Does the sun shine for all? Revealing socio-spatial inequalities in the transition to solar energy in The Hague, The Netherlands

With technological advances and decreasing prices, solar energy is a key technology in the urban energy transition. However, the focus on increasing the overall installed capacity has overshadowed energy justice considerations, leading to inequalities in solar energy adoption. This paper adopts an equity perspective to analyse the transition...

Limited Demand or Unreliable Supply?: A Bibliometric Review and Computational Text Analysis of Research on Energy Policy in India

Although India has made significant progress towards the sustainable development goal on energy (SDG 7), further policy innovations are essential for closing the gap, addressing geographic disparities, and harnessing energy for transformative change. Research can support this process by creating policy-relevant knowledge regarding the energy...

Constructing an inclusive vision of sustainable transition to decentralised energy: Local practices, knowledge, values and narratives in the case of community-managed grids in rural India

This chapter claims that the global North’s vision of sustainable energy transition (SET), which informs policies and infrastructure developments, holds a partial account of diverse energy-related practices and associated values that are endemic to local communities. Referring to the EU directive, this chapter points towards the implicit bias...

Just Energy? Designing for Ethical Acceptability in Smart Grids

Smart grids within the transition to sustainable energy systems Smart grid systems are widely considered as crucial in the energy transition, because they allow for greater flexibility in bridging temporal gaps between electricity supply and demand in renewable energy systems. To do so, the systems make use of information and communication...

Understanding the role of values in institutional change: The case of the energy transition

The current transition towards low-carbon energy systems does not only involve changes in technologies but is also shaped by changes in the rules and regulations (i.e., the institutions) that govern energy systems. Institutional change can be influenced by changes in core values - normative principles such as affordability, security of supply...

The role of values in analyzing energy systems: Insights from moral philosophy, institutional economics, and sociology

In efforts to mitigate climate change, energy systems are undergoing a profound transition towards low-carbon systems. This transition does not only involve changes in energy technologies but importantly it is shaped and incentivized by changes in the rules and regulations that govern energy markets. It is a normative transition, focused at...

Innovation in the European energy sector and regulatory responses to it: Guest editorial note

The European energy sector is an important economic sector that is also traditionally highly regulated. With the increasing tempo in which innovations in technology and markets occur, catalysed inter alia by the energy transition and accompanied by new formats of innovation (disruptive and bottom-up), the question arises whether existing...