future debates about the proper role of the EU in enabling investment in these megaprojects. Thirdly, the fact that policy appears to be converging raises questions about how policy is transmitted between EU member states, the answers to which could be valuable to policy makers looking at other areas of energy governance. Finally, the observed trend of increasing centralization of decision-making should be of interest to policy makers mindful of the role of scale and decentralization in debates about energy governance.

This webinar will give practitioners more hands-on information on the design of RES auctions, focusing on pre-qualification rules and penalties. The two elements are closely related in that they are, amongst other things, used to enhance the ‘seriousness’ of bids and improve realisation rates. We will present the different design alternatives and arguments for and against using each of the features. Furthermore, we will give an overview of current practices for both design elements implementations for RES support in Europe and the rest of the world.

As Europe prepares to debate the future of renewable energy policy, the Russia-Ukraine crisis should be a wake-up call for the European Council.

Dando Drilling International has a history of supplying mobile, land-based drilling plant to countries across Africa, South and Central America, Asia, and Europe. The key drivers of heightened demand for drilling services and equipment from island nations in the Indian Ocean are increasing domestic wealth, urbanization and rising demand for water, and impairment of traditional water resources due to human activity. Dando has recently shipped a Watertec 6 water-well drilling rig to Malé Water and Sewerage Co in Malé. The capital, Malé is heavily urbanized, which places acute pressure on water resources. The Dando Watertec 6 drilling rig, which the firm purchased, will be used to drill 12-inch-diameter supply boreholes to depths of up to 100m in order to abstract water for processing via reverse osmosis.