Prefiguring energy futures: Hybrid energy initiatives and just transitions in fossil fuel regions

IF 6.9 2区经济学 Q1 ENVIRONMENTAL STUDIES

Energy Research & Social Science Pub Date : 2024-11-06 DOI:10.1016/j.erss.2024.103830

Megan Egler , Lindsay Barbieri

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Abstract

Energy transition, as both a material process and a process of reimagining energy futures, offers fertile grounds for broad societal transformation. However, the current state of power and politics in the historical fossil fuel regions of North America presents unique challenges. This paper explores initiatives that leverage former fossil fuels sites, infrastructure, and labor for renewable energy projects, and examines their position in prefiguring alternative energy futures in fossil fuel regions. These initiatives, which we introduce as hybrid energy initiatives (HEIs), can alleviate material, political, and cultural barriers to energy transitions by accounting for present contexts in regions of historical fossil fuel extraction, developing partnerships between renewable energy advocates and traditional fossil fuel stakeholders, and building legitimacy through discourses of equity and justice. However, discourses and technologies do not guarantee the operationalization of the just transition narratives HEIs often draw upon. We illustrate this in two case studies of initiatives, one in Appalachia, USA, and the other in Alberta, Canada, that position themselves as innovative endeavors in the utilization of former fossil fuel sites and infrastructures for new solar energy projects. Contributing to just transition scholarship we demonstrate an approach for considering the prefiguring potential of energy innovations and how elements of energy justice can be rendered acceptable within a political climate unfavorable to climate and just transition policies.

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预设能源未来：化石燃料地区的混合能源倡议和公正过渡

能源转型既是一个物质过程，也是一个重新构想能源未来的过程，它为广泛的社会变革提供了肥沃的土壤。然而，北美历史化石燃料地区的权力和政治现状带来了独特的挑战。本文探讨了利用前化石燃料场地、基础设施和劳动力开展可再生能源项目的倡议，并研究了它们在化石燃料地区预设替代能源未来中的地位。我们将这些倡议称为混合能源倡议（HEIs），通过考虑历史上化石燃料开采地区的现状，发展可再生能源倡导者与传统化石燃料利益相关者之间的合作关系，以及通过公平和正义的论述建立合法性，这些倡议可以缓解能源转型的物质、政治和文化障碍。然而，论述和技术并不能保证高等院校经常借鉴的公正转型论述的可操作性。我们通过两个案例研究说明了这一点，一个在美国阿巴拉契亚，另一个在加拿大艾伯塔省，这两个地方都将自己定位为利用前化石燃料场地和基础设施开展新太阳能项目的创新努力。我们展示了一种考虑能源创新预示潜力的方法，以及如何在不利于气候和公正转型政策的政治环境中使能源公正的要素得到接受，从而为公正转型学术研究做出贡献。

本文章由计算机程序翻译，如有差异，请以英文原文为准。

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来源期刊

Energy Research & Social Science ENVIRONMENTAL STUDIES-

CiteScore

14.00

自引率

16.40%

发文量

441

审稿时长

55 days

期刊介绍： Energy Research & Social Science (ERSS) is a peer-reviewed international journal that publishes original research and review articles examining the relationship between energy systems and society. ERSS covers a range of topics revolving around the intersection of energy technologies, fuels, and resources on one side and social processes and influences - including communities of energy users, people affected by energy production, social institutions, customs, traditions, behaviors, and policies - on the other. Put another way, ERSS investigates the social system surrounding energy technology and hardware. ERSS is relevant for energy practitioners, researchers interested in the social aspects of energy production or use, and policymakers. Energy Research & Social Science (ERSS) provides an interdisciplinary forum to discuss how social and technical issues related to energy production and consumption interact. Energy production, distribution, and consumption all have both technical and human components, and the latter involves the human causes and consequences of energy-related activities and processes as well as social structures that shape how people interact with energy systems. Energy analysis, therefore, needs to look beyond the dimensions of technology and economics to include these social and human elements.